[FRIAM] anthropological observations

Wed Apr 15 12:07:51 EDT 2020

Yes, Richatd Dawkin's memes ("The Selfish Gene") are a nice idea, but they are not like genes at all. They are like viruses. If we consider the memes that are generated by "meme generators" and shared in social media, then they can at best be described in terms of viruses. For example a post that goes viral etc.The idea of "hidden genes" is different. They are not really new, they are rather hidden in plain sight because everybody knows them. Nobody has recognized them for what they are though, as far as I know. Except David Sloan Wilson ("Darwin's Cathedral") maybe.Think of a typical church service on a Sunday or synagogue service on a Saturday: a priest in front of a group is reading an encoded text. The text is decoded and translated in a speech so that it is understandable for the target audience. If the audience is willing to believe in the propagated message, the behavior of the group is changed. Members will behave a bit different if the preacher has been successful. They support and help each other. They form a group. If we consider that God is the group itself from a sociological perspective, as Randall Collins ("Sociological Insight") and the founders of Sociology told us, then it is hard to overlook that this repeated process of reading the holy scriptures and explaining them in fact nothing else but a gene expression. The text contains non-coding parts, just like normal DNA, and parts which encode "recipes" to control the behavior of the group. We know them for instance as the basic commandments. The 10 commandments we all know so well are in fact the 10 basic genes. They create a collective organism, a life-form which is bigger than any individual member. These life-forms are long-lived as plants, but agile as animals. In this sense they are different from biological organisms. But they can get cancer, just like biological organisms. We know it as the various *-isms: fascism, communism, nazism, totalitarianism, etc. I consider fascism as the most general form and nazism as the worst and most aggressive form. If we really want to understand how fascism works, we have to understand religion first, IMHO.-J.
-------- Original message --------From: Steven A Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> Date: 4/14/20  23:41  (GMT+01:00) To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] anthropological observations 
    Jochen -
    Can you describe more about how your idea of "hidden genes"
      contrasts and compares to Dawkin's "memes"?
    Glen (I think) has questioned the term (meme) in the past, but I
      don't think we ever discussed the point here?  I don't know if his
      argument was more against Dawkins, against the use of
      analogy/metaphor to relate genes to memes or something yet more
      fundamental?  
    
    I find the least-common-denominator common-usage of the term
      "meme" to be somewhat lame but the original term as presented by
      Dawkins was fairly compelling and widely applicable... but like
      all metaphors, it has it's limits.  
    
    I'd be interested in a discussion here on that topic, and perhaps
      how that relates to this thread.
    - Steve
    
    On 4/14/20 3:28 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
    
    
      
      Yes, it was not a real publisher, just a
        self-publishing company where you can publish anything. I
        cancelled the contract because you need to pay every year. It
        was a sort of trial balloon to see if anybody is interested in
        the topic which I believe is quite explosive. Actually nobody
        was interested. I figured that it is not that dangerous to
        publish it in English if nobody is interested anyway.
      
      
      The basic idea is that there are "hidden genes"
        which are expressed like normal genes. The only difference is
        that they are not encoded in organic molecules and they do not
        create biological organisms. We know them simply as laws, rules
        & commandments. They are indeed expressed by propaganda or
        whenever someone preaches something, for instance if General
        Patton preaches to his men that they should "do more than is
        required of you". 
      
      
      It explains everything from the secret of
        religions to the nature of fascism (which is IMHO a form of
        cancer as old as civilization itself). I believe that the
        deepest secrets hide in plain sight: the most intangible
        mysteries are hidden in the best known daily objects most of us
        have outgrown even noticing. We have stopped wondering about
        things we experience every day or every week, like political
        rallies, campaign speeches, ads and church services.
      
      
      -J.
      
      
      
      
      
        -------- Original message --------
        From: uǝlƃ ☣ <gepropella at gmail.com> 
        Date: 4/13/20 21:54 (GMT+01:00) 
        To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com> 
        Subject: Re: [FRIAM] anthropological observations 
        
        
      
      I presume it's this one: 
      
      Die geheimen Gene: Das Geheimnis der Kirche und die soziale DNA
https://books.google.com/books?id=lpqUDwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Jochen+Fromm%22&hl=en&source=newbks_fb
      
      No copies seem to be available. I also assume propaganda plays a
      prominent role in your explanation. I keep wondering why Trump's
      sycophants like Navarro keep claiming the Spanish Flue happened in
      1917 instead of 1918. E.g. in this clip:
      https://youtu.be/nSx704KK_Ik
      
      #5 and #6 from this list seem plausible to me:
https://theweek.com/articles/832990/6-theories-trumps-pointless-lies
      
      When Trump hears Navarro say "1917", it's a signal of loyalty,
      even if everyone knows it's the wrong year, that he uses that
      year, helps confirm his loyalty. Knowing to use "1917" instead
      will help me code-switch if I find myself in a conversation with
      these people. If you use "1918", they'll know you're out-group.
      Hypothesis #6 is only plausible if you think Trump is an idiot.
      But I buy the argument put forth here:
      
      Tony Norman: Who are you going to believe — POTUS or an actual
      expert?
https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/tony-norman/2020/04/07/1917-Donald-Trump-truth-George-Orwell-Anthony-Fauci-Peter-Navarro-hydroxychloroquine/stories/202004070017
      
      Maybe it's a perverse mix of the expression of power, loyalty, and
      getting the audience used to fudging the details ... encouraging
      the cult members to impute the nomothetic even though it fails to
      fit the idiographic.
      
      
      On 4/13/20 11:04 AM, uǝlƃ ☣ wrote:
      > Link! I should buy the German version and see if I can read
      some of it. The last time I tried that was with Faust after my
      German II semester in college ... terrible failure.
      
      
      -- 
      ☣ uǝlƃ
      
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