Re: virus: Feet of Clay - A Study of Gurus

James Veverka (headbands@webtv.net)
Thu, 6 May 1999 20:29:53 -0400 (EDT)

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Dave....I loved the proverb.

That sounds interesting. What are the factors? Genetic propensity to be gullible? hahahaha!!!! Just kidding.

Aren't alot of emotional disorders a combination of several things? For one example, say a deficiency of serotonin re-uptake capabilities, we have a person that "feels crummy" all the time. Would not this person be fertile ground for destructive ideas/memes? If this same person does medication to re-establish normal re-uptake levels and develops a positive view and "feels great" his mind is fertile for optimism laden memes. So we are faced with evidence that emotional difficulties AND stability have certain "PH" for growing ideas. And that biologic condition and its genetic backdrop have relevance to ideation. HUH?

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From: "Dave Hall" <davehall@dbn.lia.net> To: "Memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>, "Visionaries list" <Visionaries@onelist.com>, "Virus

list" <virus@lucifer.com>
Subject: virus: Feet of Clay - A Study of Gurus Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 01:40:11 +0100
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"The wisest men follow their own direction
And listen to no prophet guiding them.
None but the fools believe in oracles,
Forsaking their own judgement. Those who know, Know that such men can only come to grief"

EURIPIDES, Iphigenia in Tauris

The above is something I'd love to have written myself, or at least found for myself in the original work, however I filched it from the front page of
"Feet of Clay - A Study of Gurus" by Anthony Storr. Having now read all of
this author's books I can honestly say that he has thus far been the most influential writer of non-fiction stuff that I have read that deal with the issues of being human, or more specifically, thinking and thinking about being human, or more specifically, thinking about thinking <about thinking>. As for fiction, well that's a different story. David Brin comes to mind, as do a number of others.

Here's a wild swing/long-shot: I am interested in discussing the relevance of the so-called "affective mental disorders" to the topic of "memetics" with anyone who feels that these "human conditions" may be relevant. I'm still working <mostly part-time> on building an understandable case to show that they are extremely relevant, and have yet to find any good material on the subject, outside of the standard psychiatric texts, thus pointers/hints/advice would be useful and greatly appreciated.

I have almost no interest in "publishing" something "first" or "original" so am willing to swap what I have found out the hard way with anyone/someone that is looking for new stuff to write/think about. This will include hard data that I have gathered from the only person willing to provide it thus far, myself. In return I expect well considered answers to questions I may ask in return. I am also willing to be wired up, scanned, probed by any
"scientist" willing to feed me during the process and share the gathered
data. However, probably due to being a "diagnosed" schizomanic, I'd prefer to conduct such discussion outside of the "drunken beerhall atmosphere" of mailing lists with people willing to stand in the sunlight and be seen.

Dave

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