Re: Memes Meta-Memes and Politics 3 of 3 (1988, updates 2002)

From: Kenneth Van Oost (Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be)
Date: Sun Feb 17 2002 - 20:03:51 GMT

  • Next message: Philip Jonkers: "Re: Words and Memes"

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    From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be>
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    Subject: Re: Memes Meta-Memes and Politics 3 of 3 (1988, updates 2002)
    Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 21:03:51 +0100
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    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Philip Jonkers <philipjonkers@prodigy.net>

    > I think an attitude of skepsis has an optimum in effectiveness regarding
    > survivability. To some extent being skeptical obviously is useful as it
    > allows for
    > implementation of a selective filter for memes. The `don't believe
    > everything you
    > breathe' meme. On the other hand being extremely skeptical ultimately
    means
    > social exclusion as you don't believe anything or anybody. You will then
    > fail to function in any social environment which requires group conformity
    > and unison of thought and behavior.

    Just buzzin ' in,

    How can you be so sure that anybody will fail to function !?
    The downright individual in any society is just the one who stands above
    all others, the excentric, the artist....
    You know by now that I have troubles with the so called ' group- required-
    social- base ' statement where the motor of our thought and behavior are
    concerned. Giving in to group conformity is excluding yourself and IMO
    that is just the bias why Darwinian evolution works on the level of groups
    and not that mush on the level of individuals.
    And that is one hell of a mistake ! Generalizing is no good !

    A. Appiah writes, " social repoduction [ that is leaning the traits, habits
    and
    rules] brings out collective goals ". But IMO that doesn 't mean that the
    social reproduction is " collective " in nature like eveybody seems to
    think.
     It is individualistic and the result is some culture and that is what we
    study,
    but the underlieing bias is not Dawinian ' collective ' ( group related) !!
    Group conformity is just another meme, not a fact !

    Regards,

    Kenneth

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