80
Superstition
is pro-Meme and another exception to the do-not-lie commandment. Sports encourage superstition to affect the
outcome of games the viewer has no direct interaction through the pixels
transported by a satellite stream. Commercials
even play on the notions of rally-caps, rubbing a head, removing a sock, or
turning branded beer bottle labels as triggers correlated with one’s team
victory. If a team scores during a
certain person in the crew taking a bathroom break, the crowd may demand or
joke the person should stay away.
Other
superstitions include horoscopes and astrological fates tied to wealth. The Meme wants to spread the idea that the
wealthy are blessed and deserve their wealth rather than family history of
snowballing up or down or systematic inequities. Caste and karma systems prey on such
superstitions. Not walking under
ladders, avoiding black cats, and finding four-leaf clovers are all permeations
of similar pro-Meme false-knowledge untruths. To a degree so is “Do good to others and
others will do good to you” and “Do bad to others and bad will eventually come
back to you.” While kindness and
meanness are correlated to how one is treated, this is a byproduct of volition,
not karmic superstition.
Another
bastion of pro-Meme superstition links back to the human obsession with Big-Weather. Weather becomes pornographic indulgence to
see the wanton destruction of a hurricane, earthquake, or tsunami and the
craven indulgence of witnessing how little human society and thus the Meme can
actually control. The aftermath drives us
to churn inward like the Carioles effect to unleash ourselves into the winds of
knowing there is only so much we can do.
Humans
are drawn to the meteorological news for a veil of chaos. We participate in a lingering marvel over
events termed “acts of god” in property insurance policies. The superstition goes back to all manner of
Greek Mythology, biblical linkages and deity interfacing with the climate of
Earth and the universe.
Weather
is also the filler on newscasts to keep eyeballs glued to the screen. Journalism costs too much. By spouting ad nauseam regurgitated tidbits
and sensationalized screen-crawls viewers can fill in the blanks as if the news
is a movie script and not an attempt at one-to-one presentation of
occurrences. Framing, perception-shifting,
and conversation-shaping are key.
One can always
tell it is a slow news day when basic weather forecast is the lead. Broadcast networks blame viewers for
demanding immediate information. This is
a corporation rationalizing poor product quality because it maximizes
profit. This translates to a ratings shift
on which has the most entertaining newscast, not which presents journalistic
integrity. News organizations
cannibalize the information dispensing industry.
The spouts were
once constricted to CBS, NBC, and ABC.
The internet and satellite horde has allowed contradictions to simple
manipulations and white-noise to massive manipulations. The truth can hide in plain sight. The truth is a plain picture with little
editorial, shown once and able to be pulled up on the internet when desired by
a viewer. False-knowledge paraded and
replayed in constant repetition tends to make the truth a needle in a haystack.
The concept that
there is no relevant news worthy of global, local, or national report is a
farce. Journalistic potential is
ubiquitous. Viewer interest is not. The scale is driven by advertising dollars. The problem is in the suggestion that these
weights are not being measured by the Meme.
Forthright,
transparent gamesmanship is preferable, yet so often besmirched by the wry
smile of a Fox News Fair-and-Balanced or an MSNBC focus-point in gawk-caulk. These two American extremes are at least
somewhat honest due to their targeted markets.
The Associated Press filters the media-horde. This is where true commodity-journalism
crafts its fetid monotony.
Occasionally
public non-advertising based organizations like NPR can get through the
quagmire. Foreign journalist like the
BBC or Al Jazeera also can sometimes slip through the Meme. America provides itself a version of the
truth as reality as a society and as individuals. This is relevant as a reference point of what
we are comfortable viewing, discussing, and acknowledging given the Meme.
81
Many
of us question afterlife the first time our parents try to give us a response on
what happened to our dead pet. Sparky is
not in doggy-heaven. We knew it then,
but rarely let it out. This is part of
how the Meme is powered and grows.
Followers of the Meme are much
more likely to obsess over a pet such as a canine or a feline. Pro-Meme themes include anthropomorphizing
the mental complexities and requirements of the animal by worrying about the
dog’s or cat’s physiological wants and desires as if the animal were
human. Humans will take the animal on
more walks and buy the animal more treats and human-like accessories the
wild-counterpart of the species lives fine without. The purchases and obsession with the bowel
movements, worries about what the dog thinks of the thunderstorms, its
relationships with family members and strangers, and treating the creatures
likes members of the family are all pro-Meme.
This is in direct support to the
Humans-are-not-Animals Meme. If
symbiotic animals granting companionship, protection, rodent elimination, food,
or clothing such as: dogs, cats, chickens, sheep, or cows are given
personalities to an excess degree beyond their natural animal instinct and
instead ordained with the fears and contemplations of a human, we are not only
saying humans are not animals, but that these human-like animals are not even
animals.
Manifestations of this meme can
be witnessed in the variety of inventory available for purchase at pet
warehouses, grooming centers, and pet training academies. Humans often feel a pack mentality which a
dog assumes as comfort is cruel once established by an owner who would rather
call the dog Smoochie-Poo than dominate.
Pets can take on the role of
surrogate human offspring in some cases.
The Meme’s inclination for adults to extend childhood in all forms and
superimpose the demand for innocence in children is bridged to dogs and
cats. The Meme wants to reinforce
imposing a land of make-believe where dangers are distant and sexual activities
are kept in the prison of the bedroom.
