Reams of Memes it Seems

It seems that I channeled Dr. Seuss today.

It also seems that the great majority of the political positions in this country have been reduced to memes.

What is a meme? Well, one definition is: “A contagious idea that replicates like a virus, passed on from mind to mind”

Our politicians have figured out that we have the thought retention capacity of goldfish, so they break things down to pithy little phrases that are repeated by the believers ad nauseum.

The problem with this is best summed up by a phrase I once read that said: “If it can fit on a bumper sticker, it is not a philosophy.” It also can’t be a very valid or well thought out political opinion.

Life is too complicated to be condensed down to absolutes. We would love it if it was that simple and that’s why we buy crap like, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, or buy magazines with articles like “5 ways to have your best orgasm ever” or even why we put so much stock in the 10 Commandments. Everybody loves the 10 Commandments, but as an example of why our political debate in this country is so childish, go ahead and recite the 10 Commandments……….I know, I can’t do it either.

Still, memes are dangerous, because they make smart people sound stupid, and stupid people sound smart. They kill dialogue, and they promote stiff, unthinking, unreflecting absolutism.

Ironically, it is always the idiots that swear they love freedom the most that spout memes the most. It is a paradox, because how can you embrace freedom when your mind is so incapable of free thinking?

I will list a couple of memes I have heard a lot lately. I know there are a million, and please  post some of your own as you wish.

1. We are going to drive rich people out of this country because, “we are going to tax them and they are not going to want to achieve”. Firstly, driven people are competitive for competitions sake. Some of them would put you into the wall to win a snack cake, let alone a lot of money. Second, most rich people inherited their money, they didn’t work for it. Thirdly, I am sure Bill Gates loves being worth $53 billion dollars, but he wouldn’t turn his nose up if it was only $25 billion either. Fourthly, I have been looking around to compare income tax rates versus the distribution of income historically in this country. I haven’t been able to get all the data I would like, but what I have found so far indicates that rich people  have always had tax lawyers to find the loopholes, because even when rates were 70% or greater, wealth distribution did not change.

The second meme is, “An armed society is a polite society.” This is completely retarded. I am not against guns, I am against the idea that they prevent crime or keep society polite. A cursory look at any extremely armed society will tell you that. Afghanistan, Columbia, or the American Old West, are/were armed to the teeth. They didn’t carry guns because they wanted to be respected or to uphold democracy, they carried because they are scared witless. If you think you need to carry a gun in a society where you have 5.5 murders per 100,000 people, than you are really bad at math, and kind of a coward as well.

For any that are interested I am working on the second part of the big picture as seen by me, I know, you can’t wait.