Meme, Counter-meme

Meme, Counter-meme

Meme, Counter-meme












But its success had given me much to reflect on. If it's possible to generate effective counter-memes, is there any moral imperative to do so? When we see a bad or false meme go by, should we take pains to chase it with a counter-meme? Do we have an obligation to improve our informational environment? Our social environment?

But this power to do good may also be a power to do ill. Anyone on the Net has the power to affect stock prices. (Or worse: a fraudulent re-creation of the Tylenol-poisoning scare could cause a national or international panic.) And viral memes are capable of doing lasting damage.

While the world of the Net is filled with diverse critical thinkers who are ready to challenge self-indulgent or self-aggrandizing memes, we can't rely on net.culture's diversity and inertia to answer every bad meme. The Nazi-comparison meme has a peculiar resilience, in part because of its sheer inflammatory power ("You're calling me a Nazi? You're the Nazi in this discussion!") The best way to fight such memes is to craft counter-memes designed to put them in perspective. The time may have come for us to commit ourselves to memetic engineering - crafting good memes to drive out the bad ones.

Otherwise, plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose.