From: jaan.ranniko@smtpgw.aftrs.edu.au
Date: Tue Aug 08 2000 - 17:15:32 MDT
"The following massive rant is meant for all those questioning the
idea of meme supremacy (some memes are [a lot] better than
others and one is the best [for all people, eventhough they may
not understand this yet]"
Answer me this Mr Otter... the following concept is / is not the basis
for the scientific method: any idea, however attractive, is rejected
in the face of proof of it's falsity - ie: NO IDEA IS SACRED.
This may seem paradoxical to one as obviously obsessive as yourself,
and obsessive's tend to feel pain when confronted with paradox but
every poison has its' remedy: Here is my question: Can you please
explain how you manage to live in a logical universe free of
contradiction which contains the following memes: "One (meme) is the
best (supreme, I take it)" and "No idea is sacred".
The concept of *no idea being sacred* is the basis for scientific
enquiry and it's emergence is largely responsible for the period we
know as the Rennaisance. It seems to follow that the loss of this
modus operandi would signal the final end of Rennaisance as well as
the west european civilization of which you seem so fond.
I stand open to correction on this point, of course.
Your principle points in this opening paragraph to what is, if I may
say, quite a stunning piece of posting overall, is that
A: All memes are not equal
and
B: One meme is the best.
A is true, particularly given the context dependancy of all memes -
"Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder" and all that. Also: given that
the term "equal" (ditto "better" and "best") suggests a scale of some
kind; one wonders what this scale exists to measure? I would expect it
to represent a scale of value, namely your value (s), given your use
of the term "best" in statement B. I don't think I'm open to any
contradiction in saying that the term "best" is an absolute value
statement.
I'm not sure whose values you claim to represent, but I'll guess that
they are yours. Unless you can provide me with some kind of petition
showing the names of those who share your values, I'm going to turn
this guess into an assumption.
Statement "B" is just bollocks I'm afraid, objectively speaking (and I
hate speaking objectively), although I'm sure it is subjectively true
for you.
Now that I've gotten that stuff out of the way; here's my translation
from your pseudo pop scientific drivel:
"some memes are [a lot] better than
others and one is the best [for all people, eventhough they may
not understand this yet]"
means:
I like some ideas (a lot) better than others. I like one idea best.
Everyone should agree with me, even if they don't (or is it "even if
they are too stupid to."?).
Well, that just lovely, Mr Otter. Again I stress: Unless you manage to
replace this idea that *one meme is supreme for all people* with a
working understanding of *no idea being sacred*; I'm afraid it's going
to be you and people like you that most threaten (what used to be
called western) civilization. And I'm most happy to tell you that
there's plenty of us out here to stop you making that mistake for
everyone else.
Scanning the rest of your diatribe I found nothing else I feel like
commenting on just now, except:
"The good news is that brains will almost certainly be
"reprogrammable" in
the future, thus giving ultimately all (blah, blah, blah)" - sometimes
this almost does strike me as good news...almost.
In closing:
You're a young, good looking, white male. If you're out to achieve
world domination for yourself and your kind my advice is this:
"Get a note from your mom. Because you're going to have to take at
least a day off of school for this."
- Max Headroom 1986
:)
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