jawfish

Memes
john posted in other on September 20th, 2005

Note: Don’t overlook this definition in Wikipedia. It is quite interesting. This page is a work-in-progress, so expect changes in the future.

Ideas that reverberate.

Tipping Point definition
An idea popularized in the book by Malcolm Gladwell
Complex social and natural systems aren’t linear, they are built up of delicate balances that interact in unpredictable ways. Small changes can have large leverage, and vice versa. Development of organizations and organisms usually occurs in a series of thresholds, rather than a smooth curve.

Free Market definition
A slogan of neo-con politicians and pundits, and a mis-used concept from the so-called Chicago school of economics, led by Milton Freidman. Desired by nearly everyone for other people’s business.
In its simplest form the idea is an oxymoron- there is no such thing. Seen as one end of a continuum, of less to greater market competitiveness, it is a useful way of looking at economies.

Individual Liberty vs. Communitarianism
Not to be confused with civil liberty, minority vs majority, and communism or socialism. See the meme, Americans as Immigrants.
Almost all issues in American social conflict come down to the individual freedoms vs the community needs. America seems to be the developed country most inclined toward erring on the side of individual freedom.

Corporate Personhood
Many think it was in an 1886 Federal court decision, that the notion that corporations have civil rights like individuals wormed its way into law under the cover of the 14th amendment. There is a long history in English law of allowing a corporate entity to have certain rights as an artificial person, such as owning land and entering into contracts. In the 20th century some very large corporations have abused this position to avoid responsibility, and ignore community needs. At times corporations have put themselves above the law of the states which chartered them.

Jefferson vs Hamilton
The original American conflict between Jefferson’s idea of an agrarian, decentralized government and Hamilton’s requirement of a strong central government, still plays out today. If the Revolution was fought to gain westward expansion as much as to throw off British tariffs, it was Jefferson who forsaw the need for more agricultural land, and Hamilton who saw Eastern industrial organization as essential to the economy. Oddly each man’s views have become entwined in modern positions based on opposite premises. Modern Jeffersonians generally favor government intervention in business, and free-market conservatives cling to Hamiltonian power structures. Within this debate the germ of many conflicts can be seen: agricultural vs industrial development, government attempts to control individual marital and sexual activity, government regulation of business, public control over land development. subsidies to industry and agriculture. The farmer and the cowman can be friends.

Americans as Immigrants
Non-native Americans come originally from two main sources: willing immigrants who did not fit in back home, and stolen people intentionally cut off from their culture. The pioneer spirit of the willing, frequently includes anti-communitarian, short-sighted attitudes: a heritage of anti-social behavior and disrespect for the land. See the rugged individualist rancher who fights bitterly for his federally-subsidized water project and discount grazing privileges on communal land, or the owners of second homes on Atlantic barrier islands, who loudly demand repair, insurance and protection when hurricanes strike. Of course so-called Native Americans are just older immigrants, a situation shared by pretty much every human culture.

Every Man a Tycoon in America
Many, perhaps most, immigrants come for economic opportunity. Cut off from traditional cultures, in a land of fabled opportunity, people see themselves capable of Ayn Rand-like self-importance. Of course this immediately bumps up against all the other little tycoons, and against the governmental mechanism that springs up to keep them from killing each other. But for those originally from hide-bound cultures, the combination of weak social class and widened economic opportunity is a great boon. And now women can be tycoons too.

Rural to Urban
Post-industrial changes are much talked about, but America is still getting over the transition to a non-farming culture. A vast shuffling of neighborhoods has occurred all over the country, through post-WWII expansion, suburban flight and footloose families. Few small places have a character sustained over decades, and it may be fair to say those that do are probably dying because no one moves in to replace the outflow of young people.

Tribalism
Many have observed that humans behave much the same as our recent ancestors among the other primates. Kinship packs, alpha males, warring young males, and territorialism are shared among many creatures. Maybe the parallels can be overdrawn, but the need to belong to a group, and define those outside the group as “not us” is universal. When there is a backlash against Pakistani immigrants after the London bombings, that’s tribalism. Tribalism put the uncritical blinders on the American media after 9/11. Tribalism creates talk radio “Ditto heads,” sports fans, product branding, community projects, clubs, and religious cults.

Commercialism Co-opts Individualism
Commercial, especially retail style, displaces local color nearly everywhere. There is an enormous pressure to convert folk ways to brand loyalty. Ironically the most valued, and valuable communities enact laws to prevent billboards, signs, and strip-mall sprawl. Suburbanization produces an ersatz city culture based on driving and shopping, instead of social relationships. Advertisers work hard to convince consumers that they can only be truly individual by buying their product.

