Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA00864 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 10 Mar 2002 22:27:20 GMT X-Originating-IP: [194.117.133.84] User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.0.3 Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 22:18:11 +0000 Subject: RE: Rumsfeld Says He May Drop New Office of Influence From: Steve Drew <srdrew_1@hotmail.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Message-ID: <B8B18BFD.2E8%srdrew_1@hotmail.com> In-Reply-To: <200203082023.UAA27690@alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk> Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-OriginalArrivalTime: 10 Mar 2002 22:20:51.0985 (UTC) FILETIME=[D69A3010:01C1C881] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Lawrence
> Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 12:08:12 -0500
> From: "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
> Subject: RE: Rumsfeld Says He May Drop New Office of Influence
>
> Grant:
>> To my way of thinking, the rationalization I used to overcome the
>> feeling of
>> resentment was a meme I chose to mitigate my feelings -- a tool I used to
>> change the way I looked at the situation and to keep my feelings from
>> flaring up into a confrontation.
>>
>> Since that time, I have found myself using that technique a lot
>> to keep from
>> letting small issues boil up into confrontational behavior. If I start
>> getting angry about something, I take a step back and mentally ask myself
>> what it is that's making me feel that way. Once I realize how
>> trivial the
>> thing was that aroused my feeling of hostility, the feeling goes
>> away.
>
> Interesting description. This process and the goal behind it seems similar
> to some aspects of Buddhist practice. I wonder if Buddhists, generally,
> might be more immune to memes than other cultures that lack this kind of
> personal discipline. Hmmmm..... I wonder if we could distinguish general
> cultural traits that makes the individuals in a culture more vulnerable to
> memes, or less so?
>
> Lawrence
Hi Lawrence and Grant,
I've been using Clinically Standardised Meditation for three weeks now and
have, as the main effect, noticed that although i am prone to thinking
d******* when encountering other drivers it doesn't stay with me as long (I
ride a 750 Kawasaki and get my fair share of 'sorry didn't see you mate"
incidents). Part of CSM is that when you are meditating you do not stop
thinking (impossible), but that you do not concentrate on or reject
thoughts, but rather you view them, examine them and let them go for another
thought. Overall my 'up yours Jack' levels of tolerance have increased by
quite a lot in 3 weeks.
Whether this has made me more or less susceptible to memes is difficult to
decide. While it would be difficult to describe me a as follower of fashion,
i am no more immune to my surrounding culture and memes than anyone else.
What i would like to think is that on the whole i resist a lot of them. But
then it could be argued that resistance to popular memes is another form of
meme....
An interesting line to persue though,
Steve
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