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MEMES (Second Article Entitled “MEMES II” is attached at the end)
http://ghandchi.com/09-Memes.htm
It seems to me that
There is a BIG difference
between the community of
INDIVIDUALS and what is referred to as MASS. The former is much more
powerful and acts much more smarter than a single individual, whereas the latter
can even be worse than a single individual. Look at the MASS of the NAZI
fascists Look at the MASS of the STALINISTS. Look at the MASS of CRUSADERS.
This mass is like a sheep. They have not independently come up with the
conclusions that their group (or MASS) is subscribing to. They only share the
prejudice.
Of course everything is
relative. There is nothing wrong with following the orders of a good
dermatologist when you have a skin problem, but only if you have the necessary
skills to recognize a genuine dermatologist, otherwise not having a
dermatologist may even be better than following one because of GROUPTHINK. So
it depends.
A group, which is a group of
independent thinking individuals, is very powerful and self-conscious; whereas
a group, which is a MASS of people, in the sense of sharing a prejudice, is not
really acting out of consciousness. It acts usually out of ignorance. That is the evangelists and moonies, and
name it, all these cults that are in abundance in the West, i.e.
ideological cults in the West and political cults in the East.
Some people like Dawkins even
think this is related to a disease which is spreading *MEMES*. In his Selfish
Gene of 1976, he argues for that as the bottom-line reason of intolerance
spreading like a plague in the world. I am not really sure if how verifiable
this theory is, but I think he has seen the problem, even if not having
necessarily found the solution. Here is how this is viewed.
We know that thru
reproduction, a life form can pass along to future generations its own bundle
of genetic information or messages. Dawkins argues that over the course of evolutionary history,
it has proved highly adaptive for life forms to develop ways to transmit
information nongenetically, as well. The type of
communication can take many forms: the complex patterns danced by honey bees to
tell each other the location of pollen; the releasing into air of
pheromones-chemical substances that influence other members of a species; the
songs of birds and whales; the subtle resonances of human speech, writing , music, and art.
If genes are molecular
bundles of self-replicating information, these apparently nonmolecular,
bundles of self-replicating information that use minds to get itself reproduced
are called MEMES (rhymes with themes) by Dawkins. He sees these patterns as
existing in all human societies and the central law of meme evolution, as in
genetic evolution, is survival of the stable.
He sees that the world has
been like long-isolated tribes and the globalization of the world has caused
the intolerance memes to become to act like a plaque. He sees that fear of
unpredictability is what is preventing the growth of tolerance memes. This issue
of unpredictability was demonstrated in an article by Michael Huchison in July 1990issue of New Age journal. It was at
the time when George Bush was faced with the uncertainty of the upheavals in
the
He says that we are presented
with the image of George Bush, televised around the world, as he confronts the
extraordinary changes taking place in eastern Europe
and central
Then the article argues that
in our urgent desire to eradicate the threat to civilization posed by
intolerance, it is tempting to attack the carriers of intolerance memes. But
that is to mistake the victims of the disease for the disease itself. Then it
says to improve the immune system for prevention of memes susceptibility is to
attack anxiety, poverty, fear, violence, inequality, despair, and alienation.
Finally it says "I am
struck by an image, a fable of our tree-dwelling primate ancestors, threatened
by the receding of the African forests caused by climatic changes. Some of them
have come down from the trees and begun to go out onto the savannas in search
of game, tentatively rising onto their hind legs. DON'T BE FOOLS, COME BACK,
cry their brothers and sisters in the trees, OUR PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN
TREES, AND ALWAYS WILL; WE ARE MEANT TO BE TREE-DWELLERS. BEYOND THE TREES LIES
MADNESS."...For them THE ENEMY IS UNPREDICTABILITY.
This is like the ones who
were afraid what the break up of the Soviet Empire would destroy everything
they had created. This is like the ones who are afraid
Sam Ghandchi
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* The above article was first posted on SCI (soc.culture.iranian) Usenet newsgroup on
MEMES II
In my first article about
Memes (attached below), I referred to Richard Dawkins' book entitled "The
Selfish Gene". I really do not know
how scientific his book is, but I find his "Memes" theory, an
interesting idea.
We know that thru
reproduction, a life form can pass along to future generations, its own bundle
of genetic information or messages. Dawkins argues that over the course of
evolutionary history, it has proved highly adaptive for life forms to develop
ways to transmit information nongenetically, as well.
This type of communication can take many forms: the complex patterns danced by
honey bees to tell each other the location of pollen; the releasing into air of
pheromones-chemical substances that influence other members of a species; the
songs of birds and whales; the subtle resonances of human speech, writing,
music, and art.
If genes are molecular
bundles of self-replicating information, these apparently nonmolecular,
bundles of self-replicating information that use minds to get itself reproduced
are called MEMES (rhymes with themes) by Dawkins. He sees these patterns as
existing in all human societies, and the central law of meme evolution, as in genetic evolution, is survival of the stable.
I also noted a
related article that I quoted where the author wrote the following that "I
am struck by an image, a fable of our tree- dwelling primate ancestors,
threatened by the receding of the African forests caused by climatic changes.
Some of them have come down from the trees and begun to go out onto the
savannas in search of game, tentatively rising onto their hind legs. DON'T BE
FOOLS, COME BACK, cry their brothers and sisters in the trees, OUR PEOPLE HAVE
ALWAYS LIVED IN TREES, AND ALWAYS WILL; WE ARE MEANT TO BE TREE- DWELLERS.
BEYOND THE TREES LIES MADNESS."...For them THE ENEMY IS UNPREDICTABILITY.
I am wondering if
we can trace traits of memes in Iranian culture that can explain some of our
fundamental belief systems, which have actually worked against us in the recent
history. One example is the way Iranians
are scared of foreign influence, and have ended up supporting Islamic Republic
of Iran. If the image that Iraj Mirza draws of a woman, who
is holding tight to her veil, while she is giving "it" out from
below, can be applied here, it seems to me the pseudo-nationalism and worrying
about Iranian image in the world press, when cutting lips of women for using
lip stick is still in our memory, is in the same vein.
When one
considers the Germans, who worked with Allies during WWII, as traitor, and
thinks Iranians should support the IRI, when facing the West, I think one is
showing a meme, which has nothing to do with love of a nation, and is about
justifying defense of fascism, as long as it represents one's "land". [I am referring to an individual who is very
vocal against Islam and the Islamic Republic but called Germans who had worked
with Allies as traitors and thought in front of the West, Islamic Republic must
be defended]. I think worrying about usage
of Persian words rather than Arabic, or whether Persian Gulf is called
"Persian", are rituals of a meme that has become the pivots of such
pseudo-unities of Iranians, and these rituals help the meme continue its life
in our collective consciousness.
I know what I am
discussing above is very sensitive, just as it was so sensitive for our
tree-dwelling primate ancestors, when some of them began to go out onto the
savannas. I am not saying all change is
good, just for the sake of change, but this meme of pseudo-unity of Iranians,
with the most backward elements of Iranian society, on the basis of opposing
the West, has done a lot of damage to
Sam Ghandchi
RELATED ARTICLES
http://www.ghandchi.com/index-Page6.html
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* The above article is a sequel to the article below. This one was first posted on SCI (soc.culture.iranian) Usenet newsgroup on