Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA17209 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 23 Aug 2000 16:36:41 +0100 Message-ID: <000b01c00d1b$decf9cc0$8802bed4@default> From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D31017459B5@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Changing threads/ American Nationalism !? Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 18:04:03 +0200 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Vincent you wrote,
> Well, of course, the founders of America were all puritans, a particular
> kind of Christian who weren't that popular in England, and more or less
got
> sent away. That puritan zeal runs deep through American society, but as
> others have said, I'm not sure one could classify Americans in general as
> Lamarkian.
<< No, I won 't call all Americans Lamarckian, but IMHO, as the political
history of the land shows, that their thoughts are probably influenced by
Lamarckian threads.
That is, for example, the all round existing moral convictions of their
doing,
are, I suspect, in a sense, moulded in another shape than ours.
That is, other brain connections are made_as in the above mentioned example,
we use the memetic lineages of principle as they use the lineages of goal.
There is a key difference in the way we use our brain...!?
In that respect, the endlessly shaped experiences by both sides results in
different particular responses to fit new circumstances.But, if the mind is/
was already shaped by anti-Darwinian threads, well I don 't think much
can be done that Darwinism can move up the latter !! >>
> Anyway, a combination of environmental change, and existing specific
beliefs
> undoubtedly influenced the American mindset, but the problem is that
America
> as yet to stabilise in terms of immigration, with many waves of diverse
> groups continuing to enter the US since the 17th century efforts of the
> puritan colonists. As a result, I don't really think it's possible to
> ascribe to the entire USA a particular mindset, after all if they were all
> Lamarkian, or creationist, there would have been no desire for the Scopes
> trial (I have a large photo, from a newspaper, of Clarence Darrow taken at
> the trial on my wall).
<< Like I mentioned as above, I don 't think it either, but I do think that
in the
case of politics it is very possible that it did though !!
And in this respect, if politics is highly influenced by Lamarckian
thoughts, than
it would be possible that the population is also, that due to the fact that
those
have to live by the rules set out by the political parties.
Maby, we are not aware of the fact that Lamarckism influenced America in
high notes because our minds are set to Darwinism !?
Remerber, it is only for a few years now that Lamarckism is back on track
and that is due to us, the memetisists ! After all, EJ Steele searched for
nearly
two decades for an answer to his questions.
With the work we are doing here, it may be possible that we see one day
through the clouds which are now blocking our view on America.
By the way, the Scopes trial !? Is that, that famous trial of 1925/ Monkey
Trial !?
regards,
Kenneth
( I am, because we are)
>
===============================================================
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 archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Aug 23 2000 - 16:37:49 BST