RE: Knowledge, Memes and Sensory Perception

From: Lawrence DeBivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 17 2002 - 15:46:27 GMT

  • Next message: Scott Chase: "Re: Modes of transmission"

    Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA29428 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 17 Jan 2002 16:24:00 GMT
    From: "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
    To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Subject: RE: Knowledge, Memes and Sensory Perception
    Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 10:46:27 -0500
    Message-ID: <NEBBKOADILIOKGDJLPMAGEKCCJAA.debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
    X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
    X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0)
    In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D1EC@inchna.stir.ac.uk>
    X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600
    Importance: Normal
    Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk
    Precedence: bulk
    Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    

    I'm not sure, lost in the plethora of replies, who made the statement I copy
    at the end of this email, but I would suggest that equating the deaths from
    Sept 11 and those from US military action in Afghanistan is a symptom of the
    political and moral problem that the US has created for itself:

    We rightly denounce the terrorist deaths at the WTC and Pentagon as those of
    criminal, evil people. But the US actions are those of a government, of a
    government that claims to be moral and good, and the government of a people
    and country that wish to be moral and good. To compare one set of deaths to
    another, based on the numbers of dead, is a disservice to those of us who
    belief in the morality of the US, for it lowers the actions and motives and
    moral standard of our government to those of the terrorists.

    It is one thing to criticize the political and legal elements of US
    government actions (as I do) and another thing to imply that the moral
    standards of terrorists are good enough for us.

    Statements like the one below give comfort to those who assert that we are
    no better than the terrorists. Talk about toxic memes!

    Lawrence

    > <You need to reference your opinion with facts. as of now, the
    > death toll from the WTC atrocity is 2939; no credible source dares claim
    > that an equal or greater number of Afghan noncombatants have died
    > in the US
    > reponse against the Taliban and Al Quaeda there.>
    > 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



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jan 17 2002 - 16:42:28 GMT