Re: virus: Absolute Truth

Bill Godby (wgodby@sun.tir.com)
Fri, 24 May 1996 01:51:04 -0400


At 12:36 PM 5/23/96 +0000, Ken Pantheists wrote:

>
>Hitler lost because those who opposed him had enough resources and
>technology to do so.

I agree

>He spread the same memes that resulting in North America becoming
>colonized by the Europeans. The first nations of North America did not
>have the means to offer effective opposition. The Indian Wars were the
>result of the genocide meme and the war of acquisition meme. Let's not
>kid ourselves here. And if Hitler was so wrong, why did it take so long
>for the rest of the world to decide this? Why were boatloads of fleeing
>Jews TURNED BACK off the coast of Newfoundland??

Not to steer things away from the general topic but I don't agree at all
with this statement. Isn't it a huge leap to imply that there are identical
memes responsible for two entirely different historical events that took
place in very, very, different social circumstances. One incredible
difference is industrialization. How can you even compare these two periods
just given that difference alone? Pre-war Germany was ailing from the
results of a depressed economy and unemployment. The rise of Nationalism is
common in this situation, jobs are scarce and xenophobia rises, we know this
all too well. The idea of taking over Europe is very old, that I would agree
is a long lasting meme, Napoleon, Romans, etc., however the epoch of
"discovery" and colonization is another meme entirely. The motivation for
setting out to discover was economic certainly, but there wasn't a
nationalistic movement behind it, nor high unemployment as we would
understand it in post-industrial terms. I believe that much that took place
from the 1500's to the 1700's was very uncalculated and often very
disconnected in terms of related events. When you speak of North America
being colonized you can't generalize since there have been many types of
colonization, for different reasons and by different European countries at
different times. I definitely would have to hear a much more detailed
argument to agree that there are common memes involved as you state.

P.S. The rest of the post was very eloquent and expressed some very
important points that I entirely agree with.
-----
Bill Godby
wgodby@tir.com