Two variations of Vicki's martyrdom meme are possibly the "justice" and "runaway
compassion" memes. The bait in the justice meme is the promise of punishment of
wrongdoers while the hook may be the proliferation of lawyers who are well
compensated. The bait in the runaway compassion meme is the perception of a better
society while the hook is the perception that the host is a better person. Of course
the death blow of both these memes is the consequences of altering the balance of
crime and punishment in the favour of the criminal/subversive elements.
The justice system ideally punishes wrongdoers while freeing innocents but in some
bizzaro type backlash to the Stalinist-type "trials" of the early part of this
century, the system has been skewed drastically the other way in the favour of the
criminal under the guise of extreme fairness. Now the terms "technicality" and "plea
bargain" annihilate the very process so the less obscure phase of "reasonable doubt"
by a jury is never reached. As memes go the justice meme now exists for its own
purpose on a plane which seems asymptotic to the reality plane where people actually
live and die at the mercy of the criminal element. The co-meme to the skewed justice
meme is the rise of the "criminal" meme which is rapidly adapting to the
immuno-depressed "justice" hosts who are unable to see the danger in the trend. The
success of the criminal meme over the justice meme in the long term may be due to
the fact that justice meme is incapable of self-correction without violating its own
principles which would be tantamount to breaking the law to deal with even "obvious"
criminal activity cloaked with technicalities. This might explain the fascination
people have with "Mission Impossible" type scenarios since the solution always
involved going "above the law" or having a mythical "Licence to kill".
My definition of the "runaway compassion" meme is a meme which would result in the
destruction of the host because it suppresses the memes necessary for survival which
are of an aggressive and violent nature. Examples of this are anti-abortion
("pro-life"), anti-capital punishment, anti-coporal punishment, anti-armament and
unilateral disarmament. Total irradication of these aggressive memes would result in
the rise of subversive activities from both within and external to the society. A
well known medical fact is that the overuse of anti-biotics leads to the destruction
of the body's own immune system which in-turn gives rise to various infections other
than the original one the medication was intended to quell. Similarly, when
"compassion" gives way to "runaway compassion", vulnerability is created in the host
society which is then inundated with overpopulation, crime or an enemy invasion.
So Lior, what do you think of my (emmy-emmy) nomination for a potential AIDS meme?
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* Hakeeb A. Nandalal *
* nanco@trinidad.net *
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