Cat Vincent's Journal

Toxic ideas
From the latest post on John Robb's well-nigh indispensable Global Guerrillas, this thought:

"When western European colonists arrived on the shores of previously isolated locations, they often carried many afflictions to which they had immunity (a product of a large and diverse population). The result was devastating to local populations since they didn't share this immunity. A reprise of this process is underway within the world of ideas. Ideas (or Richard Dawkins' memes) for which we have a certain degree of immunity to -- from alcohol to pornography to divorce to gambling to irreverence... -- in the developed world can be toxic to those populations that are now exposed by globalization. The result is a violent reaction as people turn to primary loyalties for protection."

It's not that developed world people have better meme-immunites - if we did there wouldn't be so fucking many Dominionists - but the things we have (some) immunity to are very different from the memes folk in the developing world have. I've said it before... globalisation plus enhanced comms equals Future Shock.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM]