Is this a Meme?
alt.memetics archives
12-19 October, 1994
Number of articles: 7
From: anon1fd0@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Name withheld by request)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Is this a Meme?
Date: 12 Oct 1994 13:19:31 -0600
Found this in another group--what do you think, is it a meme?
Of course, to force people to think exclusively about space as the
first and only step we can take to escape from being digested is
profoundly
misleading.
The control over us is informational as well as physical.
Here are the steps to the freedom of the fronter:
STEP #1:
TURN OFF YOUR TV AND LEAVE IT OFF. DISCONTINUE CABLE SERVICE AND DISPOSE
OF YOUR ANTENNA.
STEP #2:
Eliminate all mass media from your diet of information. Don't even
consume
it to "keep track of what the common man is being programmed to think."
This desire to "track the collective consciousness" is used to enslave us.
STEP #3:
Remove yourself and your children from all academic institutions WHETHER
PUBLIC OR PRIVATE. Educate YOURSELVES. Use people who know how to do
things that other people value, not "teachers" or "professors". Use
libraries -- not bookstores.
STEP #4:
Learn who you are. Looking at your history as part of your family history
and geneology. Honor this history above any "history" you might have been
taught to believe is more relevant to you. The lessons of your family
history are more important than the lessons of any organized religion
concocted by alien people, no matter how inspired or moving.
STEP #5:
Move to a less urban area.
STEP #6:
Forget politics, war, genocide or other forms of feuds and just stick with
people you get along with, excluding those who tend to "push your buttons"
or "drain you". Tolerance of diversity begins with the separation of
incompatible types.
STEP #7:
Invest your time, energies and monies in inventors who create technologies
that give people like yourself more options for the future without
restricting
options for others. Constitutions can be repealed or distorted by
manipulators.
Technology changes things irreversably.
The promotion of politics exterminates apolitical genes in the population.
The promotion of frontiers gives apolitical genes a route to survival.
What do you think of this?
--Jon.
From: dreamer@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Andrew Trapp)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Re: Is this a Meme?
Date: 12 Oct 1994 19:49:39 GMT
I wouldn't really call it a meme, more like the rantings of a very paranoid
counterculture PC person. However, it does _contain_ something that might
be called a self-defense meme. Throughout the rant there is the message of
"isolate yourself from all other memes/meme sources, they're dangerous."
This "defense-meme" is present in nearly all the steps, and is similar to
defense memes employed by (meta?)memes such as religion. However, this
defense meme is much less effective because it is too extreme and will
have only a very limited appeal. Believe it or not, many of us poor brain-
washed saps actually LIKE our mass media, newspapers, cable, schools, etc.,
at least enough not to let go of them. Throughout the rant I kept thinking
"That's wrong!" or "That's a stupid thing to do!" or "What a schmoe this
person is!" So I would have to say that regardless of whether the rant
itself could be construed as a meme, it has rather poor infection and
defensive abilities. Hmmm, maybe given that it exhibits those traits at
all means that it's a meme?
--
Andrew Trapp dreamer@uiuc.edu
Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying
as an income tax refund. -- F. J. Raymond
From: Richard Kennaway (jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Re: Is this a Meme?
Date: 19 Oct 1994 08:47:10 GMT
Andrew Trapp, dreamer@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
> Throughout the rant there is the message of
> "isolate yourself from all other memes/meme sources, they're dangerous."
> This "defense-meme" is present in nearly all the steps, and is similar
to
> defense memes employed by (meta?)memes such as religion. However, this
The meme tends to cancel itself out, as it fails to provide a way of
making itself an exception. Religions typically claim some supernatural
authority for themselves which they deny to others; this meme, as
presented here, bears no author, and makes no claim to any special
treatment for itself.
___
\X/ Richard Kennaway, jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk, Univ. of East Anglia, Norwich
From: dreamer@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Andrew Trapp)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Power of suggestion as a meme?
Date: 12 Oct 1994 20:00:20 GMT
In my previous article some of you may have gotten the impression that I
didn't care too much for the rant about getting rid of all contact with
mass media. I also said that it had poor infection and defensive abilities.
