Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id GAA11083 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 31 Mar 2001 06:02:26 +0100 X-Originating-IP: [209.240.221.62] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 23:58:17 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F178u1BtWdWhkeLZssJ00001bd2@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 31 Mar 2001 04:58:17.0393 (UTC) FILETIME=[330EF210:01C0B99F] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: Chris Taylor <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme
>Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 17:46:42 +0100
>
>OK I'll admit the face thing has a big dollop of hardwired visual stuff
>going on, but I shouldn't have said that the phenomenon was totally
>memetic (which means I did shit at trying to make my point) just that it
>reinforces the concept of resident prejudice surviving in the face of
>contradictory evidence.
>
>As for religion (thankyou Vincent, please accept my sincere sympathy for
>what must have been an unbearable time for you and yours), I used to be
>a hardcore antireligious person, but now I'm not. I'm not religious, but
>I do see that it's a lot easier to use religion to indoctrinate kids
>with morality (memetic engineering ain't just an ad thing) before they
>know enough to resist (and then they spend the rest of their lives
>justifying what they already think, as do we all) than it is to try to
>teach the golden rule and Kant. The kids will often abandon religion
>(like I did with Catholicism) but the fundamental behavioural prejudices
>it has scored in there will remain, with 'resident's advantage'.
>
>Example: I am a full-on moral relativist in theory (paint yourself blue
>and stand on your head till you get an embolism and I couldn't care less
>- it's just as valid as the life of Mother Theresa or Michael Schumacher
>or Pol Pot), but in practice I'm not. That's partly empathy (the little
>model of the other person in my head leaks its pain into me), but it's
>partly a totally irrational prejudice, which I have sought to reinforce
>(self-analysts'r'us...).
>
>
Come to think of it, Sunday school could be considered far more humane
treatment of children than forcing them to ruminate on Kantian ethics.
Forcing a child to gain an understanding of the categorical imperative and
its application to everyday life might be seen as a form of child abuse. I
wonder if Nietzsche would agree, although introducing Zarathustra at an
early age would constitute reckless endangerment.
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