My paper examines the elements of René Girard’s mimetic theory that Peter Thiel uses to question the prioritization of environmental politics in parts of the contemporary Western discourse. Recalling the main patterns of Thiel’s long-standing engagement with Girard’s thought, my talk aims at demonstrating that Thiel interprets climate politics not merely as a dispute over environmental facts, but as a structural reorientation of political desire toward managed scarcity.
According to a Girardian framework, periods of stagnation or decline intensify mimetic rivalry as social actors compete for increasingly limited goods. Thiel’s critique, as reconstructed in my talk, suggests that political programs willing to accept economic contraction in the name of climate goals risk amplifying precisely these dynamics of envy, resentment, and rivalry. In such conditions, social cohesion becomes fragile, and political conflict is increasingly organized around moralized blame rather than productive cooperation.