What is your deepest meme? Fear or understanding? Xenophobia or empathy?

[Bill Wiltrack]

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* I posted this exact thread in the Political Section of this forum. I repeat it here only because some of the active membership do not visit the Political Section and also because the essence of the philosophical question I present here can and should be addressed in a non-political way on an individual scale.

If the Moderators think that this is inappropriate or that this is a double post please feel free to delete this topic here and just let the political thread continue.






Xenophobia is the fear of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange.

Xenophobia can manifest itself in many ways involving the relations and perceptions of an ingroup towards an outgroup, including a fear of losing identity, suspicion of its activities, aggression, and desire to eliminate its presence to secure a presumed purity.

Xenophobia can also be exhibited in the form of an "uncritical exaltation of another culture" in which a culture is ascribed "an unreal, stereotyped and exotic quality".


The terms xenophobia and racism are sometimes confused and used interchangeably because people who share a national origin may also belong to the same race.

Due to this, xenophobia is usually distinguished by opposition to foreign culture. Xenophobia is a political term and not a recognized medicalphobia.



~ Evolving into a Universal Humanity & the Affront to Xenophobia ~


If there is what could be considered an evolution of mankind it is certainly lead by what we would consider to be initially evolving individuals.

Where are you? Where would you consider yourself to be in the emerging evolution into a international, world-wide emergence into a universal humanity?

Love Jeremy Rifkin’s 10 minute video titled, The Empathic Civilization.

Within that amazing video Rifkin plots the evolution of man as it relates to the parallel seeming evolution of communication.


Although the video is nearly seven years old his grasp of evolutionary biology, neuro-cognitive science, human nature, and child development research still remains pertinent.


What really impressed me is his recognition of mirror-neurons and how these somewhat universal neurons are soft-wired to link us to a universal empathy, not only between humans but directly connecting us to other evolved mammals.

This recognition allows us to experience another’s plight as if we are experiencing it ourselves.

This scientific exploration suggests that we are soft-wired not for aggression, violence, self-interest, and utilitarianism but we are actually soft-wired for sociability, attachment, affection, and companionship; Empathy.

The empathic drive and a deep desire to belong.

Jeremy Rifkin also points to the development of selfhood and it’s correlation to an individual’s empathic development. In short, an increase in selfhood heralds an increase in empathetic development.

Individual empathetic development, an individual’s evolutional development, may be expressed by an individual’s width, depth, and ability to feel another’s struggle.


Essentially, To empathize is to civilize, to civilize is to empathize.



In short, advances in technology has allowed mankind to virtually eliminate time and space when it comes to communication between individuals anywhere throughout the world.

Mankind has gone from association to his immediate family and tribe within shouting distance, to association by religion, to association by country, to primary association to multi-national corporations, to finally an association, by some evolved beings, in a universal humanity. ALL happening within an extremely short period of time in the overall history of mankind.


Which brings us right up to today…

The Brexit movement in the United Kingdom may signal a temporary set-back for some Eastern European countries in the overall evolution of man in that part of the world. Where people look back and falsely believe that things were actually, better back then. It’s a false hope.

While in the United States, at this moment, the Alt-right movement seems to be recognized for what it is; A statement of a certain portion of the population in stasis. A snapshot of de-evolving mindsets.

America may continue to be the moral leader of the world by continuing on the political and ethical trajectory that we have formulated for the past thirty years. Or, the country will fall prey to attacking the non-existent windmills that the alt-right mindset has created.

America and the world will know for sure on November 8, 2016.


Mankind is facing the most difficult yet most important test of our shared being. This test is played-out within each of us individually.

Where are you?

Do you fear the others more than you are excited about the promise of civility? The touch of empathy?


What is your deepest meme? Fear or understanding?

Xenophobia or empathy?






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[Skip]

I'm a sometimes writer. Understanding - or at least a quest for understanding - is my stock in trade.
If I were a general or had my eye on a throne, my vested interest would be in xenophobia and its propagation among my underlings.
(I'm not a fan of memetics.)

