What is triangular desire?
It’s another way of talking about mimetic desire and giving it a graphic representation. Most of the objects we desire have more to do with our models than with the objects themselves. The object has value because we value our model. In turn, our model was influenced by someone else (his or her model) to value the object. For example, when I was growing up, my Grandpa valued gold because society valued gold enough to think it valuable – society was one of my Grandpa’s models in his desire for gold. Because I admired my Grandpa, I soon began to desire gold, too. There is nothing intrinsically valuable in gold. My Grandpa influenced me to value gold, as society influenced my Grandpa to value gold. If enough people are influenced to think that gold is valuable, gold will be worth a lot of money. In a similar way, if enough people are influenced to think that plain, ordinary rocks are valuable, then plain, ordinary rocks will become worth a lot of money. Indeed, rocks are a good example. S