TV as Commons
In the 80’s, avant-garde director Lee Breuer produced small plays with TV monitors. He said it was because, “In America, it’s not real unless it’s on TV.” The television screen has become the public ground on which we observe each other, debate each other, and pass on news. Unfortunately, television is controlled by a few huge companies, see Commercialism, and is subject to a dependence on advertising, see Advertising as LCD. So it both pulls popular culture, and is itself subservient to it. Television is essentially all advertising. When the community sees itself mostly interacting via brands and consumerism, it will become a society of consumers first, and citizens second.

TV Advertising as LCD
Television advertising is trapped in a feedback loop, see TV as Commons, it tries desperately to be hip by exposing trends, yet is inevitably rejected by the hip who have always moved on to other trends. The mechanism of TV advertising, caused by its need to overcome indifference, is stimulation of the lowest common denominator feelings. It is no longer possible to convince people that a product is superior using a TV spot, so the only recourse is to associate a brand with sex or status. The dirty little secret of the huge TV advertising industry, is that no one knows whether an ad is viewed, nor who watched it, nor what level of attention was paid.

Databases of the Public
There now exist multiple sources of information about citizens’ habits, demographics, and finances. Searching this data is easy and inexpensive. Therefore, once widespread broadband networking exists, advertisers will look for ways to individually target potential consumers. This will also mean that advertising can finally be tested, and that will lead to ads that tweak the subconscious more effectively. see TV Advertising as LCD.

Filtering, Feedback, Calibration, Signal-to-Noise Ratio
When a camera takes a picture, only some light is allowed in, the rest is filtered out. When a viewer channel surfs, only some message is allowed in, all the rest is filtered. Search engines, authors, advertisers, newspapers, Internet routers, experiments, preachers, fishing lures, all filter incoming information in a way that selects and excludes. Excluded information is not just lost, its existence is not recorded.

The signal-to-noise ratio expresses the amount of useful information embedded in useless static. High noise can obscure the signal, for instance, a conversation in a noisy room. Strong signals can overwhelm weak ones, like someone shouting in a quiet place. Filtering noise too strenuously can also weaken the signal, like a car that is so quiet you can’t hear sirens.

Feedback loops collect and compare data against assumptions. Feedback is the essential component of testing. When the Emperor tests his new clothes, he gets no feedback, and he remains in ignorance. The President lives in an isolated, but mighty tower with enormous power to gather information, but subordinates wish to remain in favor, so they filter out negative feedback. Without feedback any system or person quickly becomes detached from reality.

Without proper calibration, feedback and filtering are inaccurate. The opinion of a first-timer isn’t worth much, because it’s not calibrated by experience. When the naked Emperor can tolerate no criticism, that silence is actually feedback to his policy of chopping off heads, but his calibration misinterprets it. The President’s men calibrate their filters to control the feedback that reaches him. But he remains ignorant, because they prevent rather than expand his knowledge. Spinning the news bites is an attempt to re-calibrate journalism. Learning to drive is about calibrating your filters to exclude unnecessary information and highlight important details like brake lights and traffic signals. Taking LSD is a way of breaking your mental filters, without controlling the calibration, and zazen does something extremely complex with your calibration, your filters, and your feedback. Travel and education, particularly the liberal education invented by the Scots, can re-calibrate a person’s filters. Propaganda and oppression tighten up the filters to control feedback.

Political Extremism Paradox
The political world is composed of a soft center of moderates, do-nothings, and pragmatists, surrounded by extremists. Extremists can move the consensus-of-the-middle using propaganda techniques, mostly because people are strongly wired to take ideas that are merely prevalent as the working consensus. Once an idea becomes an assumption, it can be referred to and accepted as a known thing, even if there is no factual basis for it. Reagan’s stories about welfare queens are a good example. Also, merely treating an idea as an assumption increases its believability. Nazi propaganda and the Chinese Cultural Revolution are examples, of course Orwell has the definitive analysis of this.

Paradoxically, pointing out that the middle-consensus has moved into territory that used to be owned solely by crackpots, will itself be seen as extremism, and rejected by the middle. The soft middle will tend to reject arguments that smack of extremism, although it is possible to shout longer and harder than other voices and convince the doubters. Nonetheless, holding to a calm tone, and constant repetition can turn any addle-brained idea into a well-known fact, but you must be heard above the shouting.

If too many extreme ideas are touted loudly simultaneously, the populace looses its civic bearings and becomes prey to cynicism, apathy, and rigid dogmatism according to the individual’s emotional needs.

Personal Freedom, Do No Harm, Community, Authority, Purity: Five categories of morality as described by Jonathan Haidt. Generally he says, social liberals are only concerned with the first two, where social conservatives are much more concerned with the last three.