From: Alan Patrick (a.patrick@btinternet.com)
Date: Thu 13 Mar 2003 - 04:56:55 GMT
Was looking at one of those future institute websites last night, basically
arguing that in the western world that many countries government authority
is a result of traditions that are in fact not being adhered to by the mass
of peoples, and that all it will take is a major crisis to prove this.
My thought was about memes that are "emperor's old clothes" memes, ie that
are still in situ even though their basis for existence is provably eroded -
do they work mainly by:
(i) having strong self-reinforcing elements, and/or conversely are good at
preventing entry of new memes for long periods
(ii) "perverting" the vision of the meme-carrier so that he/she cannot see
reality
(iii)a "natural half life" exists for dominant old memes and they have to
fall below a certain strength before they are dislodgeable
(iv)actually, a memeplex is what really makes up our mental DNA and you need
significant changes in many individual memes in the memeplex before a change
in the overall organism's view of reality occurs
This one intrigues me, ideas very welcome
Thanks
Alan
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