I'd like to draw a distinction between a meme as propogated and a meme as
practiced. The difference is the same as a program which is archived as
opposed to one which is running the show.
The distinction is not as clear in the human brain, of course. As a result we
have the tendency to try to expunge those memes we devalue completely. The
most obvious way of removing their impact on the environment is to remove all
copies of them. Thus vehicles of "heresy" get burned at the stake to remove
the ideas they contain from the meme-sphere. The effectiveness of this
strategy is debatable.
I would argue that I am tolerant of intolerance, but I do not practice it. I
do not believe in it. It isn't part of my operating system. I don't think it
ever will be, but the idea might be useful in modeling the behavior of others.
Reed
konsler@ascat.harvard.edu