On 23 Oct 96 at 0:58, David Leeper wrote:
> 1] Martyrdom is usually thrust upon someone. If you want to die, it's no big deal when your
> killed, we all saw it coming. But when someone (like, say, Jesus) whos memes have little to do
> with death its martyred, it has a powerful effect.
>
> 2] People who willingly sacrifice themselves, like those at Jonestown, do not usually do it as a
> sense of martyrdom and they do not usually make great changes to other peoples memes.
The IRA are a prime example of how powerful the martyrdom meme is.
With their catholic roots, dying for the cause is a familiar concept
to them and their leaders (wittingly or not) have propogated this by
ensuring that their fallen troops are remembered as heroes. I would
also think that this applies to all armies to some extent; it's one
way of getting someone to place themselves in a foolishly dangerous
position on command.
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