Keith Henson wrote:
I have not been posting here much for a while, sorry to drop this out of
the blue on the list
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/17/194059/296
but it is about topics that have been discussed here recently.
Keith--
I liked it, although it seemed a bit long and rambling.
Most of the ideas are familiar from your posts. I think
the topic is in an awkward place, where it's not clear
whether a scholarly or popular treatment is best for it.
Good job, overall. Congratulations, and never mind the
trolls.
As for what triggers "unprovoked war frenzy" in a group,
it's not clear to me that a memetic interpretation is best.
One could also look at the situation from the point of view
of individuals trying to coordinate their levels of hatred
with the rest of the group. (I claim it is beneficial to
an individual to share about the same level of hatred for
outsiders as the rest of their group.)
What you would call "expressions of xenophobic memes"
could then be signals between group members, sharing what
their hatred levels were.
This might just be a difference in viewpoint. What exactly
counts as a meme? Does a simple (unsupported) stereotype
count?
Some of your ideas might be testable, but I don't see
any research on them that is particularly easy to
perform...
---David
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