>From Cordell commenting on a posting by Brad McC....
>
> This is really at the heart of many issues. What if they had a war and no
> one showed up. Stopping the virus of competition, or fashion, or one more
> iteration of this or that product line is only stopped by people somehow
> finding something else to do with their lives. It is very difficult to do
> since as Brad shows even by showing up and saying " I really don't believe
> in this.....", the virus continues.
>
Arthur refers to the "virus" of competition. More probably, what he is
actually referring to is a "meme". Like viruses, memes use people as hosts
but work through infesting, reshaping and controlling the mind. They are
essentially concerned about their own survival; that is, they use us in an
evolutionary competition with each other, with dominant memes winning out
and displacing more submissive ones. In medieval times, they used religion
to propagate themselves by having us believe that God is great and good and
in favour of the established order, or the crusades or whatever, no matter
how brutal. More recently, for a time, they used ideologies such as
communism and fascism and, again, no matter how brutal. Now they are using
capitalism and neo-liberalism, although they are encountering strong
opposition from anti-capitalist and anti-globalist memes. When they are
done with us, they will likely move onto some other species, perhaps rats.
So, Arthur, "virus" is not correct. It's "meme". And in case you think I'm
making this up, memes were first proposed by no less eminent a scientist
than Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist who teaches at Oxford.
Ed W.
