From: Kate Distin (memes@distin.co.uk)
Date: Thu 21 Jul 2005 - 08:22:27 GMT
Keith Henson wrote:
> At 10:10 AM 20/07/05 +0100, Kate wrote:
>
> snip
>
>> This must tie into the suicide bombers' mentality somewhere along the
>> line. If memetics is true then it must be able to account for what's
>> going on there, which is surely memetic to some extent. Any insights,
>> anyone?
>
>
> "Keith Henson has coined the name `memeoids' for `victims that have been
> taken over by a meme to the extent that their own survival becomes
> inconsequential ... You see lots of these people on the evening news
> from such places as Belfast or Beirut'. "
>
> End notes Second Ed. Selfish Gene.
>
> "Memeoid" is descriptive, but memetics is small a frame to get to the
> root of *why* people are susceptible to lethal memes, particularly ones
> that lead to behavior such as becoming a suicide bomber.
>
> Understanding *why* takes evolutionary psychology to explain or at least
> try to explain where humans got these really strange psychological traits.
>
> I have been ranting about EP, conditional behavioral switches and why
> humans are susceptible to certain classes of memes at some times and not
> others for years on this list.
>
> It's not a comfortable subject.
>
> Keith Henson
>
>
>
What a succinctly clear distinction - that's what I like about this
list: you ask for insights, and you get them!
Kate
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