Re: The terrorism meme

From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Mon 04 Nov 2002 - 19:27:00 GMT

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    > http://www.counterpunch.org/said0813.html
    >
    > This article by Edward Said on the Palestinian crisis demonstrates
    > that it can't be comprehended except according to the model of
    > memetics. As usual the existence of self-replicating ideas is best
    > demonstrated when those ideas are pathological and whose widespread
    > success cannot be accounted for by logic alone. In this case the
    > pathological meme is "Palestinian terrorism." That Israel is clearly
    > attempting the destruction of an entire people never enters our minds
    > as long as we remain in thrall to the terrorism meme.
    >
    > As Said observes, "the daily, minute occurrences of what Palestinians
    > have to live through are hidden and, more important, covered over by a
    > logic of self-defence and the pursuit of terrorism (terrorist
    > infrastructure, terrorist nests, terrorist bomb factories, terrorist
    > suspects -- the list is infinite) which perfectly suits Sharon and the
    > lamentable George Bush. Ideas about terrorism have thus taken on a
    > life of their own, legitimised and re-legitimised without proof, logic
    > or rational argument."
    >
    > The power of this meme depends on its exploitation of the collective
    > narcissism and paranoia of the Israeli people.
    >
    > Ted
    >
    You might want to review the following articles before deciding exactly who is in thrall to memes:

    http://www.meforum.org/article/175

    http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Surveys+find+high
    +European+anti%2DSemitism&intcategoryid=2
    >
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > 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
    >

    =============================================================== 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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