Re: virus: Four Principles Digest

Drakir (jonesr@gatwick.geco-prakla.slb.com)
Tue, 01 Apr 1997 17:02:40 +0100


Richard Brodie wrote:
>
> Richard Jones wrote:
>
> >I don't see why everyone thinks that these Four Principles are so
> >dangerous. Ask yourself why you think they are. Becuase Richard Brodie
> >said, wasn't it?
>
> You must have missed my initial post.

Yup.

> These were the cornerstone memes
> of Hitler's Nazi virus. The experiment is repeatable and has been
> repeated.

I heard this from someone else, who kindly put together a little history
of how the thread had developed. I'm sceptical.

> >Having read stuff that reasonably well lays out what he's talking
> >about,
> >I don't see a problem.
>
> This reminds me of a line from one of my favorite movies, Metropolitan.
> One of the characters, an insecure but bright redheaded prep-school boy,
> tells a girl, "I never read novels, only literary criticism. That way I
> get two points of view: the author's AND the critic's!"

Exciting sounding film :)

I think you've misinterpreted.

> > I want to know Brodie's true reasons for holding
> >back before I say any more, 'cos if this is one of his biazarre
> >experiments,
> >then I don't want to get involved.
>
> It should be obvious to anyone who understands the first thing about
> memetics why I don't want to repeat harmful memes.

This is obviously a fallacy in your argument. If you know these memes,
then one of 2 things has happened: You've become infected, and thus are
currently in the process of becoming a raving Nazi, or: You do not let
the memes affect your actions. Therefore, you must either be convinced
that the memes be passed on, since this is inherantly one of the
characteristics of the meme, or you must be convinced that the memes in
question are controllable. Either way, the only reason you won't tell
us is because you think we're all stupid enough to be taken in, which I
find rather insulting ;P

Drakir

"We are the New Breed,
We are the Future."

http://members.tripod.com/~Drahcir/