Message-Id: <v03102800b089c16d859d@[194.109.13.153]>
In-Reply-To: <34614A15.766B@pacbell.net>
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 09:14:57 +0200
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Ton Maas <tonmaas@xs4all.nl>
Subject: Re: Memetic parasitism and "progress": a letter
Arel Lucas said:
>I do agree of course that memes and schemes can be dangerous things, but
>I think their danger arises out of their "ability" (unfortunate
>athropomorphic term) to arouse limbic reactions from past evolutionary
>experience--Nazism, for instance, to recruit people by the promises of
>brotherhood, stable hierarchy, "lebensraum," and other hooks which soothe
>the anxieties of wild and domesticated ape alike.
According to one rather unusual critique of fascism, it was not so much the
"inherently" bad ideas but the fundamental imbalance between caring and
clarity which made them so dangerous.
Ton Maas
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