Monday, June 23, 2008
a healthy dose of paranoia
This is one of those sort of serious and completely out of character blog posts where I try to actually contemplate a meme and its effect on those people hosting it. I guess I should start with a short explanation of a "meme" for those of you new to the concept. Wikipedia defines "meme" as any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity. Memes propagate themselves and can move through a "culture" in a manner similar to the behavior of a virus. As a unit of cultural evolution, a meme in some ways resembles a gene. A really good discussion about memes can be heard at TED Talks.Reality TV has created a meme that will replicate itself outside of the TV arena, into the world of real people. It will lead/ has led to people treating one's acquaintances as contestants in reality situations of which they are the producers. Likely, as is the case with the replication of many memes, those infected will perpetuate this way of behaving towards one's acquaintances without even being completely aware of it. How much more entertaining than television, to set up your friends in situations, and watch the hilarity ensue.
Those who rely on their reactive mind for most of their actions will be the easiest to manipulate, at first. However, as the meme grows, its human hosts will discover, and catalogue for future use, the common reactions of human nature, and no one will be spared.
A defining factor of our humanity is that we have evolved to manipulate our environment to our individual comfort/pleasure/desire. But, our environment is not only made up of the land and the trees, it is also, and possibly more significantly, made up of the people with whom we associate. Should our goal be to manipulate each other for our individual comfort/pleasure/desire? Or, should the goal be our common comfort/pleasure/desire? Is that even possible?
I consider myself highly suggestible and I like to assist or join in other's goals that I find interesting or worthy. However, to some people it might appear that I am easily manipulated into someone else's way of thinking. I do not believe that is true, as I tend to become quickly wise to attempts at coercion. I wasn't always this way; it took many years of being manipulated in one way or another by various people, some more important than others in my life, to learn to recognize it, in its many forms. One commonality being that someone ASSUMES that you would not do something they want of you of your own volition, and therefore you must be manipulated into doing it, either by leaving you no choice, or convincing you that it was your own idea, while hiding some clandestined motivation.
an ASS out of U and ME
My personality doesn't "get" the concept of imposing one's will on someone else, will this make me immune to the meme? Somehow this relatively common human trait is not very strong in me, and I must admit that I have a hard time grasping how it works in others, even though my deficiency is more than made up for by my husband's overpowering need to impose his own. We balance each other. Often, friends, who spend too much time with just one of us, will need time with the other to put us back into perspective. My lack of a common frame of reference is making it difficult for me to determine exactly how to fight it. Dianetics, or at least the discipline of a non-reactive mind, seems that it would be the best defense....
Can you be trusted? Who can be trusted? How can we trust? link | posted by Reese at 10:44 AM
