We don’t escape mimesis, we can only observe it—and in observing it, loosen the grip that envy has on us. And while we may be doomed to mimesis, we have, at least, a choice between picking our models intentionally through what Marcus Aurelius called the “ruling faculty,” or else letting them happen accidentally, through the mass media, the secondhand idols of our friends, or sibling rivalries.
–Cynthia L. Haven, Evolution of Desire: A Life of Rene Girard, p. 220.
