Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA03356 (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 18:45:19 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020209133133.03564ec0@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 13:41:51 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: RE: Words and memes: Memes and religion/cults In-Reply-To: <NEBBKOADILIOKGDJLPMAEENACKAA.debivort@umd5.umd.edu> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020209023730.0355b2f0@pop.cogeco.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 08:55 AM 09/02/02 -0500, you wrote:
>My sense is that memes are value neutral. Memetics may help explain HOW
>systems of beliefs, e.g. religions, spread, but it does not favor such
>spread any more than it favors the spread of anti- or non-relgious beliefs.
I would put it that memetics (study of memes) tends to be value neutral,
but I see nothing at all wrong with putting highly negative values on memes
that damage people and positive values on memes that support the things we
generally consider to be good.
>I _can_ see how figures in authority over systems that are largely
>belief-based would worry about the field of memetics, as it rather
>undermines the notion that beliefs are purely linked to truth and reality or
>some non-human authority, such as gods or religious tomes.
The concept of replicating cultural element has been around at least 35
years and the word meme used for over 25. " memetics OR meme" limited to
English in Google returns 144,000 hits. This area of knowledge may not
excite a lot of opposition. At least the history so far suggest that.
>Memes, as instruments of transmission of beliefs, are neutral in the same
>way that a hammer is: they can be used for purposes or effects that we might
>consider good, or bad but it has more to do with the designer and wielders
>of the contents of the meme than its intrinsic existence as the medium of
>transmission.
So far as I know memetics has not been used to create a meme or resulting
social movement for either good or evil.
Keith Henson
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