>It's all a matter of levels and priorities. Within the context of a
group,
>there are the content "individual persons". Within the context of
>individual, there is content "specific behavior". Within the context of
>behavior there is the content of "thoughts". I do not focus on one
>particular behavior of an individual for example if I am looking at that
>person with unconditional positive regard. I don't focus on a specific
bill
>being passed in congress if I am concerned with the legal process. I do
not
>see "what color our money is", for example, as relevant to the complexity
of
>the government.
>Usually when people use the context of memetics to talk about
>"redistribution of wealth", for example, they have a personal agenda.
Many
>could use the forum of memetics to talk about the price of eggs in China,
or
>whatever. When used as an example within the context of memetics this is
>fine. There is an obvious point though when discussions about religion,
or
>politics, or masculine/feminine differences, etc. keep stealing the focus
>when I stand up and take notice that the person is not talking about
>memetics and would probably use a forum on humor, or religion, or abuse,
>etc. to likewise bring up their own personal program. I have learned by
>watching my own postings and responses that introducing personal issues
has
>a negative affect on the group process.
Brett--If you read my post again, you might find I wasn't talking about the
issue of "redistribution of wealth" as a main focus, since it was in the
context of memetic evolution, which was in a larger context of comparing
paradigms, which was in an even larger context of Tim's question about
taking over the world and complexity. You're reading into the post that I
started a campaign to form some sort of new world order. While it would be
interesting to get feedback on that idea, it wasn't the main point of the
post.
Your idea that we should only talk about memetics like detached
scientists while disregarding personal issues doesn't make any sense
because you'd be overlooking the effect of very influential memes--us--the
memes that make up our sense of identity. We are part of the equation of
how we see everything, including memetics.
And, I've seen you, Brett, get emotional over personal issues just like
most people. You can pretend to be a detached memeticist, but I think you
have about as much detachment from your personal memes as a child-molesting
priest has detachment from his body.
--David R.