How we propagate memes and dont know it
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: November 18, 2003 02:03AM
For a provocative paper that describes the theory behind what Guy Fawkes has been telling us, go to 'Welcome to the Meme Lab' and read the paper 'A Beginner's Guide to Memes' by Dr Susan Blackmore.
[www.memes.org.uk]
It is best to read the paper before responding to the material on this post. Blackmore's paper is well written and can be understood by anyone who is interested in the material on Rickross.com
Daniel Dennett, a philosopher who has contributed to meme-theory is quoted by Dr Blackmore, as mentioning 'bad religions' as an example of a meme-complex. Dr. Blackmore's paper says nothing about specific bad religions and does NOT name any organization that has been identified in the media or courts of law as a cult. But persons who have been affected by certain groups are at liberty to apply meme-theory to their situation and see whether doing so will give them a helpful sense of mastery that assists recovery.
Thus, the concept of memes is a theory, but it can be used as genuine awareness tool, a model for grasping what is being done in problematic LGATs.
I suggest that adult level critical thinking and insight are difficult to apply when you are in certain states of mind. If you are tired, anxious, or in a state of toxic shame, you are likely to regress to a child's state of mind and cannot protect yourself by applying adult insight.
Lack of complete information, peer pressure and trance especially disrupt critical thinking.
Dr Blackmore does not say so in her paper, but I suggest that if a meme or meme-plex is implanted when a person is in these 'insight resistant' states of mind (eg you've been given incomplete information, making informed consent impossible, your trust has been won under false pretenses, you're feeling afraid of being yelled at, or ashamed after being guilt tripped, you've been put in a state of trance etc)--memes implanted under these conditions may be especially difficult to detect and remove later on.
IMO You will be unaware of the extent to which your 'mental furniture' has been re-arranged!
Since memes and meme-plexes have such powerful effects on your states of mind, your relationships, and your future development as a human being, you are entitled to be as alert and well informed as possible when someone offers to implant a new set of memes or a novel meme plex in your mind.
Memes--Beneficial, Neutral, Parasitic
For not all memes or meme-complexes are harmful. Some, like good recipes, are useful. Many are neutral. And some appear from reports by various correspondants, to be downright toxic and parasitic. These are the ones discussed on Rickross.com
By extension, aggressive entities like problematic LGATs are perfect examples of meme-complexes that do not just successfully propagate but seem parasitic, even disruptive.
Unlike successful but benign memes (good songs, good recipes or the right way to pour a pint of Guinness) a parasitic meme or meme-complex coarsens the mind and disrupt people's capacity for informed choice and uncoerced relationships.
Some Memes Wake Us Up/ Other Memes Put Us to Sleep
Meme theory can be used to help us wake up, and consciously choose what to allow into our inner lives. By contrast, problematic LGATs could be considered covert downloads of memes that that put us into trance, seal us off from outside influences, reduce our inner lives to boring uniformity, and plug us into the Matrix.
'So called Cults' are Parasitic Memes-- Crabgrass for the Mind
Many memes and meme-complexes co-exist harmoniously with a diverse array of memes. Problematic LGATs may be considered a meme plexes that demand an authoritarian/uncontested monopoly over the mind of the person's it has been implanted in.
[b:28491c668c]
Its the demand for uncontested monopoly that makes a meme or memeplex parasitic[/b:28491c668c]
A resentment of outside data about a group is also a symptom.
What harmful LGATs do is implant the cognitive equivalent of computer viruses (or, to use the gardening analogy, crabgrass) into our minds.
The scripted controlled setting of many LGATs, and the tell tale embargo on outside stimulation/outside data uncontrolled by the LGAT have this effect:
To reformat and purge large sectors of subjects' minds and emotions, creating free space into which the guru/trainer/leader/coach/facilitator downloads the LGAT 'meme-complex'.
You are then turned loose on the unsuspecting general population, feeling high as a kite, DUI. You babble about the LGATmeme to everyone you know, to pull them in, so their lovely unique minds can be reformatted and programmed with the same, uniform LGAT meme-plex.
As Dr Black more puts it, a meme that people constantly think about and talk about is one that is more likely to be propagated. That, in a nutshell is how 'Sell it by zealot' works!
