RE: Useless memes

From: Lawrence H. de Bivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Sun May 14 2000 - 16:44:00 BST

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Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 11:44:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Lawrence H. de Bivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
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Subject: RE: Useless memes
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    On Fri, 12 May 2000, Wade T.Smith wrote:

    >On 05/12/00 10:26, Lawrence H. de Bivort said this-
    >
    >>I guess my favorite would have to be "Out Now!" This caught on rapidly as
    >>the slogan on the anti-VietNam war movement, and helped people focus and
    >>act on the key issue.
    >
    >Hmmm. I was here, and that particular phrase does not register with me.
    >The phrase that registers with me is "*Hell, no, we won't go!"

    I think the "hell no, we won't go" phrase was linked with anti-draft
    sentiment, which I see as a sub-set of the anti-war movement. "Out
    Now" could be used by people who were not intrinsically concerned with the
    draft, as well as by those who opposed the war, but not the draft.

    I think of the VietNam war as one, in the United States, of almost pure
    memetic content; a war in which memes replaced policy, analysis and debate
    -- a memetic war. And I think the style has endured in later US
    wars: Somalia, Iraq, Kossovo.

    - Lawrence

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