Re: MEMETICS: The Triumph of Reason

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 16:27:34 -0800 (PST)

> < What fascinates me about this is that I wrote exactly the same thing
> when I was your age. I was anti-racist and anti-sexist; I was every
> bit as strident, every bit as self-righteous, as you. This behaviour
> has puzzled me ever since.>
>
> Uh, WAS? Does this imply that you have seen the light in your wise old
> age and are now racist and sexist?

My guess is that he is now non-sexist and non-racist rather than anti-
sexist and anti-racist. Indeed, the latter are contradictory: to be
anti-racist, it is necessary to group people by race, evaluate the
conditions of each group /as a group/, and attempt to equalize those
conditions /as a group/. A non-racist on the other hand simply treats
individuals as individuals. He may of course notice correlations
between certain attributes of individuals and attitudes towards them,
and work to dispel those irrational attitudes, but he does not buy
into their premise himself in order to oppose it.