RE: virus: Faith, Logic and Purpose

Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Fri, 21 Nov 1997 09:58:07 -0000


> From: Marie Foster[SMTP:mfos@ieway.com]
>
> David McFadzean wrote:
>
> > >If we can not get beyond this first erroneous meme, I contend we
> will
> > >never move as a species to a new evolutionary level.
> >
> > If it wasn't for this "erroneous meme" as you call it, we would
> still
> > be animals by today's standards. Personally I see culture as our
> > greatest creation.
> > --
>
> I sort of feel that it was a necessary step that we needed to take
> that
> led to identity. But identity that obliterates our connection is not
> healthy. Identity and personality are real. It is the ego that
> clings
> to autonomy that I have trouble with.
>
Absolutely. You have to be somebody before you
can transcend the self.

First, you become self-conscious, you are aware
of being this individual. Then you begin to identify
with others, and "your circle" becomes wider and
wider until eventually you experience -- was it "at-
one-ment" Wade quoted from Ram Dass? But
without the initial, limited identity, there would be
noone to experience the unlimited sort. No doubt
this mystical way of expressing it will put some
people off, but for now I can't resist it: it's the
self-realisation of the universe.

(And as individuals consciously take part in it,
they are more-or-less meme-less, but as they
then go about their daily business, they go
back to using memes -- but within that
expanded mind, memes are less able to use
them, because with a healthy and realistic
outlook, people won't give disproportionate
amounts of time and energy to what are,
beyond their usefulness to us, mere
distractions.)

Robin