Be all you can be. Be a Borg.
So, there you are. . Your destiny is not to be a unique being, but to babble your way through life, propagating the LGAT meme-plex, to bring others in.
That is why the public must be given the information needed to make fully informed decisions before participating in something that will re-format their minds and turn their unique inner lives into Starbucked strip malls.
[www.memes.org.uk]
It is best to read the paper before responding to the material on this post. Blackmore's paper is well written and can be understood by anyone who is interested in the material on Rickross.com
Daniel Dennett, a philosopher who has contributed to meme-theory is quoted by Dr Blackmore, as mentioning 'bad religions' as an example of a meme-complex. Dr. Blackmore's paper says nothing about specific bad religions and does NOT name any organization that has been identified in the media or courts of law as a cult. But persons who have been affected by certain groups are at liberty to apply meme-theory to their situation and see whether doing so will give them a helpful sense of mastery that assists recovery.
Thus, the concept of memes is a theory, but it can be used as genuine awareness tool, a model for grasping what is being done in problematic LGATs.
I suggest that adult level critical thinking and insight are difficult to apply when you are in certain states of mind. If you are tired, anxious, or in a state of toxic shame, you are likely to regress to a child's state of mind and cannot protect yourself by applying adult insight.
Lack of complete information, peer pressure and trance especially disrupt critical thinking.
Dr Blackmore does not say so in her paper, but I suggest that if a meme or meme-plex is implanted when a person is in these 'insight resistant' states of mind (eg you've been given incomplete information, making informed consent impossible, your trust has been won under false pretenses, you're feeling afraid of being yelled at, or ashamed after being guilt tripped, you've been put in a state of trance etc)--memes implanted under these conditions may be especially difficult to detect and remove later on.
IMO You will be unaware of the extent to which your 'mental furniture' has been re-arranged!
Since memes and meme-plexes have such powerful effects on your states of mind, your relationships, and your future development as a human being, you are entitled to be as alert and well informed as possible when someone offers to implant a new set of memes or a novel meme plex in your mind.
Memes--Beneficial, Neutral, Parasitic
For not all memes or meme-complexes are harmful. Some, like good recipes, are useful. Many are neutral. And some appear from reports by various correspondants, to be downright toxic and parasitic. These are the ones discussed on Rickross.com
By extension, aggressive entities like problematic LGATs are perfect examples of meme-complexes that do not just successfully propagate but seem parasitic, even disruptive.
Unlike successful but benign memes (good songs, good recipes or the right way to pour a pint of Guinness) a parasitic meme or meme-complex coarsens the mind and disrupt people's capacity for informed choice and uncoerced relationships.
Some Memes Wake Us Up/ Other Memes Put Us to Sleep
Meme theory can be used to help us wake up, and consciously choose what to allow into our inner lives. By contrast, problematic LGATs could be considered covert downloads of memes that that put us into trance, seal us off from outside influences, reduce our inner lives to boring uniformity, and plug us into the Matrix.
'So called Cults' are Parasitic Memes-- Crabgrass for the Mind
Many memes and meme-complexes co-exist harmoniously with a diverse array of memes. Problematic LGATs may be considered a meme plexes that demand an authoritarian/uncontested monopoly over the mind of the person's it has been implanted in.
[b:28491c668c]
Its the demand for uncontested monopoly that makes a meme or memeplex parasitic[/b:28491c668c]
A resentment of outside data about a group is also a symptom.
What harmful LGATs do is implant the cognitive equivalent of computer viruses (or, to use the gardening analogy, crabgrass) into our minds.
The scripted controlled setting of many LGATs, and the tell tale embargo on outside stimulation/outside data uncontrolled by the LGAT have this effect:
To reformat and purge large sectors of subjects' minds and emotions, creating free space into which the guru/trainer/leader/coach/facilitator downloads the LGAT 'meme-complex'.
You are then turned loose on the unsuspecting general population, feeling high as a kite, DUI. You babble about the LGATmeme to everyone you know, to pull them in, so their lovely unique minds can be reformatted and programmed with the same, uniform LGAT meme-plex.
As Dr Black more puts it, a meme that people constantly think about and talk about is one that is more likely to be propagated. That, in a nutshell is how 'Sell it by zealot' works!
