What's a Meme?

A meme is an idea or abstraction that can be transmitted from one mind to another. It is analogous to the concept of a gene.  The term was developed by Richard Dawkins and discussed in his book “The Selfish Gene”.

The examples he gives of memes include “tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or building arches”. He talks about how the mind is the vehicle for memes and that a meme propagates similarly to the way a virus is transmitted from host to host. It effectively becomes a part of our very being.

Some memes take hold and propagate very quickly while others quickly become extinct.

This concept of memes is a very exciting way of looking at ideas and analysing the human world. It gives you an extra layer of filtering when you read newspapers, listen to news, read adverts or watch a movie. You begin to think “what is the real message and what information have I just absorbed?”. When (and if) you begin analysing your own thoughts and beliefs, you find that many are not based on any logic or rely heavily on you believing what someone else has said.  Superstition, mysticism and religion for instance fall in this category.

Other memes like Global Warming, Terrorism, Food and Health and Obesity Epidemic are all dominating our culture today. These highly complex memes are usually broken down into simple relations that invariably fail to explain them effectively and can even be contradictory.

While there is no pill or vaccine one can take to protect ourselves from false memes, the brain does have mechanisms to protect itself, its ability to reason, but this is an active process. You have to search for the truth and ensure you understand the ideas you propagate.