The Meme Machine

THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE 85
heard the continuous coverage instead of the weather forecast and called out to
the rest of my family. Then I felt a bit silly for shouting so loud about
something I would normally profess to take no interest in. But the death of
Diana was just that sort of news. It spread like an extremely infectious virus and
within weeks the princess’s reputation had become saintly and her following
cult-like (Marsden 1997). Within a few months, millions of pounds had been
given to her memorial fund and millions more made out of selling her image.
Few memes can claim anything like this power, but the principle is quite
general. Certain kinds of news spread more effectively than others. These are
the things people get to hear about and want to pass on again. As a result,
people talk more.
This does not mean that silence is impossible. It is just rare, and needs
special rules to enforce it against the natural memetic tendency for endless talk.
We see these rules all over the place, in libraries and schools, in lecture theatres
and cinemas, and even in special train carriages – and we see people, despite
their best intentions, finding themselves breaking the rules. True vows of
silence are hard to make, and on religious retreats beginners find the rules of
silence difficult to keep, even for a few days. Taking on a silence meme goes
against the grain.
This suggests a second approach: to look at rules or social practices
concerning speech. Again let’s compare two types of meme. Suppose there are
instructions encouraging people to talk a lot. These might come in many forms,
such as embarrassment at being silent in company, or rules about making polite
conversation or entertaining people with chat. Now suppose there are other
memes for keeping silent, such as the suggestion that idle chat is pointless, a rule
of quiet etiquette, or a spiritual belief in the value of silence. Which will do
better? I suggest the first type will. People who hold these memes will talk
more; therefore, the things they say will be heard more often and have more
chances of being picked up by other people.
If this conclusion does not immediately appear obvious think of it this way –
imagine that one hundred people have been taught behaviour of the first type –
such as ‘You should make polite conversation whenever you can’ – and another
hundred people have been taught the rule ‘It’s polite only to talk when you have
to’. The first group will, because they hold this meme, talk whenever they have
the chance. The second lot will keep quiet. If talkers meet talkers they will all
talk. If silents meet silents they will not. The interesting mixture is when talkers
meet silent types. It is possible that nobody will ever change their minds or
throw out old memes in favour of new ones, but if ever this does happen the