From: Van oost Kenneth (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Thu 27 Nov 2003 - 19:58:52 GMT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net>
> There's a new meme in Washington. Seems that Bush came to town wearing a
> blue tie. No one in Washington had ever worn a blue tie or could remember
> seeing anyone else in a blue tie. Up till then, there had been only three
> to choose from: the red "power" tie, the striped "Harvard" tie, and the
> "bureaucrat" gold (at least according to Roger Mudd, who reported this
story
> on the Lehrer Newshour). Pretty soon, the cabinet caught on, starting
with
> personal advisor Karl Rove, the last holdout being Colin Powell (and his
CIA
> man, Tenet). Beyond the White House they've started popping up all over
> town.
Hi Ted,
Perhaps you are not aware of the fact that the above memetic transmission
of wearing the tie can be explained in more common ways.
That is to say, subordinates always try to imitate the one(s) one level up
to
theirs. That goes from wearing ties and suits up to the imitation of
gestures
and ways of pronouncements.
It is mere a question of groupbehavior whereby the power, the glitter or the
glamour of the one in charge, or with the succes, does creates the
appearance
that the latter has power or has succes too if he or she wears the same
clothes,
does behave in ways the boss does, etc...
And of course, memetically speaking then, wearing the blue tie himself, is
just
about seeking only his own selfish interests.
It is inherent in human nature to see himself thru' the eyes of the rich and
the
powerful. Not I myself hang on to such a tendency, but some people do de-
pend for their social and cultural life, on having ' a life by '.
But by any means, we wouldn 't have seen this arising if there wasn 't such
a dominant force as are the memes. They prepared us to think and behave
in such ways.
Regards,
Kenneth
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