virus: Re: prohuman

Ken Pantheists (kenpan@axionet.com)
Tue, 18 Feb 1997 23:56:00 -0700


D Pape wrote:

Hey, actually, I think this is one of the reasons why I don't myself use
the
Virus analogy very often. There seems around here to be a tendency to
call
anti-human underpants "mind-viruses" and pro-human underpants "the
forbidden
M-jargon-word-thing-object-idea-tag-stuff". I'm interested in viewing
both
the "gun down a shopful of people" idea (if it spreads from person to
person) as being the same sort of process as the
"this-is-how-you-fill-the-shelves-and-this-is-how-you-swipe-the-goods"
underpants.
**********************************************************************

Hi Dave--

Cool suprmarket observation (from you or Peter--) Would that be a virus
epiphany?

Re: the paragraph above-- I guess I don't carry the same distinction as
you.I was not aware of this development in the jargon. I thought all
ideas were viral. I didn't know that a virus moral imperative had
developed.

What is a Pro-human meme? Pro for which humans? I thought the virus
model allows us to address all information as neutral and understand how
it is transferred.

My hat is off to you for wanting to explore the "gun down a shop full of
people" meme with the same attention and neutrality as a more "pro
human" idea. (please explain pro-human... I have no idea what you mean
by this) But I have a feeling that you already host a number of
mutations of the "gun down" meme which have been tempered by your
culture, gender, myth-history and other social determinants. (A very
important one being the countermeme- the criminality of such an act and
the subsequent loss of freedom and personal rights if punished.)

The safer/yet still risky mutation that you hold is the "Make a joke
about gunning down" or "refer to gunning down in an environment that is
unlike a supermarket" All of which contain the meme of gunning down--
but the context changes the message. You are an actor of the Virus
Theatre :) (had to plug this in... it has been sitting on one of my back
burners for too long.)

-- 
Regards
+--------------------------------------------------------+
  Ken Pantheists         http://www.lucifer.com/~kenpan

"... never yell theatre in a crowded fire." -Fargo +--------------------------------------------------------+