Silly meme time

Progressive Conservative from The Big Stick has tagged one of us to write six random things about ourselves. I’ll be a good sport and do it, since A is pretty swamped with work this term. Hopefully he’ll return to posting soon. (Feel free to leave encouraging comments for him! Maybe we can guilt him into writing more.) Anyway, because memes are a bit of a departure from our usual style, I’m going to say a few words on the nature of memes first.

As a child of the information age, I was actually surprised when I first learned that “meme” was not originally an internet-related term. (Amateur etymologist that I was, I assumed that it came from the repetition of the word “me,” almost like a desperate cry for attention, not entirely inconsistent with the LiveJournal culture in which I’d seen memes most often.) The word “meme” was actually coined in Richard Dawkins’ 1973 book, The Selfish Gene; he shortened the Greek mimeme, meaning “something imitated” and related to the English mimic. Building an analogy to the gene, Dawkins explained how society evolves through a sort of natural selection applied to memes, cultural practices and ideas that propagate throughout a population. So the term “meme” encompasses much more than one of these gimmicky chain letters in blog form. Also included are fashions and fads, slang words and commonly used phrases, and even scientific theories and technologies.

As is the case with genetics, with memetics it’s tempting to think of surviving memes as somehow better, having proven themselves fit through natural selection. After all, that’s sort of the idea behind the marketplace of ideas. What’s fascinating to me, though, is that “fit” doesn’t mean good for human society. It means good for the meme. Just like a disease epidemic, the widespread adoption of a meme could actually be harmful to society and simply a result of the meme’s propensity to reproduce and endure. (Perhaps it was set to a catchy tune, came with a free prize in every box, or dispensed along with the promise of eternal salvation.)

At the same time, some memes survive because the people who learn them survive. These are bits of information passed on from expert to apprentice, or from parent to child. They are cultural practices and beliefs that help society, or at least help individuals make it in society. The key, I think, is in determining which memes you want to acquire, and which memes are just contagious. Relying on a vaccime or a meme-allergy (see the Memetic Lexicon for definitions to these and more cool terms) to protect you from the “bad” or unuseful memes isn’t always going to work. That means we need to step back from the context of our everyday lives and reflect on what’s happening and why. Critical thinking once again saves the day. (Skepticism is a meme too, though. So what do I know?)

Anyhow, here’s the meme.

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Here are my six factoids. (I’m suppressing a rant on what “random” means.)

  • I am frequently assumed to be vegetarian, but I’m not.
  • I don’t like wearing shoes. I wear sandals for as much of the year as I can get away with. (Hmm, maybe that has something to do with people thinking I’m vegetarian.)
  • I got my copy of Ender’s Game signed by Orson Scott Card.
  • I love crossword puzzles.
  • I can play five instruments.
  • I know how to knit, though I haven’t knit anything in a few years.

I’ll tag Politically Inclined Heretic, Daphne, Blake, Rudbeckia Hirta, Greg, and Ian or Alan at Terahertz.

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November 1, 2008 · Written by
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5 Responses to “Silly meme time”

  1. Tagged! | Terahertz on November 2nd, 2008 12:01 pm

    [...] first blog-meme hit. Here’s the [...]

  2. Ian Identicon Icon Ian on November 2nd, 2008 7:28 pm

    In case you don’t notice the trackback above: Here’s my obedience.

  3. Progressive Conservative Identicon Icon Progressive Conservative on November 5th, 2008 11:18 am

    I tried to mostly tag other blogs that I normally leave in peace. I was feeling a little mischeivious that day.

    Thanks for playing along.

  4. Musings and Rants » My first Tag!!! on November 6th, 2008 9:28 pm

    [...] and Brilliant Brian, My favorite Man Crush Phil Plait, Darwiniana,  The Interesting PZ Myers, Z at Thought Counts, Podblack Cat and  [...]

  5. Daphne Identicon Icon Daphne on November 6th, 2008 9:32 pm

    Yikes! Days behind but done.

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