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----- Original Message -----
From: Wade T.Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
> It's more to the point to see what has made their minds so weak.
Hi Wade, all,
This is a very important/ interesting observation, not in the least its
wraps
perfectly my own view about memetics.
A long story,
IMO, we 're memetically ( getting) fixed_ mend to be individuals, but
that ain 't the material to built a society from isn 't it !?
But, in Nietzsches terms, the death of god did poclaim that other cer-
tainties also crumbled and in that respect, the suspicion that everything
and everyone is out of control becomes a collective idea/ assumption.
The desintegration is due to our time_ nothing stands on its own two
feet anymore, everything is slippery, dangerous and rare.
Individualisation changes profoundly the cultural/ moral and welltan-
schauung environment_ and that is something what most ' minds / memes'
or memetic systems are not up to ( yet).
Still defense systems/ processes are in place and do a great job, but
like Nietzsche, I have doubts about the mental bearing of people to
deal with individualism.
It is like there is a memetic struggle going on in our heads.
Nietzsche_ ' freedom is no question of some obscure will, but is more
likely a mental condition. A free mind is one who regects, deviates, sur-
prises, thinks in one other way,...in all cases from out himself/ itself.'
The thing is with those who commits suicide for a cause that they on the
one hand lack ' individualism '_ they are just/ only * mix- forms* of
conformity and freedom. They have a will to selfexpression. ( If you
count in blowin' yourself up as such).
On the other hand, to really be free, to be autonominious committing
suicide as one hell of a true individual for any cause that is, is to raise
questions noted as in the concept of * suspicion*. It is now the time
to give our life the direction of our own choosing, not the direction
which our parents/ society/ environment are/ were used to.
In a way, memes are getting in a complete new phase of their existence.
Where in the past everything was biased upon a certain degree/ form
of collectiviness today memes are grounded into a more indiviualistic
form of things.
Where in the past " [memes] worked along lines of coincidence and
opportunism ( it doesn 't mean to create something once ( you can 't
built something coherent out of this )), nowadays they work along lines
of hard- wearing selfmaintenance_ to find an/ their own form.
Nietzsche_ Vita activa and vita contemplativa. Meaning, the most im-
portant aspect is the training of the mind itself ! We don 't live to work,
especially we must work at ourselves, we must work up our notions of
order and selection_ and that due to the influence/ influx of charges/
orders and ideas.
IMO, in the memetic evolution there is today a ' two- speed ' thing
going on. I don 't know how this came about, although it seems to me
that this is due to the way I express myself, due to the ways I relate
to the existing values ( by lacking some values which others did re-
ceived in their youth for example).
If this is a fact_ and indiviualism, in the Nietzsches sense of the word,
is the final expression of this, than in a way, everything I know about
myself works for me, and only for me !
In that way, ' my memes ' will flourish_ ' I am than one autonomic,
undependable human being with one continual will, not something
that I change if it suits me best, but something I honour, a personal
morality.
From there on my memes will put themselves to the existing values to
in the end create the proper behavior. This leads up to the notion that
the organism like I am acts from it entire being, genetically and meme-
tically. It is not important which personality you develop, but that you
develop one is !
Not the context is important to my memes, the form is.
Form- characteristics ( as unity/ flexibility,..) are more important than
contextual characteristics as happiness/ wealth or justice. It is how you
fill these up, it is how you develop these notions to become one dynamic
whole.
For cases like those of the suicide bombers, it is not actualy not that
important to become a martyr, but the way how you do it, is !
They choose not death as such, but the way how to die. It draws indeed
our attention away from what might be the deeper causes, and that is
just what ' memes ' want_ we see the " form " not the context.
If you reflect on this and ask people what they think about this, in a
few cases they will extend their answers to a broader perspective,but
the most will only remerber the form, the deeper causes are of no inte-
rest to their memes whatsoever.
And that is something what is being ignored in many memetic analyses.
To conclude, if I ever can ' control '/ direct my memes, my genetic
evolution will follow. I rule out the Darwinian natural, based on
coincidence
selection and evolution will become entirely Lamarckian. This is not some
kind of coarse but something we all must learn to dealt with....
Many regards,
Kenneth
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