Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA21283 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 2 Apr 2001 19:36:25 +0100 Message-ID: <3AC8C2C6.A58BA03@clara.co.uk> Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2001 19:19:50 +0100 From: Douglas Brooker <dbrooker@clara.co.uk> Organization: University of London X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: taboos References: <20010402145651.AAA25771@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
"Wade T.Smith" wrote:
> On 04/02/01 10:41, Douglas Brooker said this-
>
> >Is it relevant whether subliminal advertising is effective or not?
>
> What a question....
>
it's the kind of question an anthropologist might ask, because the answers
may prove interesting.
>
> Yes, of course it's relevant- it's relevant to the point of it's being a
> myth or not. At present, it's an urban legend, just like any other story
> out there.
>
"of course" - there are likely a lot of assumptions packed into this.
anthropologists might say facts are socially constructed, and assumptions
are those facts about which there is such universal agreement, they aren't
thought about much. Facts on one side of the Atlantic can be very
different than facts on this side. Facts are largely a belief system and
function as a means of concealing value judgements.
>
> It's relevant because this legend is being used to hoodwink people, like
> homeopathy and chiropractic and scientology and feng shui and psychic
> hotlines and....
an interesting list. is there any hierarchy amongst these phenomena?
a lot of British and European MD's whose practices include homeopathic
diagnoses and remedies would think you are a bit of a kook for lumping all
of these together. you'd likely find a lot of consensus in Europe regarding
Scientology, not so much in China concerning feng shui.
there are a lot of practices that 'hoodwink' but this list looks pretty
tame. Personally, I'd rank for- profit medical care as one one the worst
cases of organised hoodwinking. Hard to see how it compares with feng shui?
> It's relevant here because it is _not_ a valid behavioral mechanism, but
> it is a cultural entity.
if you are describing hoodwinking, I'd agree. those most adept at it work
in advertising agencies or run for office.
> It is relevant because what _is_ effective does need to be filtered out
> of culture, which is what, perhaps, I had thought memetics was about.
what remains of culture when what is effective about it is filtered out?
Have I mis-read this?
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