my guess: Only if everybody desires it unselfishly.
(Hence, doubtfully).
> Does a change in the law necessarily reflect the beliefs of
> society?
my guess: No. Example: marijuana prohibition... I'd like to
see this put to the popular vote.
> How is it possible to kill dangerous memes such as race hatred,
> and homophobia?
my guess: These might be in the genes, hence all but impossible
to kill.
> Can we, as individuals, or even as a group, successfully
> "persuade" society to change for what we believe is the better?
my guess: Sure: propaganda can work wonders.
> Without groups fighting for people's social position to be
> changed, would society stagnate, or would it evolve naturally?
The question seems to un-ask itself: isn't it part of natural
evolution that we'll have such people? If so, then taking them
away destroys natural evolution, so that society will assuredly
stagnate.
> I, personally, believe that society will never be right for
> all the people living within it, purely because by the time
> a certain set of ideals has been attained, those same ideals
> will have changed for the populace, due to constant changes
> in the minds of those people.
Agreed.
> I also think that the law is not an accurate representation of
> the people's will. For example, although there are now "equal
> rights" bills passed through parliament, it is obvious that
> there are still many people who do not respect that law. There
> are still racists, sexists, etc out there, not obeying such laws.
> These memes, therefor, have not been killed successfully by the
> making of law. How can these memes be mutated, or eliminated,
> to ensure harmony?
This question is big... bigger than me. The only answer I can
give is the obvious one: work to make "desire for social harmony"
the most dominant meme around, then link inarguably the 'racist'
and 'sexist' memes to "social discord": everybody should then
give them up. (Ah - for a perfect world!)
Keep in mind that sexism and racism seem to fall naturally out
of the "selfish gene" theory, and should thus be quite hard to
kill, short of building a raceless, sexless society.
- JPS
- jschneid@centuryinter.net