From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Thu 26 Dec 2002 - 18:26:11 GMT
At 10:00 PM 25/12/02 -0600, joedees@bellsouth.net wrote:
[Henson]
> > I have been thinking about this a *long* time. While I think
> > "religions" are helpful symbiotes, they evolved from dangerous,
> > sometimes fatal cults which *are* memetic parasites. (Typically takes
> > about 300 years.)
> >
> > The evolution of parasites into symbiotes is a common story in
> > evolution so this is not a surprise.
> >
>And sometimes it happens in reverse (Wahhabism).
You could look at it that way, or (as I prefer) you can look at these as
new and virulent shoots off the stem of some belief pattern that has become
relatively mellow. The new split off meme in turn requires ten generations
or so to mellow out. And while the Mormons look to be about half way (at
150 years) to respectability, not every cult meme follows the same
evolutionary path. Christian Science more or less attained respectability
in about 100 years but it is dying out now.
There is also a bit of a problem with this group in dating its origin, but
even at the oldest it is only 200 years old. It has only been a
significant force since about 1930, and it if were not for Saudi oil money
it would never have come to so much influence.
The same point could be made about the communist meme. To get Russia out
of WW I, Germany funded Lenin with (for that time) an enormous amount of money.
Neither communism or Wahhabism memes are long term compatible with modern
technology. They still can cause massive disruptions to the rest of the
world.
Keith Henson
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