Dogs do not get in heat and blatantly wish to procreate. Fourteen year old girls do not want to engage
in carnal thoughts or activities. They
do not masturbate with shower head massagers.
If the Meme can keep the illusion
of children in houses absent of children, say after the young ones have gone
off to college or grown, then pets can rationalize engaging in parental and
thus child-conscious behavior.
Uncomfortable subjects which the Meme instructs us not to discuss are
less likely if one is treating a full grow mastiff like a three-year old
human. We are less likely to speak of
what humans are, where we came from, why we do what we do, we can continue to
play make believe, attend church services, sit in front of the television and
engage in festivals of distraction.
Anthropomorphizing pets is just
another form of superstition to ignore the science of why dogs and humans
relate well. We perpetuate superstitious
untruth because it is more palatable and comfortable than facing the reality
that we bear a similar fate and life as the canine. We are animal, yet refuse to swallow and
acknowledge the thought.
We think All Dogs Go to Heaven and personify and anthropomorphize animals
when convenient to make animals more human, more like us. We attribute the occult to perform the
reverse: vampires, werewolves etc. of us more like them. This explains the thematic overlays and
targeted audiences of say the Bernstein
Bears compared to Dracula.
82
We
make movies like The Matrix, In Time,
Star Wars, Children of Men or movies based on books like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, which
conduct veiled and not-so veiled assaults on the Meme. Most of these subject matters are reserved for
the science fiction genre.
To display a nonfictional direct
attack on the Meme would spur fury and rage in rebuttal from the Meme. However if we put symbols we will show up in
droves as good fun. In Star Wars a hooded dark-side of the
force emperor manipulates the masses. In
The Matrix a robotic hive-mind
created by man, which feeds off the humans who designed it to present the
illusion of life, rather than reality.
In each a Christ figure; Anakin Skywalker and Neo are used, destined to
be saviors. We have previously
entertained the realm of Harry Potter
under commandment two, which mirrors such storylines.
There is a reason these science
fiction universes are found to be so appealing.
It is because so much of the world seeks to unplug from the Meme, yet is
not sure exactly what the Meme is, how to accomplish tolerating a world without
the Meme, and what to insert or trust other’s will insert as a substitute.
Star
Wars, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings are three of the top five grossing movie series of
all time making over sixteen billion in U.S. dollars collectively worldwide. Harry Potter is number one. Out of the top fifty grossing movies in
history only four that were not overt science fiction and those are Titanic, the James Bond themed Skyfall, Fast & Furious, and The
Da Vinci Code. The Meme and
anti-Meme are blatant throughout such films as Avatar, The Avengers, Iron Man, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean,
Jurassic Park, Alice in Wonderland, Batman, Spider Man, Twilight, Shrek, and
Inception.
Even the adjusted for inflation
top grossing films of all time demonstrate human preoccupation with the Meme
which include in order: Gone with the
Wind, Avatar, Star Wars, Titanic, The Sound of Music, E.T., The Ten
Commandments, Doctor Zhivago, Jaws, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Other films toying with or
exploiting the Meme: Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Percy Jackson, X-Men, Willie Wonka, G.I. Joe, and any horror movie. Films which reinforce the Meme include direct
religious movies such as Jesus of
Nazareth, the Last Temptation of
Christ, The Passion of the Christ, and the aforementioned and eponymous Ten Commandments.
Almost
all Disney cartoon feature films reinforce the Meme. Most are based on Christ metaphors and
classic European fairytales or stolen storylines. The recipe calls for a child with a deceased
or missing parent: Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Simba, Hercules, Aladdin,
Tiana, Oliver, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Mowgli, Pocahontas, Snow White, Nemo, Peter
Pan, Aurora, Mulan, and Bambi etc.
By
eliminating one parent from the equation humans naturally feel sympathetic and
endear ourselves to the character. Just
as Christ had his missing father in heaven rather than on earth we are bound to
have a greater level of concern for Disney’s creation. Most of the storylines are stolen or
purchased from Chinese legends, the Brothers Grimm, Galland, Shakespeare,
Andersen, Collodi, European fairy tales, Kipling, Salten or Mother Goose. The roles of underdog-hero, reluctant, but
beautiful princess, and Faustian bargains with dark-skinned villains rotate and
recycle the Meme.
Films, books, and art help
distort sentiment and reality. By
bringing the dream-work into reality the Meme is more threatened than
supported. This is one reason the most
popular modern films tend to be creative child-like anti-Meme storylines
presented to adults as parents of the world digest the notion of the anti-hero
and the anti-Meme. Dreams process
false-knowledge.
In this knowledge, we have
convinced ourselves we require Commandments to attain morality and
civility. This has never been true. Morality, civility, and almost all forms of
altruism inside species generate from the long-term advantages such responses
to the prisoner’s dilemma iterations all life, but particularly more complex
life, engage.
Humans are animals who can
contemplate likely and expected outcomes to utilize altruism for the good of
our species given knowledge. We do this
even if there is a risk that a certain short-term benefit to the individual is
less valuable than less certain, but greater benefits to the whole of the
species and environment to which that individual belongs. This is a major reason why market-regulations
are so crucial to operate an optimum free-market.
No comments:
Post a Comment