On Tue, 15 Jul 1997, Wright, James 7929 wrote:
> It would appear that <Mysticism> shell has hooks into several of the
> motivators that are common to humanity; once a secret base of knowledge
> is postulated, then all those who are not in on the secret need only have
> their vulnerability demonstrated ONCE to persuade all those onlookers
> (who are susceptable to persuasion by example, and don't have to be
> burned personally to recognize the power of fire) that the <mystic> is a
> person above the normal societal rules. The <mystic> has powers that
> society in general doesn't enjoy, and can show superiority in some
> area(s).
The <mysticism> meme/shell also has one quality that I think is pure
genius, a wonder of adaptation. Many memes have no basis in reality[1].
That doesn't stop them from growing and spreading, but it does make them
vulnerable to the <let's just check the evidence, hmmm?> meme antibody.
And this is often their undoing.
<Mysticism>, on the other hand, offers no receptor sites for the
<evidence> antibody to take hold of. Woven into its coat is the message,
"accompanying memes exists outside the realm of evidence, attach no value
to countermeasures employing evidence." This is beautiful!!! As an
adaption it is simply a wonder, the perfect anti-antibody defense.
-Prof. Tim
[1] There's really no footnote here, I just wanted to make that point
again: *Many memes have no basis in reality*. I would add that in some
cases that is simply because the meme has yet to be prolific enough to
make itself a part of our reality (the early stages of a paradigm shift,
for instance) and therefore has the need to survive long enough to reach a
critical mass where it can be self-supporting. This is where
<mysticism>'s uniquely crafted anti-evidence-antibody adaption can be of
value to it.