Generally, though, curiosity about whatever is unexplored, strange and exotic is an individual trait, while fear of otherness, aliens, the unknown and unexpected is a characteristic of groups. Reaching outward is done by radicals and oddballs; conservatism and tradition are embraced by establishments. There is a constant tension between the two, often manifesting in conflict. Usually, it's the curious oddball who gets burned at the stake. However, when the establishment has had too tight a control for too long, preventing all progress, the whole civilization can go up in flames.

[Bill Wiltrack]

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So, coming back to the main focus of this thread - Where do you find your deepest seed? Fear or understanding?


Do you consider yourself to be a xenophobe or more of an open philosopher-type?


Have you or do you now reach-out to other cultures, other races?

Do you consider other races to be different than you? Better? Worse?





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[Skip]

I grew up in Toronto, Canada and spent most of my working life there. You can't function in TO and not associate with, talk to, eat with, jostle and cooperate with people of all colours, ethnicities and cultures. And maybe some embracing, too, yea.

[Terrapin Station]

I'm stuck trying to figure out what "your deepest meme" would amount to.

[Hobbes' Choice]

I'm stuck trying to figure out what "your deepest meme" would amount to.

Ask bill to define his terms is like getting a cat rabbit to read Shakespeare.

[Bill Wiltrack]

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From Wikipedia:

A meme (/ˈmiːm/ meem) is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture". A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.


Proponents theorize that memes are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influences a meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.

The word meme originated with Richard Dawkins' 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins's own position is somewhat ambiguous: he welcomed N. K. Humphrey's suggestion that "memes should be considered as living structures, not just metaphorically" and proposed to regard memes as "physically residing in the brain". Later, he argued that his original intentions, presumably before his approval of Humphrey's opinion, had been simpler. At the New Directors' Showcase 2013 in Cannes, Dawkins' opinion on memetics was deliberately ambiguous.









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[Bill Wiltrack]

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TO = Training Officier?

Cat rabbit = Cabbit?








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[Dalek Prime]

We used to speak of Jungian archetype before this shallow meme crap came along...

[Bill Wiltrack]

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Things change. Some say, The only thing constant is change.


Someone such as yourself may choose to hold onto the past.


I've heard people say, Look behind, stay behind.



I am soooooo proud of the changes that I have introduced into this forum.

One of them is changes in nomenclature. Often technically driven.


So, thank you for your complement. This gives me power to continue!






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[Terrapin Station]

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From Wikipedia:

A meme (/ˈmiːm/ meem) is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture". A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.

Right. So given that definition, what the heck would we be saying when (a) we posit that individuals have memes, and (b) we posit that the memes that individuals have are somehow quantifiable with respect to their "depth"?

[Bill Wiltrack]

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I don't remember much of Jung but I think he & Freud generally shared this view of self - the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego. The super-ego can stop one from doing certain things that one's id may want to do.






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Hope the iceberg metaphor image helps you make the transition from older nomenclature to this new and updated way of expressing the same concept.


You're welcome, hope this helps, and thank you for an important question that allowed me to clarify this for you.



** Think of your deepest meme as right on the surface of the water of your consciousness.








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[Dubious]

It's not an 'either/or' situation where one quality exists by the exclusion of the other.

Fear or understanding, Xenophobia or empathy is a blend; they mix with each other depending on circumstances. Sometimes one rules and sometimes the other. I guess your question is, in extremis, which of these would you default to and the answer to that may depend on how many it's applied to. It's a lot easier to yield empathy to one or a few than it is to many. Xenophobia then is often the consequence especially when it compounds with events happening too fast.

[Terrapin Station]

Bill, you could interest me if you'd directly answer the questions I ask. Otherwise, . . . <shrug>

[Bill Wiltrack]

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Look, anyone that asks me anything directly - I ANSWER. Done that in the past, will continue to do that in the future and, quite frankly, thought I did a GREAT job of directly answering your question above...


Matter-of-fact I'm scratchin ma balls tryin to figure-out what the fuck you talkin bout?





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