Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA28792 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 16 Feb 2002 18:36:47 GMT Message-ID: <006901c1b720$11b38a20$5e2ffea9@oemcomputer> From: "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020215133938.02c98c30@pop.cogeco.ca> <007a01c1b6cb$575fd880$5e2ffea9@oemcomputer> Subject: Re: draft abstract Sex, Drugs and Cults Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 10:28:09 -0900 Organization: Prodigy Internet Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Philip:
> That religion and cults can be as addictive as drugs I sussed last year
> after
> reading chapter 14 of the Meme-Machine. It was Marx who said that
> `religion is opium for the people'. Last year I posted an hypothesis on
this
> list
> stating that cultural behavior (processing memes) has to be rewarded by
the
> brain
> because it originally chances of survival. Consequently culture actually
> evolves actually through the grace of our spoiled reward-centers (spoiled
> because they
> have to reward biological activity (sex, feeding, fleeing etc.) as well as
> cultural).
> A downside of having such an active reward center is that it makes us
> prone to develop addictive behavior, be it sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling,
> eating,
> not eating (boulimia, anorexia).
I would like to add that every activity that is rewarded can be addictive.
Attention (from cults) is particularly rewarding as it reinforces the social
status
as you say. Therefore attention is particularly addictive.
My professor has won the nobel prize for inventing the
bubble-chamber. Although he tries to hide it, you can notice that he is used
to
receiving a lot of attention. He is way past retirement age (75+) but is
still very active as a professor. Any obvious explanations at hand?
Philip.
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