Memetic Fields: Basis of Social Organism

Freespeak (f-prime@activist.com)
Mon, 10 May 1999 08:41:07 -0700

At 07:28 PM 5/9/99 -0400, "Lloyd Miller" <lloyd@a-albionic.com> wrote:
>
>The addition of the concept of "Memetic Field" to the theory of memes
>might do much to clarify matters of great importance to students of
>geopolitics as well freedom seeking individualists.
>

We could think in terms of a number of "memetic fields." For convenience, all religious memes could be grouped together as a "religious memetic field." Similarly, we could think of a "poverty/wealth meme field," and the same for "individual power/impotence," "freedom/slavery," health/illness," etc. Pemes = political memes. We can also think of a "peme field."

>Too much fascination with Dawkin's ultra-reductionist concept of the
>"selfish gene" has lead to a dead end: the typical dead end of our
>society's reductionist paradigm (meme/peme) which ignores or explains
>away the the reality of emergent entities, collectives, essences, and
>consciousness. Instead of noting how new, conscious entities, ie. social
>organisms or collectives, might emerge in a complex, inter-related coherent
>field of memes, theorist tend to focus on memes as "mind viruses"
>willy-nilly replicating from one mind to another.
>

In order to achieve what I call "level-3 freedom" <http://www.buildfreedom.com/resplev.htm>, in my opinion, it's necessary to become a "memetic/ontological individualist." Ontology refers to the philosophy of what exists.

The "memetic/ontological collectivist" believes in the reality of all kinds of "collective entities" and "social organisms." The mental mechanisms that result in such beliefs have been explored in '#TL05AB: ANTHROPOMORPHISM AND RELATED PHENOMENA' <http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl05ab.htm>, '#TL07A: The Anatomy of Slavespeak'
<http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07a.htm>, and related reports.

NSPIC = Neuro-Semantic Political Illusion Complex. NSPIC essentially consists of the pemes in individual minds that result in destructive political behavior. They also tend to make the individual less powerful in dealing with the coercive political behavior of others. NSPIC could also be called "the peme field." See:
'#TL074: PEME-THEORY - BASIC, INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED' <http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl074.htm>; '#TL075: PEMES = POLITICAL MEMES'
<http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl075.htm>; '#TL076: TWILIGHT OF THE PHOBOCRATS'
<http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl076.htm>; '#TL07E: NSPIC DEBATE #1'
<http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07e.htm>; '#TL07F: NSPIC DEBATE #2'
<http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07f.htm>; '#TL07G: NSPIC DEBATE #3'
<http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07g.htm>.

>A Field of Memes would consist not only of a set of persons in relatively
>contiguous geographical areas with similar "meme" or idea complexes, but a
>mechanism of meme broadcasting or meme reinforcement/meme defense operated
>by a "ruling class" working through a "government" and/or other institutions
>of influence and/or coercion [religions, businesses, Foundations,
>Universities, Think Tanks, Secret Societies, Prestige Organizations, etc].

The person who has achieved level-3 freedom has cleared all negative pemes (essentially those that put the individual at a political disadvantage) from his or her mind. He or she regards the notion that so-called "social organisms" exist as ontological illusions. It may be convenient for efficient speech to sometimes talk of "society," while recognizing that so-called "society" has no ontological reality.

>The ruling class is a "special commanding/co-ordinating organ" of the social
>organism, much as the brain is a special "commanding/co-ordinating organ" of
>a biological organism. Some parts of the "ruling class" function might be
>conscious, but the vast majority of ruling class social organic functions
>would be unconscious, the unintended consequence of political and economic
>competition among individuals. As A-albionic Research has been saying for
>a decade or two: "Conspiracy theory is a heuristic approach to social
>organism theory."
>

It's useful to think of "masters" and "slaves." "Masters" could be regarded as those who command the "forces of coercion"; "slaves" as those at the effect of the "forces of coercion."

For speech convenience it may sometimes be useful to collectively refer to "masters" as "the ruling class."

>But, memes are to social organisms (cultures) as genes are to biological
>organism.

In order to achieve level-3 freedom, the above needs to be rejected. The "memetic/ontological individualist" thinks in terms of "Memes are to the mind as genes are to the body."

>Genes spead primarily not by infecting other organisms "virally"
>though they are, in fact, similar to viruses, but by directing its
>biological organism toward survival and reproduction, thereby, replicating
>itself. Memes spread in a similar way: they direct the social organism to
>spread and reproduce through war, Colonialism, and Imperialism.

The "level-3 memetic/ontological individualist" thinks in terms of: The pemes in individual minds direct them to think in ways that result in behaviors that maintain, reinforce, perpetuate, and propagate the illusion of so-called "social organisms" and the behaviors that result from individuals clinging to such illusions.

>Only very rarely do memes spread to an alien culture and make the alien
>culture part of the original culture or social organism. I suppose the
>"viral" spread of memes through unorganized humans might occasionally
>enlarge a human culture, but, normally, the means in military conquest
>fueled by "militaristic memes" in the "memetic field" of the original
>culture.
>

There are certain negative pemes (such as the word "government") and negative memes (such as the notion of "cooking" food -- '#TL09 - HOW TO ACHIEVE SUPERHEALTH' <http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl09.htm>) that practically all humans all over the world suffer from.

Frederick Mann

--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Best Freedom Site on the Web - <http://www.buildfreedom.com/>.
Freedom/Liberty Portal - <http://www.buildfreedom.com/ft/>.
International Libertarian Network, USA Coordinator -
<http://maxpages.com/libertarian>.
Freedom & Financial Independence Lists -
<http://www.buildfreedom.com/ourlists.htm>.
--------------------------------------------------------------