virus: Locker Room Talk

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Mon, 22 Jun 1998 23:17:10 -0700


Okay, now that our Mormon friend is gone (or at least withdrawn into the
shadows for a moment) its time to look at how the list fared in this last
little exchange and where it was we went wrong. First the stats:

CoVers won over to Mormonism: 0
Mormons won over to atheism: 0

"Not bad" you might say. But given the intellectual might amassed here, a
tie is as bad as a loss and just as embarassing considering the opposition.
Did we even convince our Mormon friend to, if not change his beliefs, at
least re-examine them in a memetic light? (Thus planting a seed that might
grow into awareness somewhere down the line.) No, not in the very least.
He left us as ignorant as he arrived. And why? Yes, /why?/

For all the intellegence together gathered here, y'alls social skills are
sadly lacking.

Would you host an open house, invite in strangers, and then attack them as
they came throught the front door? I doubt it. But we feel compelled to do
the same here. And with a vengence.

The reason the Mormons can knock on doors and get converts--and we frankly
can't--is because they understand the act of "conversion"--and we DON'T. A
simple knowledge every religion has and that we seem to be wholy ignorant
of. (And despite the crucial role it plays in the spreading of memes
generally). They understand that people are more likely to adopt ideas that
come from someone like them (homophily) and that adoption has as much, if
not more, to do with a subjective evaluation of those who host the memes, as
with the content of the memes themselves. [1]

So what did our friend find when he came through our doorway? Smiles?
Friendly, likable people who he wanted to spend time with? People who would
make him think, "Gee, what have they got and how can I get some?!?" I think
not. What he found was a nest of argumentative, highly self-rightous,
borish ninnys who were more intent in proving him wrong than finding our
where he was coming from or how he got there. The perfect receipe to insure
that *NO* memes would be transmitted to him, whatsoever. If "theism is
mental inbreeding", then our display was nothing short of a "philisophical
circle jerk".

The religious folk will contiue to gain numbers, and the strength that comes
with it, because they understand things that the atheists don't: that it is
easier to change the mind of a friend than that of an enemy; that facts are
not as important as impressions when making an adoption decision [2]; and
that niceness does, in fact, count after all. True, our Mormon friend may
have come here looking for a fight. But the fact that he found one here is
something we must all take responsiblity for.

Did we want to teach him and show him the truth? Or simply enjoy the heady
rush that comes from being so very, very "right" while another is so
hopelessly "wrong"? If the latter, we have excelled beyond the wildest of
expectations. If the former, however,...

...well, a tie counts as a loss in this league, team.

-Prof. Tim

[1] E. M. Rogers (83)
[2] ibid.