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Re: Defending Memes

413 views · Published 6 June 2008 · 9:14 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Footnotes2Plato · 2008 · Education

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Could someone give me a definition of "meme" that isn't a tautology? 

A meme is a "unit of cultural transmission" 

Ok... and I am a human being. Nice to meet you. 

Do you see how this definition defines itself? A meme is a meme. A unit of cultural transmission (what this sentence is) is itself. 

Does anybody know what they mean when they use the word "meme"? It does seem to spark a conversation whenever somebody mentions it... but still, aren't we just howling at the moon? "WHO" is it (as themodernmystic would say) that we are talking to? Who is it that talks? We hear only echoes from each other, but each varies slightly, and so over time the loudest voices prevail and the morphology of culture evolves. But don't forget that there are many dialogues going on at once, and that each may suppose it dominates the others without having the slightest idea what the other even has in mind. There is always an ecology of mind, with each species harmoniously entwined. The gooey, mystical types and the prickly, rational types are a single Janus faced figure on a ground of blurry distinctions.

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