RE: virus: Four Principles Digest

David McFadzean (david@lucifer.com)
Mon, 31 Mar 1997 15:14:56 -0700


At 06:06 PM 30/03/97 -0800, Richard Brodie wrote:
>David McF wrote:
>
>>It should be obvious to anyone who understands the second thing about
>>memetics that attempting to hide harmful memes is no way to fight them.
>
>What is your evidence to support this assertion? I'm interested, and it
>doesn't seem obvious to me. It's like saying that attempting to
>exterminate the smallpox virus is no way to fight it.

Can you see how attaching a "forbidden knowledge" label to an idea
gives it more appeal? People will actively seek it out. If you have
the meme but refuse to release it because it is too powerful for
mere mortals, people without the meme will assume the worst of you:
that you are using it for your own purposes. I think we've seen an
example of that right here.

Many people think that the best way to fight racism is to make it
illegal to say anything racist in public. Did that kill racism? On the
contrary, the racist organizations can now legitimately claim to be
persecuted which feeds their own conspiracy theories. Though they had
noble intentions, the anti-racist organizations have made the problem
worse than it would have been otherwise. They didn't know the second
thing about memetics.

To fight racism one must expose it for what it is, namely memes
left over from the dark ages before history when human tribes fought
for limited territory, food and women. Racist ideas simply cannot
stand up under the scrutiny of rational criticism.

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus                 http://www.lucifer.com/virus/