Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id EAA03495 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 18 Feb 2002 04:39:55 GMT Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 20:34:17 -0800 Message-Id: <200202180434.g1I4YHP23539@mail9.bigmailbox.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary X-Mailer: MIME-tools 4.104 (Entity 4.116) X-Originating-Ip: [65.80.163.167] From: "Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: ply to Grant Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)
> "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com> memetics@mmu.ac.uk RE: ply to GrantDate: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 15:57:23 -0800
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>> There's a difference between viewing social change critically, which
>>is an essential requirement to properly evaluate change, and viewing it
>>negatively (or positively for that matter). Besides, as a lecturer in
>>media
>>studies, for me to argue against social change involving technology would
>>be
>>a bit rich. Indeed, as my anti-media effects stance should indicate, I'm
>>particularly pro-technologies that, IMHO, are socially progressive and not
>>harmful as many people have thought (and still think) about all media
>>forms.
>>I, of couse, think the media collectively are a pretty good set of
>>techologies.
>>
>> In many ways, I'd call myself a bit of a futurist looking forward to
>>those changes, and this for me is the key, that are in the public interest.
>>The facts though suggest that corporate control of key features of
>>contemporary life, such as in transportation, involves the deliberate and
>>continual denial of technologies (cleaner running cars for example) because
>>such technologies would kill those corporations.
>>
>> In media too, the myth of the 'free marketplace of ideas' is widely
>>demonstrable. Only today I've been reading bits of Richard McCord's 'The
>>Chain Gang' about Gannett, the US's largest newspaper chain (over 90
>>dailies
>>across the US, and which also owns Newsquest in the UK, which controls 300
>>local papers), and how the company aggressively attempted, sometimes
>>successfully, to put rival papers out of business leaving communities with
>>a
>>'marketplace' of one paper.
>>
>> Of course capitalism is an ideology, and ideology is one for the
>>memes in minds fraternity.
>>
>> Vincent
>>
>Memes are in competition with each other for survival. What makes them
>survive is how useful they are to the people who use and propagate them.
>They don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in the minds of people engageed in
>living lives -- trying to survive in competition with each other. How
>people spend their time is the key to how memes propagate and survive.
>People who work and run companies are reading Sun Tze these days. He wrote
>The Art of War.
>
They also never stopped reading Machiavelli's THE PRINCE.
>
> That is how most companies think of themselves (at least
>the people who are leading them) at war with other companies in a zero-sum
>game to win the whole market -- worldwide. This is what causes most of the
>problems you talk about.
>
>Governments are competing for control of the land and companies are
>competing for market share. But it doesn't have to be a zero-sum game.
>Culture is not zero-sum. Cyberspace knows no boundaries. There is room for
>infinite growth there. Unfortunately, the land we live on is finite. If
>the population keeps expanding, there is no other game in town but the
>zero-sum. And right now, we're on the edge of being too many for the land
>we live on to support us.
>
>The question is who will live and who will die? Many people think the guy
>with the most guns will win. Other people think it will be the people with
>the best ideas. But as the population continues to grow, a lot of people
>will have to die so the rest can survive. I don't see any way to save us
>all. Two more doublings of the population will bring us all down. The
>biosphere can barely tolerate the numbers it suffers under now.
>
>Grant
>
>_________________________________________________________________
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>===============================================================
>This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
>Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
>For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
>see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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