Be all you can be. Be a Borg.
So, there you are. . Your destiny is not to be a unique being, but to babble your way through life, propagating the LGAT meme-plex, to bring others in.
That is why the public must be given the information needed to make fully informed decisions before participating in something that will re-format their minds and turn their unique inner lives into Starbucked strip malls.
How we propagate memes and dont know it
Posted by:
Hope
()
Date: November 20, 2003 10:34PM
Your post and links bring to mind two issues for me, one related to LEC and the other to therapy in general.
My doctor had the luxury of spending about 2 yrs with me planting LEC ideas in my brain. The most prominent idea was that health problems come from thoughts and\or repressed emotions. As I had gone to him as a last resort, I was open to suggestions. However, it seemed that we quickly abandoned the issues I presented with so that we could rip apart everything about me and my life, my grandmother's life, and western society in general, over the next several months.
Anything "good" was twisted into something sick. For instance, I took care of my 97-y/o grandmother during the last months of her life, but according to him, not because I loved her, but, because it LOOKED GOOD - the reason anybody does anything. When I protested, he softly answered that it wasn't a personal attack on me, it's just the way human beings are. His tone and manner made everything ok, but I know now my mind was struggling with an insult, yet was trying to understand.
Alan Watts has a passage in one of his books about doing things for others because they feel "obligated." A yr after the above sessions, I read Watts and found the passage and felt like I had been stabbed with a knife. Not only had I been left with this feeling that I had to examine every single motive for every action, but I felt a strange contempt for people suffering. Not only had the notion that sickness comes from thoughts been implanted, but that we all make our own misery and helping others is just a way of looking good.
I did not realize how deeply embedded these "memes" had been planted. I graduated from a health-supportive cooking school during the time I was under his care. My plan was to do private cooking for diabetics. But I still cannot get past the "fact" in my mind that if diabetics exercised, ate better and stopped whining about their illness, that they wouldn't be sick. The joy I had in helping the elderly is gone.
Which leads me to the next issue.
Quote
They are stored in human brains and passed on by imitation. As examples he suggested “tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches.”
My doctor had the luxury of spending about 2 yrs with me planting LEC ideas in my brain. The most prominent idea was that health problems come from thoughts and\or repressed emotions. As I had gone to him as a last resort, I was open to suggestions. However, it seemed that we quickly abandoned the issues I presented with so that we could rip apart everything about me and my life, my grandmother's life, and western society in general, over the next several months.
Anything "good" was twisted into something sick. For instance, I took care of my 97-y/o grandmother during the last months of her life, but according to him, not because I loved her, but, because it LOOKED GOOD - the reason anybody does anything. When I protested, he softly answered that it wasn't a personal attack on me, it's just the way human beings are. His tone and manner made everything ok, but I know now my mind was struggling with an insult, yet was trying to understand.
Alan Watts has a passage in one of his books about doing things for others because they feel "obligated." A yr after the above sessions, I read Watts and found the passage and felt like I had been stabbed with a knife. Not only had I been left with this feeling that I had to examine every single motive for every action, but I felt a strange contempt for people suffering. Not only had the notion that sickness comes from thoughts been implanted, but that we all make our own misery and helping others is just a way of looking good.
I did not realize how deeply embedded these "memes" had been planted. I graduated from a health-supportive cooking school during the time I was under his care. My plan was to do private cooking for diabetics. But I still cannot get past the "fact" in my mind that if diabetics exercised, ate better and stopped whining about their illness, that they wouldn't be sick. The joy I had in helping the elderly is gone.
Which leads me to the next issue.
How we propagate memes and dont know it
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: November 21, 2003 02:40AM
'deconditioning' by some. Timothy Leary the LSD guru believed that if people could be stripped of all (or most) of their prior conditioning, they could be re-programmed with better ways to live and eventually the whole human race would evolve. Stuff like this was big in the Sixties and still lingers today in various New Age venues. (See Gary Lachman's book [i:b09365f482]'Turn Off Your Mind[/i:b09365f482]--a fasicinating history of the ideas and artistic influences behind the 1960s)
The problem is, who is wise enough, benevolent enough to have the right to decide whose mind needs deconditioning? And the question was never answered as to whose ideas (or memes if you will) are so good that they justify eradicating past human conditioning.
