Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id RAA03085 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 9 Feb 2002 17:12:42 GMT Message-ID: <002e01c1b194$2f0c5ca0$5e2ffea9@oemcomputer> From: "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <NEBBKOADILIOKGDJLPMAKEMPCKAA.debivort@umd5.umd.edu> Subject: Re: Words and memes Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 09:04:13 -0900 Organization: Prodigy Internet Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Lawrence:
> I would like to take a different tack here.
>
> People are not stupid (oh, okay, not totally so). They have the automatic
> capability to assess what is going on around them, including the flow of
> language and symbols, and to judge what makes sense or doesn't, and what
is
> 'useful' to them or not.
>
> We all have hierarchies of values that come into play when we make these
> judgments. If an idea floating out there seems to enhance the ability of
the
> individual to manifest these values (and especially the more highly held
> ones) he or she will adopt it. (I am simplfying here a bit, and leaving
out
> other cognitive elements that also influence the adoption of ideas but
serve
> mainly as filtering mechanisms that reduce the number of ideas that are
> going to be judged. Within these filtering mechanisms we also have the
> ability to reshape the idea we are considering, to discard some of its
> elements and keep others, or to add to it other elements from other ideas
we
> have, thus the mutation of memes within and by the individual.) Ideas will
> only be taken up if the individual, rightly or wrongly, concluded that it
is
> useful to do so. Note that this allows for the adoption of ideas under
> conditions of group pressure: for those who do it under these conditions,
> conforming to group standards and all that flows from that is the
immediate
> value achieved.
>
> Memes cannot destroy or bypass this judgement-making mechanism: to be
> adopted they must meet its criteria for adoption. This helps explain why
> some memes are taken up by some people and not by others: our heirarchies
of
> values differ person to person, as do the levels of certainty that we
> require within our judgment-making processes.
>
> Does this model help?
It seems that your view and mine are on a par here, although I do not
understand
what you mean by the slogan '...as do the levels of certainty that we
require within our judgment-making processes.'
Philip.
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