The paper discusses Girard’s idea of the conversion of mimetic desire. Man owes his origin and development to a mimetic desire that leads him to conflicts and wars, and in the modern age, to apocalyptic danger. Mimetic desire is relational – a copy of other people’s desires, even though it itself lives under the illusion that its desires are independent. This leads one to rivalry with others, to violence, which in the modern age has no mechanisms that would divert violence from the community. This presents humanity with an alternative: either apocalyptic destruction or the renouncement of mimetic desire. According to Girard, Hölderlin recognised the apocalyptic danger and found the answer in Jesus Christ as a model of the renunciation of mimeticism. It is impossible to overcome mimeticism, but it is possible to renounce it. The great sages and spiritual teachers prove this, but in principle everyone can do it.
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