Re: emperors old clothes

From: Dace (edace@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon 17 Mar 2003 - 03:22:36 GMT

  • Next message: Keith Henson: "Re: Dennett article on post-modernism"

    > From: "Alan Patrick" <a.patrick@btinternet.com>
    >
    > > Memes can't pervert their hosts. Perversion is strictly psychological.
    > > People are perverted, not memes. Memes just promote themselves (and
    > > thereby crowd out competitors).
    >
    > I wonder....what I'm getting at is - are there memes that can distort your
    > view so that you are less able to see reality, and thus test and replace
    > that meme.

    Memes can exploit your desire to perceive things a certain way. We tend to be narcissistic, so a way of seeing things that leaves us looking innocent and well-intentioned is much preferable to one that reflects who we really are-- warts and all. Unless individuals or groups are narcissistic or paranoid or antisocial or hysterical or schizoid, etc., a delusion-bearing meme has no power over them.

    > I do agree with your point that the really informative study of
    > memes is in looking at unhelpful or harmful ones. For this reason I find
    > religiously based memesets most fascinating, especially those like the
    Amish
    > & Shakers which define totally different modes of life.

    These groups are following a traditional set of memes, one which emphasizes community capital over private capital. Given the destruction that private capital is currently unleashing on ecologies throughout the world, we might surmise that our memes, not theirs, are the really harmful ones.

    Ted

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