From: Vincent Campbell (VCampbell@dmu.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 06 Oct 2003 - 13:21:05 GMT
Hi everyone,
A quick question, conceived whilst reading over some set reading for a
lecture I'm doing today on media technology and society, looking at theories
of technological determinism and cultural materialism.
My question is: are memes determined or determining? Or to put it another
way, are memes causes or effects (of socio-cultural processes)?
I think this could be very important for the reaction to and interpretation
of memes.
For example, if memes are effects of socio-cultural processes, then you
could (hypothetically) take away the roman occupation of palestine, or the
treaty of versailles from post-WWI Germany, and perhaps christianity and
nazism never rise? (in both cases the context of societies unified in their
feelings of oppression, unfairness caused by "others" etc. contributed to
their success as ideologies)
Just throwing it out there, in the hope that someone out there might like to
discuss memes.
Vincent
(Incidentally, I may not get a chance to follow up responses until later in
the week or next week as I've got a lot of teaching over the next few days,
but I will respond to anyone who feels like chipping in eventually.)
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