Re: The Demise of a Meme

From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Sat Mar 31 2001 - 16:32:27 BST

  • Next message: Scott Chase: "Re: it can't happen here...." 

    Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA12804 (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 16:36:36 +0100
Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001 10:32:27 -0500
x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu
x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas
From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Message-ID: <20010331153228.AAA18725@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.25]>
Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk

    Hi Scott Chase -

    >Come to think of it, Sunday school could be considered far more humane
    >treatment of children than forcing them to ruminate on Kantian ethics.

    Not having the pleasure of ruminating upon Kantian ethics, I nevertheless
    was exposed, at a tender age, to a sunday school. My mother, a willingly
    lapsed methodist from a strong yankee family, took me one sunday, after
    dressing me up a bit, and let me know I could come every sunday if I
    liked it. I went, and although my memory is very skimpy about it, I do
    remember feeling a definite uncomfortableness, with the scene, with the
    instructor, and with the instruction, and I informed my mother that I did
    not want to return. She nodded, and we went for ice cream sundaes,
    instead.

    Perhaps I felt forced in that setting- I don't remember the concise
    feeling it gave me, if indeed it gave me a concise feeling at all, more a
    general unease- but it was not 'right' in some unexplained way.

    That it was decidedly false I didn't know until later, although it looks
    like I had some presentiment of this.

    So, perhaps if my mother had brought me to a class in Kantian ethics, I
    might have felt something not quite explainedly 'right'... maybe not....

    That said, fiction ain't 'wrong'....

    - Wade

    ===============================================================
    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 : Sat Mar 31 2001 - 16:39:15 BST