From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun 24 Nov 2002 - 17:13:10 GMT
Lawry,
I think only the habits we want to get rid of and find hard to break are
called addictions. The ones we want to keep are called virtues. ;)
Cheers,
Grant
>
>Hi, Grant,
>
>Very interesting comments. I know what you mean about sports obsession. The
>son of a dear friend showed considerable promise in golf when he was a kid;
>the decision was made by the family to help him develop this skill and
>become a professional. Studies were neglected in favor of golf tournaments.
>he made it into a mediocre college despite a poor academic record, but
>couldn't make the golf team. Transferred to another mediocre college where
>he was promised a team position. The golf floundered, and he graduated with
>no skills. Took a job as a salesman. I went to his wedding a while back. A
>terrific kid, friendly, outgoing, but with few professional prospects. It
>struck me all as a great loss.
>
>We can become obsessed by lots of different things, and I think that some
>change takes place in the brain when it does. Do you remember one of the
>very first computer games? The cursor would move in jerky fashion about the
>screen. I got hooked and played throughout the night. Next day I picked up
>the newspaper and found that my eyes were moving across the page in the
>same
>jerky fashion. It took some hours for the phenomenon to disappear.
>
>Perhaps addictive behaviors are just some fancy variant on this notion of
>obsession?
>
>In a previous professional incarnation, I developed some cognitive tools to
>help people break addictive behaviors (smoking, alcohol, 'light' drugs,
>diet, etc) and phobias. We had very good success rates, compared to other
>techniques, but the thing that struck me was how hard it was to accomplish,
>even when the patient wanted to do so. Oddly enough, phobias turned out to
>be the quickest, easiest and most reliable pattern to break.
>
>I wonder if it might be possible to treat memes as addictive behaviors.....
>Hmmmmm.
>
>Thanks for the provocative thoughts....
>
>Cheers,
>Lawry
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> > Of Grant Callaghan
> > Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 10:55 AM
> > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> > Subject: RE: Why Europe is so Contrary
> >
> >
> > Hi Lawry,
> >
> > Play is the way children and adults practice the skills they need
> > to do more
> > serious work later in life. The only time I see a problem with
> > it is when
> > people get so wrapped up in it that it takes over their lives.
> > I'm reminded
> > of the football and other sports players who go to college on
> > scholarships
> > and devote so much of their time to sports they never learn
> > anything useful
> > outside of the sport they majored in. Of the thousands of young men and
> > women who graduate this way many are left being fit only to hold
> > low-level
> > jobs or live on welfare after they graduate. Only 30
> > professional football
> > teams with less than 50 players each offer something to the thousands of
> > wannabe stars on the gridiron.
> >
> > The average life in sports is about four years. Then it's back
> > to real life
> > and, if they've not spent all their money on fun and getting high
> > in the off
> > season, they have a nice nest egg they can live on for a while. But the
> > ones who didn't make it or who got injured (about 80% to 90%
> > estimate) are
> > in a position of having to start over with no real goal in life.
> > It leads a
> > lot of people who could have been really good at something to
> > playing a kind
> > of mental solitare I call "If only ...".
> >
> > The Chinese talk about people who get into the study of Taoism and get
>so
> > lost in it that it consumes their whole life. I think game
> > playing can be a
> > lot like that for the person who develops the skill to a point of
> > obsession.
> > Language and meme development, to my mind, are just skills built
>around
> > tools we've developed. We learn to use the tools in childhood and the
> > rewards for being really good at those skills lead us to doing it for a
> > living. But for those who are not good enough to compete on a
> > professional
> > level, a mind is wasted because society has no place and no use
> > for them.
> > Thus we get taxi-driving PhDs and waitresses who want to become
> > an actress.
> > Usually they're not really good at either calling.
> >
> > Some of these may be the people who become terrorists, for
> > example. People
> > who are consumed with an idea and think they can change the world
> > by forcing
> > it on others. Playing at war eventually becomes an act of terror
> > and a life
> > devoted to running and hiding -- skills we started developing by
> > playing war
> > and hide and seek as children. I'm reminded of the Symbionese
>Liberation
> > Army here. All of these 50-something people going to jail now to pay
>for
> > the crimes they thought they left behind them. There's a similar
> > group in
> > Italy. This is one of the consequences of playing run amok. A
> > fantasy life
> > takes over someone's real life and the game becomes their reality.
> >
> > On the other hand, you have guys like Tiger Woods who began
> > playing a game
> > at four years of age and took that game to heights that make him
> > the envy of
> > golfers around the world. He can indulge in his game for the rest of
>his
> > life and get paid for it. The ultimate game player's fantasy.
> >
> > I find games interesting in themselves for the way they take life
> > and create
> > a practice field for it. By adding restrictions in the form of
> > rules, they
> > keep people from hurting each other while they practice at full tilt.
> > There's a lot of value to society in this activity, even when it
> > leaves some
> > people broken and destitute from being too narrowly focused on
> > one thing.
> > Chess teaches us to think, but if chess is all we ever think
> > about we lead
> > very narrow lives.
> >
> > Well, enough of this mind wandering.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Grant
> > >
> > >Hi, Grant,
> > >
> > >Sorry I missed your initial posting on this. Too busy keeping the
>jibes
> > >flowing, I guess <smile>.
> > >
> > >I think you've described the play accurately. Our own memetic
> > case study.
> > >
> > >Oddly, though, there is an undertone of seriousness about it,
> > too. Joe is
> > >worried that people don't see the threat that he believes
> > surrounds him/us.
> > >I, and others, are worried that those who see the world as Joe does
>will
> > >lead the US to doing dangerous things in the world. In the same way
>that
> > >Indian princes (I am told) were instructed in chess as a way to learn
>war
> > >strategy, so we practice our memes here, knowing that there is a
> > world out
> > >there in which they may come to operate.
> > >
> > >Cheers,
> > >Lawry
> > >
> > >
> > > > > >When Joe and Lawry were trading jibes, each chose particular
>words
> > >and
> > > > >ideas
> > > > > >to achieve a specific set of goals. Some goals included
> > attempts at
> > > > > >dominance, the change of mind set in lurkers, attempts to
> > humiliate
> > >the
> > > > > >other party (part of dominance), attack and defense with word
> > > > play, and a
> > > > > >good time was had by all. It was the verbal equivalent of
> > a game of
> > > > >chess.
> > > > > >It was also a good example of how we use memes, transfer memes,
>and
> > > > > >contribute to the meme pool in general.
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
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> >
>
>
>
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