The Meme Machine
TheMemeMachine1999
TheMemeMachine1999
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THE ULTIMATE MEMEPLEX 231<br />
the Buddhist it is the root of human suffering. Either way it is an untruth. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
is no doubt that having a clear sense of identity, a positive self-image and good<br />
self-esteem are associated with psychological health, but this is all about<br />
comparing a positive sense of self with a negative one. When we ask what good<br />
is done by having a sense of self at all, the answer is not obvious.<br />
<strong>The</strong> selfplex<br />
<strong>Meme</strong>tics provides a new way of looking at the self. <strong>The</strong> self is a vast<br />
memeplex – perhaps the most insidious and pervasive memeplex of all. I shall<br />
call it the ‘selfplex’. <strong>The</strong> selfplex permeates all our experience and all our<br />
thinking so that we are unable to see it clearly for what it is – a bunch of memes.<br />
It comes about because our brains provide the ideal machinery on which to<br />
construct it, and our society provides the selective environment in which it<br />
thrives.<br />
As we have seen, memeplexes are groups of memes that come together for<br />
mutual advantage. <strong>The</strong> memes inside a memeplex survive better as part of the<br />
group than they would on their own. Once they have got together they form a<br />
self-organising, self-protecting structure that welcomes and protects other<br />
memes that are compatible with the group, and repels memes that are not. In a<br />
purely informational sense a memeplex can be imagined as having a kind of<br />
boundary or filter that divides it from the outside world. We have already<br />
considered how religions, cults, and ideologies work as memeplexes; we can<br />
now consider how the selfplex works.<br />
Imagine two memes. <strong>The</strong> first concerns some esoteric points of astrology:<br />
that the fire element in Leo indicates vitality and power, while Mars in the first<br />
house indicates an aggressive personality, and transits of stars should be ignored<br />
unless the aspect is a conjunction. <strong>The</strong> other meme is a personal belief – ‘I<br />
believe that the fire element in Leo . . .’ Which meme will fare better in the<br />
competition to get into as many brains, books and television programmes as<br />
possible? <strong>The</strong> second will. A piece of information on its own may be passed on<br />
if it is relevant to a particular conversation, or useful for some purpose, but it is<br />
just as likely to be forgotten. On the other hand, people will press their beliefs<br />
and opinions on other people for no very good reason at all and, on occasion,<br />
fight very hard to convince others about them.<br />
Take another example: the idea of sex differences in ability. As an abstract<br />
idea (or isolated meme) this is unlikely to be a winner. But get it into the form ‘I