When someone designates something as "good" or "desirable" it provokes a response in others, who proceed to evaluate the object - sometimes critically, most of the time uncritically - and either assent to it or dissent. To assent to a desirable object means to attempt to absorb, emulate, or enjoy it in some way, the degree of which depends on how close the individual gets to the object in question, which, if the object is scarce, causes a struggle for it with the more ambitious attempting to claim it and the less ambitious resigning themselves to a position in a hierarchy which offers proximity to the object at the very least, with a gradient of proximity correlating with a given individual's power to enjoy the object.
The object's original magnetism lends a magnetism to the mass that surrounds it, forming a greater magnetic field that draws in compatible individuals, with more and more incompatible individuals being drawn to the object as the magnetic power of the mass grows, with internal contradictions growing with it.
Conversely, to dissent is to align oneself against the object, developing a set of values that stands in opposition, which generates a new center of attraction in opposition to the original mass, whose character draws in similarly affected individuals. These masses crash until one or the other can take on enough traits of the other and subsume the other.
Which individuals are attracted to a given object or anti-object depends on the character and history of the individual, predispositions, prospects, relations, and other factors, as well as the sequence of events that alters all of those things.
This all goes somewhat past the actual concept of mimesis, which itself has since metamorphosed past its original meaning. What once was a way to describe how human beings imitated nature is now a way to explain the social dimensions of desire, and more. Mimesis is a way to describe the way in which we cohere as a body, as well as the way we relate to the natural world. There's much more to the concept, and it would be nice to elaborate on sometime.
Whatever force the concept is pointing at plays a huge part in our social experience, and ultimately the way in which we generate meaning and conduct our lives.
