Re: virus: Manipulation 101 Lesson 10

Dave Pape (davepape@dial.pipex.com)
Thu, 6 Mar 1997 21:36:05 GMT


>From: Tim Rhodes <proftim@speakeasy.org>
>Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 23:30:19 -0800 (PST)
>Subject: Re: virus: Manipulation 101 Lesson 10
>
>On Wed, 26 Feb 1997, Dave Pape wrote:
>
>> If people teach you how to speak, what a strike is, how to use a phone,
>> how
>> to write motivating speeches, how to drive cars, how to blockade gates
>> effectively, how to really wind up management... does organising a strike
>> count as thinking for yourself?
>
>As much as writing a story counts as authorship. Do you credit the
>teacher that taught you English with writing your screenplays or your
>posts? I didn't think so.

Well I don't credit them because presumably they'd want loads of money (not
that I've earned any myself yet) but I'm massively committed to the view
that "my" scripts and posts are the material output of a process of ideas
which arise from the interactions of others' memes and energy patterns
transduced by my perceptual apparatus. My point was that "thinking for
yourself" is a bit of a hollow slogan if you buy the concept of culture and
language (and, as it turns out Dennett thinks) human consciousness being
interacting complexes (I say ecologies) of memes.

Wahey! I've moved house now.

Dave Pape
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