And if you study the life stories of Leary, Castaneda Gurdjieff, Jack Rosenberg.Watts, et al and the many others who teach various forms of deconditioning today, its terrifying to see how many of these characters turn out to be charismatic types who got stuck at a state of development pegged to childhood/early adolescence.
Yet these elderly adolescens dare to tell real adults that we need to be reconditioned and submit to having a new set of memes implanted.
Gary Lachman's history of the Sixties Turn Off Your Mind is highly informative. You can read the book and trace the sources of the ideas used in many cult groups today--certain parasitic memes were powerfully propagated during that time and are still on the scene today.
"However, it seemed that we quickly abandoned the issues I presented with so that we could rip apart everything about me and my life, my grandmother's life, and western society in general, over the next several months."
What you describe corresponds to deleting everything on your computer's hard drive before you download/install the new programs. Ethics, trust in your own intuition, nurturing memories that connect you with the human condition and with your own special talents--all these are stripped from you by a cultmeister's deconditioning. This is not for your own good but to make you disoriented enough that you will readily accept the memes that the crook will then implant--memes designed to serve his welfare, and his welfare alone, not yours and not societys.
Parasitic memes disrupt the indigenous structures of your mind and they block out other memes. They are like crab grass or computer viruses.
Helpful memes are like a new rosebush--it is lovely, it co-exists gracefully with the other plants, and enhances the overall design of the garden--and it doesnt gobble up the soil and hinder other rose bushes from being planted!
A lot of Sixties stuff slipped into the New Age and remains unchallenged, and some of this does consist of 'deconditioning'. Hang around in these circles long enough and people will try and trick you into believing you are wrong to have functioning boundaries or a sense of ethics. They play on your fears that you are judgemental, uncompassionate, racist, when all they are doing is disorienting you. Its a mindset that is appealing to folks who want to regress to childhood and a more dangerous set of people who are con artists.
A woman in our activist group came home one day and found her male partner in bed with another women. She was understandably angry.
Her boyfriend bleated that she was being judgemental!
Fortunately, X had not been successfully 'deconditioned'--she told him 'You knew what you were doing was wrong, because you're the one who chose to hide. If you were really sure it was OK you wouldve asked me how I felt. But you didnt.'
She kicked his deconditioned ass out of the house.
So the take home question to any would be crook is,
'Why are your memes better than the ones I already have?'
Whats the quality of YOUR life?
When someone makes these outrageous claims, when some charismatic type returns to society saying 'I am enlightened, give me your minds, your attention, your money'--society has every right to ask
'On what grounds? Prove it. Prove you're entitled to the deference you demand from us. Lets have a boxing match--10 rounds, your memes against my memes.'
'Oh, you say we are close minded? Nope. We are sitting here waiting for a real response from you, for some real evidence. For that, our minds are always hospitable.
'YOu dont let just anyone come in and rip your house apart; you make damn sure they are licensed contractors and you have agreed what you want done to your house and how much its gonna cost.
'Your mind is even more important than your house. You dont let some anonymous charismatic type in off the street to rip out your bathroom; you wanna make sure the guy knows how to replace the toilet, shower and sink to your satisfaction.
But for some reason, many New Agers who only entrust their houses to licensed contractors accuse us of negativity when we exercise the same prudence in relation to someone who wants to remodel our minds, tear out our old memes and implant a new set.
The problem is, who is wise enough, benevolent enough to have the right to decide whose mind needs deconditioning? And the question was never answered as to whose ideas (or memes if you will) are so good that they justify eradicating past human conditioning.
And if you study the life stories of Leary, Castaneda Gurdjieff, Jack Rosenberg.Watts, et al and the many others who teach various forms of deconditioning today, its terrifying to see how many of these characters turn out to be charismatic types who got stuck at a state of development pegged to childhood/early adolescence.
Yet these elderly adolescens dare to tell real adults that we need to be reconditioned and submit to having a new set of memes implanted.
Gary Lachman's history of the Sixties Turn Off Your Mind is highly informative. You can read the book and trace the sources of the ideas used in many cult groups today--certain parasitic memes were powerfully propagated during that time and are still on the scene today.
