From: David Musick (David_Musick@msn.com)
Date: Mon Sep 02 1996 - 12:53:54 MDT
Chris Hind wrote:
"...create a meme such as the Gaia theory with an extropian twist to spread
extropianism like a religion across the globe. Could work!"
I think it will benefit of each of us to spread the Extropian memes to all
people on Earth. Not necessarily to have everyone identify themselves as
"Extropian," but to have everyone working dilligently on increasing the amount
of intelligence, creativity, happiness, etc. in their lives; all of the
Extropian Values. To infect someone with a meme, the meme must have qualities
which help it to flourish in the individual's current memetic system. There
are no "one meme fits all" in memetic competition. To really be effective at
spreading our memes, we need to gain a deep understanding of people's belief
systems, so that we can design memes that work WITH their belief systems, to
transform them into something more Extropian. It would be helpful for many of
us to infiltrate various major world religions, gain an understanding of the
people's psychology, their belief systems and so forth. Then it would be good
to write a few books, aimed at the people in the particular religion, written
as though they are by an "insider" of the religion, but with the Extropian
Values seamlessly mixed in with the traditional religious memes. One way to
do this is to highly emphasize the memes of the religion which are the most
Extropian (such as, "God helps those who help themselves.") and ignore or
downplay those which aren't. The books need to be very compelling to the
people in these religions so that they become widely read by the members of
the religion and deeply embedded.
The point is not to convert everyone into born-again Extropians, but to help
adjust people's belief systems so that they are *MORE* Extropian than they are
now. Infiltration and Subversion are winning tactics in memetic "warfare".
Also, books which show the deep similarities between various religions are
good to popularize among the members of the various religions, because it
helps to lessen their attachment to the particular religion they're associated
with and gets them to think more about common ideals and values than their
superficial differences. Just focusing people's minds more on the value level
is good for Extropianism, because I think most, if not all, people value
increasing their intelligence and happiness and so forth, and the clearer they
are with themselves about their values, the more they will act according to
those values and seek out information which will help them achieve their
ideals. If the more Extropian information tends to be more effective in
helping people achieve their goals, then they will more consistently seek out
Extropian information.
- David Musick
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