[extropy-chat] Fatal Cult Memes

Lee Corbin lcorbin at rawbw.com
Wed Dec 13 00:40:15 UTC 2006


Frederick Mann writes

>> It is *possible* we are less susceptible to fatal cult memes than our
>> European ancestors were if the most susceptible of them died in crusades
>> and other such disruptions in historical times.  But I kind of doubt the
>> weeding was intense enough to change gene frequencies to a significant extent.
>>
>> Any other examples you can think of?
> 
> Most "modern" humans (and I suspect this includes
> many libertarians, anarchists, extropians, etc.)
> may still be extremely "susceptible to fatal cult
> memes" -- like "state," "government," "country,"
> "nation," "law," "king," "queen," "president,"
> "god," "allah," etc. -- it's a long, deadly list.
> What if at the bottom of most of the killing in
> the Middle East there are "fatal cult memes."

A problem is what is meant by *fatal*.  To me, a fatal
meme is one that either kills you, or kills off (perhaps
over time) people like you.

So far as I can see, most of the memes listed above 
seldom kill their owners. And of the few that do, it's
very likely that they confer fitness on the genes. For
example, if someone strongly believes that God has
decreed that he go forth and multiply, then there will
be more people like him after a while.  So even if his
own survival is infinitesimally negatively affected, it
hardly matters in the march of history.

Now "eating the brains of the deceased" was a fatal meme
in all senses. So also was the Ghost Dance.  Allegiance to
king and country, on the other hand, is highly dependent on
what the others around you believe;  if you live in a youthful,
healthy period of a country's history, then most around you
will also be all for "king and country", and won't refuse oaths
affirming it (as happened in 1936).  Moreover, they'll make
life easier on you if you are patriot too.  Later---during a 
nations senescence, it won't matter one way or the other:
in fact, it no longer matters at all what someone says.

If anything, the above "libertarians and anarchists" have
*reduced* fitness, for the simply reason that they're liable
to be unhappy living among all the toadies of the state,
and go off all on their own.  If so, then "anarchy" or 
"libertarianism" may be closer to being fatal than their
converses.

Ah, what we lovers of truth are willing to sacrifice....  :-)

Lee

> See #TL07D: DEEP ANARCHY --
> AN ELIMINATIVIST VIEW OF "THE STATE"
> by Max T. O'Connor (aka Max More)
> <http://buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07d.shtml>
> 
> #TL07: The Constitution of No Authority
> <http://buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07.shtml>
> 
> #TL07A: The Anatomy of Slavespeak
> <http://buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07a.shtml>
> 
> #TL07B: The Nature of Government
> <http://buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07b.shtml>
> 
> Frederick Mann
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>



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