"However, it seemed that we quickly abandoned the issues I presented with so that we could rip apart everything about me and my life, my grandmother's life, and western society in general, over the next several months."
What you describe corresponds to deleting everything on your computer's hard drive before you download/install the new programs. Ethics, trust in your own intuition, nurturing memories that connect you with the human condition and with your own special talents--all these are stripped from you by a cultmeister's deconditioning. This is not for your own good but to make you disoriented enough that you will readily accept the memes that the crook will then implant--memes designed to serve his welfare, and his welfare alone, not yours and not societys.
Parasitic memes disrupt the indigenous structures of your mind and they block out other memes. They are like crab grass or computer viruses.
Helpful memes are like a new rosebush--it is lovely, it co-exists gracefully with the other plants, and enhances the overall design of the garden--and it doesnt gobble up the soil and hinder other rose bushes from being planted!
A lot of Sixties stuff slipped into the New Age and remains unchallenged, and some of this does consist of 'deconditioning'. Hang around in these circles long enough and people will try and trick you into believing you are wrong to have functioning boundaries or a sense of ethics. They play on your fears that you are judgemental, uncompassionate, racist, when all they are doing is disorienting you. Its a mindset that is appealing to folks who want to regress to childhood and a more dangerous set of people who are con artists.
A woman in our activist group came home one day and found her male partner in bed with another women. She was understandably angry.
Her boyfriend bleated that she was being judgemental!
Fortunately, X had not been successfully 'deconditioned'--she told him 'You knew what you were doing was wrong, because you're the one who chose to hide. If you were really sure it was OK you wouldve asked me how I felt. But you didnt.'
She kicked his deconditioned ass out of the house.
So the take home question to any would be crook is,
'Why are your memes better than the ones I already have?'
Whats the quality of YOUR life?
When someone makes these outrageous claims, when some charismatic type returns to society saying 'I am enlightened, give me your minds, your attention, your money'--society has every right to ask
'On what grounds? Prove it. Prove you're entitled to the deference you demand from us. Lets have a boxing match--10 rounds, your memes against my memes.'
'Oh, you say we are close minded? Nope. We are sitting here waiting for a real response from you, for some real evidence. For that, our minds are always hospitable.
'YOu dont let just anyone come in and rip your house apart; you make damn sure they are licensed contractors and you have agreed what you want done to your house and how much its gonna cost.
'Your mind is even more important than your house. You dont let some anonymous charismatic type in off the street to rip out your bathroom; you wanna make sure the guy knows how to replace the toilet, shower and sink to your satisfaction.
But for some reason, many New Agers who only entrust their houses to licensed contractors accuse us of negativity when we exercise the same prudence in relation to someone who wants to remodel our minds, tear out our old memes and implant a new set.
How we propagate memes and dont know it
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: November 21, 2003 02:46AM
especially when you are under stress, trust someone, and were perhaps already in a subtle trance.
When I protested, he softly answered that it wasn't a personal attack on me, it's just the way human beings are. His tone and manner made everything ok, but I know now my mind was struggling with an insult, yet was trying to understand.
There's verbal content of a message and nonverbal content of a message.
Most of the time there is a pretty good match between verbal content and non verbal content.
But if you're stuck with someone who spends two years communicating in ways that combine insults with a nonverbal presentation that negates the insult, its a 'double-bind'--something that puts your mind at odds with itself. This is enough to disorient people, confuse them and make them more suggestible. To put it another ways, its crazy-making.
When I protested, he softly answered that it wasn't a personal attack on me, it's just the way human beings are. His tone and manner made everything ok, but I know now my mind was struggling with an insult, yet was trying to understand.
There's verbal content of a message and nonverbal content of a message.
Most of the time there is a pretty good match between verbal content and non verbal content.
But if you're stuck with someone who spends two years communicating in ways that combine insults with a nonverbal presentation that negates the insult, its a 'double-bind'--something that puts your mind at odds with itself. This is enough to disorient people, confuse them and make them more suggestible. To put it another ways, its crazy-making.
