Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA27604 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 20 Jul 2000 15:17:34 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745942@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Casualty of War Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 15:15:40 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not all out to get you.
:-)
Has this post come to the right list Aaron? The posting you refer to came
long before I joined the list, and does seem rather unfair- although I've no
idea what context it came in. But I wonder why you bring it up, 7 months
after it was posted?
As I said to Richard Brodie a while back, regarding his assertion that your
posts were disguised attacks directed at him (something Derek Gatherer
claimed as well), surely as far as something like this listserv goes, the
discussion should stick to issues, not become bogged down in personal
contests that some (most?) of us are unaware of, and/or could care less
about.
If you want to see a conspiracy then how about the fact that although I sent
off to Amazon.com for your book at the same time as Richard's, his has
already arrived, and yours has been shipped seperately and has yet to
arrive?!
I don't mean to make light of a situation that you clearly feel strongly
about, but this list should be about issues, evidence and argument, not
about attacks on or defenses of personal integrity/motive etc.etc.- and of
course I address that remark to all of us.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Aaron Lynch
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 2:39 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Casualty of War
>
> At 08:11 AM 12/23/99 +0000, someone using this list wrote:
>
> >Hello Aaron. Here I do not understand what you say. There are many
> academics
> >working in memetics, and many have families. I take it you have no
> family
> >(pardon me, I read between the lines of what you say) because you decided
> to
> >study memetics instead. That is very noble, but also quite sad in a way
> that
> >you have sacrificed so much, perhaps unnecessarily.
> >
> >Happy Chanukah (hope you had one)
> >
> >F.
>
> The "opportunity" to make the above comment came after I alluded to
> someone
> else's explicitly stated decision to suspend full time memetics work due
> to
> family reasons.
>
> Nevertheless, the above quoted comment bears uncanny resemblance to World
> War II psychological warfare tactics. The only difference is that it tells
>
> me that I am forfeiting having a family and a holiday not so that I can
> work in the military, but so that I can work in memetics. Even the
> embedded
> ethnic presumption harkens back to Word War II psychological tactics.
> (Whether or not I celebrate Chanukah as my personal tradition is
> irrelevant.) One might conclude that someone is attempting to fight some
> kind of psychological war against me. As the old saying goes, "Truth is
> the
> first casualty of war." With at least one person apparently attempting to
> wage a psychological war with the objective of getting me to retreat from
> memetics, I cannot presume that honesty prevails in all quarters of our
> discussions.
>
> I am not quite sure what my objectives are supposed to be in the "war."
> Self defense? The right to use the word "meme" in connection with "thought
>
> contagion"? No matter. It is clear that collaboration, collegiality, and
> discourse cannot happen between certain parties unless there is convincing
>
> evidence that real peace has broken out.
>
>
> --Aaron Lynch
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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