Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id BAA23646 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 14 Jun 2000 01:57:26 +0100 Message-ID: <20000614005506.91348.qmail@hotmail.com> X-Originating-IP: [212.1.152.104] From: "Diana Stevenson" <dianaxf@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Imitation or transmission? Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 17:55:06 PDT Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Wade wrote:
<I suppose, if one considers racism, and totalitarianism, and murder, and
magazine publishing, and playwrighting as examples of 'memetic
engineering', the field is open to abuse, but, really, I have no idea
what is being talked about when _anyone_ says 'memetic engineering', I
really don't, so I think, regardless of your alleged moral objections,
that it is time to present us with a unique example, obviously untinted
by other disciplines, of just such an engineered meme, and, its
deleterious (or beneficial) outcome among an experimental group.>
What do you mean by 'untinted by other disciplines?' I was thinking of
examples of memetic engineering from history, which are numerous. I'm
taking my definition of 'engineering' from Collins dictionary, which
includes: "n. the originator or manager of a situation, system etc.; vb. to
originate, cause or plan in a clever or devious manner".
Che Guevara as the great hero of the Bay of Pigs battle who later left a
powerful position in the Cuban government to go and start the revolution in
Bolivia, was a meme engineered by Fidel Castro after Guevara's death. It
replicated in books and posters in student bedrooms across the world in the
late 60s and 70s. In reality Guevara played almost no part in the Bay of
Pigs and was an embarassment in government: Fidel wanted him out of the way.
He then created and propagated the romantic hero for international
sympathy value. He got it.
King Henry VIII of England started a new meme: the Church of England (not
then a memeplex) because he wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry
Anne Boleyn. The Pope was renamed Bishop of Rome, clergy swore allegience to
the king or died and the Church of England *became* the Catholic church of
the apostles' creed. Henry's machine is still functioning - just.
The heroic last stand of the Jews against the Romans at Masada in the 1st
century CE is a significant part of Israel's national identity, yet
historians of the period think they were just bandits at Masada and few were
sorry to see them captured. The Oxford professor who told us this said we
must not mention it outside academic circles because it would upset too many
people. The continuance of the Masada meme is engineered.
Finally, the Bible contains many examples of memetic engineering. In the
New Testament the narratives about Jesus' birth and early life - of which
the writers probably knew nothing - were contrived to fit "prophesies" from
the Hebrew Bible (most of which were actually about past events). See
Matthew 1:18 to 2:23 in an edition with footnotes to the "prophesies" - then
look up those texts to see what you think they're about. In the Hebrew
Bible a good example is the rewriting of history by David or his descendents
to cast his predecessor Saul and the Benjaminites in a bad light, or make
them seen insignificant. They even "moved" the tomb of Saul's ancestress
Rachel from the territory of Benjamin (I Samuel 10:1-3), which was north of
present-day Jerusalem, to David's ancestral city - Bethlehem (Genesis
35:16-20) - to the south. The tomb is still there today and women go to
pray for fertility.
I would call all this memetic engineering but maybe I've misunderstood the
term. Couldn't all propaganda and PR "spin" be regarded as the concious
transmission of memes? And what else is advertising and viral marketing?
Diana
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