Re: How we propagate memes and dont know it
Posted by:
Vera City
()
Date: June 30, 2008 06:59AM
Corboy,
I am new to the meme theory of mind, or the concept of mind viruses. I am reading with interest all the links. It seems to explain a lot , but is it a legitimate psychological phenomenon? Does the meme theory really propose that there is no such thing as free will or is this the humanist strand of meme-ness? From watching a video about the Brethren cult I was struck by the fact that some people were recruited in a matter of hours or days. Those are rapidly reproducing meme complexes!
This rapidity of conversion without long torture or brainwashing sessions or systematic meditation techniques over time has been inexplicable to me. The power of the environment, culture, milieu control seems logical, but up until now the question of susesptibility to cults has been puzzling in cases of rapid fire recruitments from a stable life to an extremely different lifestyle. Does the meme theory explain this or am I not understanding something?
It makes sense to divide memes up into categories: beneficial, neutral, and parasitic. But how does meme theory compare to Marshall McLuhan's book The Medium is the Message ?
I once had the fortune to own the original misprinted copy ironically titled, The Medium is the Massage"! ;)
What I am understanding from your post here and the one about Carl Jung's refusal to do the grand tour of Indian gurus is the importance of realizing how very, very vulnerable we humans are--- We don't seem to operate so naturally out of a conscious free will. Perhaps we are not as predisposed to freedom of thought as we think?
I am new to the meme theory of mind, or the concept of mind viruses. I am reading with interest all the links. It seems to explain a lot , but is it a legitimate psychological phenomenon? Does the meme theory really propose that there is no such thing as free will or is this the humanist strand of meme-ness? From watching a video about the Brethren cult I was struck by the fact that some people were recruited in a matter of hours or days. Those are rapidly reproducing meme complexes!
This rapidity of conversion without long torture or brainwashing sessions or systematic meditation techniques over time has been inexplicable to me. The power of the environment, culture, milieu control seems logical, but up until now the question of susesptibility to cults has been puzzling in cases of rapid fire recruitments from a stable life to an extremely different lifestyle. Does the meme theory explain this or am I not understanding something?
It makes sense to divide memes up into categories: beneficial, neutral, and parasitic. But how does meme theory compare to Marshall McLuhan's book The Medium is the Message ?
I once had the fortune to own the original misprinted copy ironically titled, The Medium is the Massage"! ;)
What I am understanding from your post here and the one about Carl Jung's refusal to do the grand tour of Indian gurus is the importance of realizing how very, very vulnerable we humans are--- We don't seem to operate so naturally out of a conscious free will. Perhaps we are not as predisposed to freedom of thought as we think?
Quote
corboy
For a provocative paper that describes the theory behind what Guy Fawkes has been telling us, go to 'Welcome to the Meme Lab' and read the paper 'A Beginner's Guide to Memes' by Dr Susan Blackmore.
[www.memes.org.uk]
It is best to read the paper before responding to the material on this post. Blackmore's paper is well written and can be understood by anyone who is interested in the material on Rickross.com
Daniel Dennett, a philosopher who has contributed to meme-theory is quoted by Dr Blackmore, as mentioning 'bad religions' as an example of a meme-complex. Dr. Blackmore's paper says nothing about specific bad religions and does NOT name any organization that has been identified in the media or courts of law as a cult. But persons who have been affected by certain groups are at liberty to apply meme-theory to their situation and see whether doing so will give them a helpful sense of mastery that assists recovery.
Thus, the concept of memes is a theory, but it can be used as genuine awareness tool, a model for grasping what is being done in problematic LGATs.
I suggest that adult level critical thinking and insight are difficult to apply when you are in certain states of mind. If you are tired, anxious, or in a state of toxic shame, you are likely to regress to a child's state of mind and cannot protect yourself by applying adult insight.
Lack of complete information, peer pressure and trance especially disrupt critical thinking.
Dr Blackmore does not say so in her paper, but I suggest that if a meme or meme-plex is implanted when a person is in these 'insight resistant' states of mind (eg you've been given incomplete information, making informed consent impossible, your trust has been won under false pretenses, you're feeling afraid of being yelled at, or ashamed after being guilt tripped, you've been put in a state of trance etc)--memes implanted under these conditions may be especially difficult to detect and remove later on.
