Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA14823 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 19 May 2000 15:09:08 +0100 Message-ID: <39250552.47458ABD@mediaone.net> Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 10:11:46 +0100 From: Chuck Palson <cpalson@mediaone.net> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Central questions of memetics References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D31CEB1BC@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Vincent Campbell wrote:
> Chuck, you said:-
>
> > Actual history rarely if ever gets preserved. [actual historical events
> > don't get preserved, sure] They don't get preserved in any meaningful
> > sense just because they are put on videos or appear once on the news.
> > They get preserved when people watch them and decide to make it part of
> > their
> > "lessons of the past" file. Again, if you are interested in this
> > particular
> > process for some reason, fine. But it has no broad effect on the overall
> > society
> > -- which is, frankly, what I am interested in because of my evolutionary
> > interests. That's the only reason why memes caught my attention in the
> > first
> > place -- because of the claims that it has something to do with evolution.
> >
> So history doesn't get preserved in any meaningful sense by its recording in
> some form or other? I really can't believe you've said that. I think, just
> for my addled brain, you need to explain or clarify that.
>
I may have overstated my case, but I don't think so. History is modern man's
mythology. Especially in the US, but also elsewhere, it is a way to rally the
facts that survive from the past to justify the present. Usually you can find a
history out there of an event that satisfies just about any common predudice. I
know that the Europeans are better than the Americans on trying to get over this
way of looking at history, but it's still pretty much that way. it is a
narrative form with all the traditional archetypes associated with that form.
> And cults not having impacts on overall society? Christianity was a cult at
> its outset.
>
Yes, you are right. Very occasionally a cult comes along that explodes. But
you'de have to be very lucky to pick a cult to study that would do that. I think
that cults don't tell us as much about human beings as the study of other things
do because they are too marginal.
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