Now I'm wondering: could I have further weakened it with my post? I.e.
I planted a suggestion that it was not a viable meme; could that have made
it less viable? Or, if you (angrily) disagreed with what I said, could
that rant/meme have become _more_ viable?
Here it would appear that the power of suggestion (in this forum, taking
the form of replies to articles) can act as a sort of antibody. As with
real antibodies, it could either boost your immunity to a meme, or if it
goes wrong, could make you more susceptible to it, possibly to the point
of infecting you with it.
Are suggestions a form of "stealth meme?" Or are they simply another
characteristic of memes? I'd like to see some more discussion on this
issue.
--
Andrew Trapp dreamer@uiuc.edu
WHERE'S WALDO? He's hidden in the article above. Also try to find: 6
memes; 3 meta-memes; 2 typos; and 4 suggestions. (Just kidding! :-)
From: rodney@well.sf.ca.us (Rodney Peck)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Re: Power of suggestion as a meme?
Date: 17 Oct 1994 19:00:51 GMT
I'm new to this list, I found it after some web hunting in Norway after
reading Media Virus which is a really interesting book for getting up to
speed on memetics, etc. and the relationship between media and memetics.
Andrew Trapp (dreamer@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote:
>Here it would appear that the power of suggestion (in this forum, taking
>the form of replies to articles) can act as a sort of antibody. As with
>real antibodies, it could either boost your immunity to a meme, or if it
>goes wrong, could make you more susceptible to it, possibly to the point
>of infecting you with it.
As I read the original message, I wondered what I had missed from the
context the message was found in in the other newsgroup. Maybe it works
better with people who have been following along what lead to the message.
Another idea is that by putting the message inside another message, there's
a distancing effect -- that is, you are reading this newsgroup expecting
to see things which are intentionally playing with your mind. As such, your
guard is up, and something ranting in this fundamentalist manner will have
little luck. It's like looking at the message through glass.
Or... it's even more infectious by being wrapped inside another message
similar to how memes are distributed by the TV screen in a TV screen
wrapping.
Finally, how about this: You could take part of the rant, but defuse it
by leaving out some point in such a way that the remainder of the message
is accepted. Then, would the chance of acceptance be higher or lower when
the original message was encountered again?
Rodney
From: cearley_k@wizard.colorado.edu (K. Cearley)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Re: Power of suggestion as a meme?
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 1994 16:07:06
rodney@well.sf.ca.us (Rodney Peck)
writes:
>Finally, how about this: You could take part of the rant, but defuse it
>by leaving out some point in such a way that the remainder of the message
>is accepted. Then, would the chance of acceptance be higher or lower when
>the original message was encountered again?
Hey Rodney, this reminds me of one of Nietzche's aphorisms... the best way to
argue for something is to argue against it...poorly. Or, at least, that's what
I thought he said... ;)
-Kent
From: rodney@well.sf.ca.us (Rodney Peck)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Re: Power of suggestion as a meme?
Date: 19 Oct 1994 19:06:20 GMT
K. Cearley (cearley_k@wizard.colorado.edu) wrote:
>rodney@well.sf.ca.us (Rodney Peck) writes:
>
>>Finally, how about this: You could take part of the rant, but defuse it
>>by leaving out some point in such a way that the remainder of the message
>>is accepted. Then, would the chance of acceptance be higher or lower when
>>the original message was encountered again?
>
>Hey Rodney, this reminds me of one of Nietzche's aphorisms... the best way
to
>argue for something is to argue against it...poorly. Or, at least, that's
what
>I thought he said... ;)
hmmm... maybe we're on to something!
Prop 188 in California is a law which will gut the current smoking regulations
and replace them with less restrictive statewide law. It's main backer
the tobacco lobby, spent over $7 million on it so far.
The interesting part is that it's being promoted as an anti-smoking law
including collecting petition signatures with misleading explanations, etc.
Is it possible that the tobacco PR companies have decided to confuse us by
arguing the other side poorly?