Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id GAA11299 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 1 Mar 2002 06:15:21 GMT X-Authentication-Warning: cheetah.nor.com.au: Host 236.digital.ppp.telstra.dataheart.net [202.147.129.236] claimed to be green-machine Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.20020301170337.0073d3ac@pophost.nor.com.au> X-Sender: jeremyb@pophost.nor.com.au X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.1 (32) Date: Fri, 01 Mar 2002 17:03:37 +1100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Jeremy Bradley <jeremyb@nor.com.au> Subject: RE: Rumsfeld Says He May Drop New Office of Influence In-Reply-To: <LAW2-F172kqhaa0TYKM0001a774@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 07:07 AM 28/02/02 -0800, you wrote:
>>Wait for my essay "The Me Me Meme and the Cult of Post-Enlightenment
>>Individuation"
>>Jeremy
>>
>>
>The "me meme" is not just a meme. It is a hardwired part of the brain that
>can be disabled with brain damage.
Grant
I think that your 'hardwired' notion is conjecture. When I have looked into
the workings of collectivist cultures the 'me me' meme is certainly not as
active or prominent as it appears to be in 'normal' Western cultures. Also
it does not indicate brain damage when one risks life for a stranger, or
fights a forrest fire to preserve the houses of unknown fellow citizens. In
my estimation the reason for the increases in crime and the corresponding
decreases in emergency services volunteers, is due to the erosion of the
collectivist (us us) meme and the growth of the individualist meme.
>It is essential to the "defense of territory reflex," which is also a
hardwired section of the brain. Memes
>may be able to overcome the bad consequences of these inherited features,
>but they are the battlefield on which the gene/meme war is being fought.
>Treating them as memes is like treating the flue with antibiotics. The
>medicine you are prescribing will have no effect on the area being treated.
>
>Grant
>
No Grant
I disagree with you on this one. We lived tribally for countless millennia
and depended on our relationship with our fellows for survival. I also
think that the "defence of territory reflex", has only arisen through
population pressures and/or lack of social order.
If we take the average pre-invasion Australian civilisation, boarders were
largely respected (it's too complex to go into the exceptions) due to a
system of understandings, both physical and spiritual, between peoples and
their lands. Now I realise that this is far in advance of any of the
systems that we Westerners have imposed on the world, but it does indicate
that collectivism is nurture and not nature.
Woderyerreckon about that Grant?
Jeremy
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