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Kindle Notes & Highlights
We are generally fascinated with people who have a different relationship to desire, real or perceived. When people don’t seem to care what other people want or don’t want the same things, they seem otherworldly. They appear less affected by mimesis—anti-mimetic, even. And that’s fascinating, because most of us aren’t.
This brings us to an important feature of Celebristan models: because there’s no threat of conflict, they are generally imitated freely and openly.
People worry about what other people will think before they say something—which affects what they say. In other words, our perception of reality changes reality by altering the way we might otherwise act. This leads to a self-fulfilling circularity.
Winston Churchill spoke about the reflexivity of architecture when he said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.�
“What do you fear, lady?� he asked. “A cage,� she said. “To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.� —J. R. R. Tolkien
