Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 08:00:14 -0700
From: Dale Fletter <dfletter@sirius.com>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Emotional memes?
Many thanks to your responses to my postings; they have been most helpful. I have
found about an inch of printed material on memetics that I want to absorb before
I say any more so I will begin lurking for a while. I will part for now with a
thought I had when I read this thread. Let's say that the culture of Manhatten is
a high-stress one that has the potential for dramatic breakdown if that stress is
never relieved. Let's further say that a kind word or a smile can relieve that
stress and then go on to say that receiving this message makes us more likely to
pass it on in turn. If you can accept all of this, then I would suggest that the
meme here would be something learned at the knee such as "be nice to people and
they will be nice to you". That meme becomes overlaid by the other memes but its
expression is brought out when stress levels are high and it is triggered by the
kind word or the smile. In this way, societal stress is relieved like tectonic
plates lubricated by humor that allows the stress to get relieved and reestablish
a more stable configuration. The good feelings we have are a necessary part of
the memes replication but secondary to the main function of relieving
environmental stress. Maybe this is all bs and has no place on this board, but I
thought I'd throw it out anyway. I'll shut up for a while now.
later
df
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