IMO You will be unaware of the extent to which your 'mental furniture' has been re-arranged!
Since memes and meme-plexes have such powerful effects on your states of mind, your relationships, and your future development as a human being, you are entitled to be as alert and well informed as possible when someone offers to implant a new set of memes or a novel meme plex in your mind.
Memes--Beneficial, Neutral, Parasitic
For not all memes or meme-complexes are harmful. Some, like good recipes, are useful. Many are neutral. And some appear from reports by various correspondants, to be downright toxic and parasitic. These are the ones discussed on Rickross.com
By extension, aggressive entities like problematic LGATs are perfect examples of meme-complexes that do not just successfully propagate but seem parasitic, even disruptive.
Unlike successful but benign memes (good songs, good recipes or the right way to pour a pint of Guinness) a parasitic meme or meme-complex coarsens the mind and disrupt people's capacity for informed choice and uncoerced relationships.
Some Memes Wake Us Up/ Other Memes Put Us to Sleep
Meme theory can be used to help us wake up, and consciously choose what to allow into our inner lives. By contrast, problematic LGATs could be considered covert downloads of memes that that put us into trance, seal us off from outside influences, reduce our inner lives to boring uniformity, and plug us into the Matrix.
'So called Cults' are Parasitic Memes-- Crabgrass for the Mind
Many memes and meme-complexes co-exist harmoniously with a diverse array of memes. Problematic LGATs may be considered a meme plexes that demand an authoritarian/uncontested monopoly over the mind of the person's it has been implanted in.
[b:28491c668c]
Its the demand for uncontested monopoly that makes a meme or memeplex parasitic[/b:28491c668c]
A resentment of outside data about a group is also a symptom.
What harmful LGATs do is implant the cognitive equivalent of computer viruses (or, to use the gardening analogy, crabgrass) into our minds.
The scripted controlled setting of many LGATs, and the tell tale embargo on outside stimulation/outside data uncontrolled by the LGAT have this effect:
To reformat and purge large sectors of subjects' minds and emotions, creating free space into which the guru/trainer/leader/coach/facilitator downloads the LGAT 'meme-complex'.
You are then turned loose on the unsuspecting general population, feeling high as a kite, DUI. You babble about the LGATmeme to everyone you know, to pull them in, so their lovely unique minds can be reformatted and programmed with the same, uniform LGAT meme-plex.
As Dr Black more puts it, a meme that people constantly think about and talk about is one that is more likely to be propagated. That, in a nutshell is how 'Sell it by zealot' works!
..
So, there you are. . Your destiny is not to be a unique being, but to babble your way through life, propagating the LGAT meme-plex, to bring others in.
That is why the public must be given the information needed to make fully informed decisions before participating in something that will re-format their minds and turn their unique inner lives into Starbucked strip malls.
Re: How we propagate memes and dont know it
Posted by:
elena
()
Date: July 04, 2008 08:08AM
Quote
Vera City
We don't seem to operate so naturally out of a conscious free will. Perhaps we are not as predisposed to freedom of thought as we think?
Perhaps?
If certain people hadn't the ability to sway the minds and influence the behavior of certain other people all the advertising executives on this planet would have to hand in their Gucci loafers. They, along will all the writers, poets, artists, musicians, reporters, English teachers, politicians, and all the other assorted and sundry purveyors of ideas who trade in words and images, sounds and evocations, perceptions and perspectives.
You seem to be suffering some sort of all-or-none mentality. There are varying degrees of "free-will" and of mental enslavement, varying degrees of autonomy and of dependency, varying degrees of individuality and of social identity. The scholarly examination of influence goes back at least to the pre-Socratic Greeks. They understood full well how some people can infect other people with their own ideas, for good or ill. There's nothing new here -- only the evolution of the methods. To a great extent, "freedom of thought" is as ephemeral and as vacuous an idea as many of the other "freedoms" we imagine ourselves to have. Think the Iraqis are enjoying the "freedom" we have bestowed upon them with our campaign "Iraqi Freedom?" Have you considered the fact that the "church" of Scientology offers as product "The Bridge to Total Freedom." Pretty funny, don't you think?
Ellen
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2008 08:11AM by elena.
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