2.18.2010

the 'want less' meme

Wikipedia says "A meme (rhyming with "cream") is a unit of ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Virus like, memes have the potential to be passed on from one mind to another.

We all see Climate Change, for instance, through our own veil of beliefs. Through mine the climate is changing due to human consumption and materialism. How can the millions who share my perspective get our meme, let's call it 'want less', established and accepted?

Cool could work. If somehow, through peer pressure, it became cool to 'want less', to have less, to comsume the least, then our 'want less' meme might have a shot.

Beliefs are a set of ideas. We use our beliefs to triage incoming information into acceptable and unacceptable, deal with the one, trashcan the other. This web of beliefs is malliable. New sets of ideas, memes like 'want less', can outflank our cultural blinders and carry, Trojan Horse style, their message to the forfront and focus of our attention, making 'want less' the veil we triage events through