THE HIGH WATER MARK

The scene: The Deep Indigo Bar in Aquamarine City, Blue State. A very dejected young Democrat sits at a corner table, muttering to no one in particular.

I am frikkin numb! I have to 'dmitt I wash shtartin to feel good there for awhile. Butt I kinda knew this would happen, Hic! I sushpect sutberfooge, I mean subterfudge on the Repubicans part but I can only thingk, thimk, think I'll have a drink -- clink, glug glug-- that we Demograts blew it again. I meant, I mean I mean how could Shohn Kerry win all three debates and thish many people still vote for Lush, I mean Bush? In schpite of him calling this a landslide it'sh cleeeer that tis shtill was a very close thing. A couple hundred thousand more votes in Ohio and Kerry wood half been the next President. But nooooo! I think we've been de-balled, I mean Diebolded. Well, we can feel good about some thinghs, at least we got a lot of peepul motivasted, motivadered, hell, involved! Oh hoo am I kiddn? We lost! (Sobs, suddenly muffled by sucking his thumb.)

Isn't this flood of Democratic tears pathetic? Stop crying in your beer, folks! There's work to be done!

As our drunken amigo pointed out, it is true that the Left in this country got more motivated than it has in a long time and boy did we frighten them! The huge numbers of people who saw Fahrenheit 911 and joined MoveOn and other organizations scared the Bejesus out of the neo-cons. They made a Herculean effort to get all their voters to the polls and it worked. They simply out-marketed us.

The reason their marketing works so well is that THE REPUBLICANS MEET EVERY SUNDAY! That's the simple bedrock truth. They are the party of organized religion -- they are more cohesive in their views and more motivated too. The Religious Right can be relied upon to make it to the polls and vote the way the party wants them to every time. All because their memes are better designed.

Oh no, you're giving me that squinty-eyed look like you've heard a new word and you have no idea what I'm talking about now. Well "meme" is not a new word in the philosophy circles! Guess I'll have to edjamacate y'all. Yeah, that's Hillbilly for learning you sumthin.

Sorry, I shouldn't talk down to you, but you are going to have to make an effort here if you intend to beat these guys, so listen up.

[Pictured: Richard Dawkins]

The term "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins in the late 70s to show how culture gets transmitted from one generation to another through the transfer of ideas. A meme is basically an idea, or a cohesive set of ideas. The interesting thing about memes is that they behave like viruses.

Viruses aren't quite living all by themselves, but they do reproduce once they get inside living cells and then they send out copies of themselves, which find new cells to invade. Just a second -- Please pay attention there in the back row! And spit out that gum if you didn't bring enough for everyone!

OK, sorry for the remedial Biology 101. Here's where the knowledge theory starts. Memes are similar to viruses in that they replicate themselves passively. First they find compatible brains to live in. "Finding" isn't quite right though, because the memes are not living; it's really brains accepting them or not. Once accepted, memes can exist in a brain's memory, and likewise a brain has to do the work of transmitting the meme to the next brain. So, if the first brain successfully communicates the meme into other brain, then the meme propagates. In other words the meme must be successfully communicated and copied in order to "survive." It follows that memes that include copy-me genes (i.e. ideas with "communicate me" components) will be propagated into more brains.

For example, you are a great thinker and all by yourself you think up a great new meme -- a new scientific formula for artificial gasoline from sunlight. The formula meme lives only inside your memory. Unfortunately, there's no "copy-me" gene in the formula meme itself. You have the only brain where that meme exists and if you happen to be kind of a recluse the meme might never be communicated to another brain. It might die with you. But no! A secondary meme has attached itself to your formula meme. It says this formula could be worth something! You start communicating the meme to others! The formula meme now has a kind of copy-me component to it and starts to propagate.

There is a steady stream of new memes constantly communicated in our everyday lives, but we don't always take them in. Just as billions of viruses are out there at the biological level, there are memes everywhere too and some memes are toxic. We each have a system of antibodies to fight off unwanted memes. You know, rationalizations, logic, arguments and faith. Sometimes humor is used to inoculate people against certain memes too, but it can also be a caustic acid that destroys certain memes that have taken root.

So what does this have to do with Presidential Elections and politics? The memes of the Religious Right, actually Christianity in general, have especially strong copy-me genes and that's why they are so well organized. It's there by design.

[Click image to enlarge]

You might say the Christian Meme contains its own marketing plan. The New Testament stresses outreach, especially the letters of Paul, which he sent to the tiny congregations of Christians that were scattered over the Roman world. His letters were specifically written to both define the Christian Meme and to make sure that it was spread as much as possible. It's natural that he wrote exhortations to preach the "good news;" Christianity was basically a cult at the time and he wanted to see the Spirit of Christ reach as many people as possible. Obviously his letters worked pretty well and Christians are still reaching out for converts every day because Paul stressed it so much.

Rational scientific thought and progressive ideas do not have a built in copy-me gene like Christianity. They require a little more effort to propagate but once people see that their lives can be better these memes find new brains to live in too. Likewise the secular ideas that this country was built on generally don't have a built-in copy-me gene. Our American Memes, our American ideals of Freedom and Democracy, propagate mainly because they are successful ways to live.

The Republican Conservative Meme is a different virus that's attached itself to the Christianity one. The Christian Meme is mutated by this hitchhiker meme into a kind of Weaponized Christianity. This causes normal Christians who wouldn't hurt a fly to support military action that kills thousands of innocent folks in far off places.

This is sad because Christianity's a meme that stressed non-violence in its original form. It's doubly sad when you realize that many of the progressive movements in American history have been born in our churches. The fight against slavery and the civil rights movement 100 years later were like that. Prohibition certainly started there, with good intentions, too. Likewise, our current crop of fundamentalists was born in reaction to the excesses of the drug culture in the 60s. There were good intentions there, but it has become more and more Puritanical and fear-driven over the last couple decades.

It's painfully obvious to 49% of Americans that Republicans have done a really good job of hijacking the Christian Meme by playing on fears and prejudices. As far as the next four years I think that the Republican leadership will now have to follow through on changes they've been talking about for years but didn't really want to do. C'mon, you know I'm talking about Abortion. Republicans have been using it as a rallying cry for 25 years now, while in reality they've only been giving the Fundamentalists, ahem, lip service. They were always saying "Oh those insidious Democrats keep blocking us!" to the Pro-Lifers, but now they'll have to follow through and make it illegal again to reward them. It'll be the new Prohibition. Having back alley abortions will make people realize once more why it has to be legal, even though it's ugly. Opinion will finally turn when all the Republicans are caught taking their own daughters to illegal clinics.

Abortion is still a side show, though; there are bigger problems. We'll still be propping up Iraq in four years, we'll be financing even more debt with China and we stand a huge chance of seeing a new Depression as energy prices rise (more than any politician is willing to admit!). This will be where their Neo-Con Meme breaks down because the Republicans are now in control of all three branches of government and they'll have no one else to blame as these things come to pass. I don't think America is going to like the experience of the next four years. We have to be ready to take advantage of the openings that Republican excesses will give us.

Bottom line: just because the Religious Right has stronger copy-me genes doesn't mean things can't change. Over time any meme mutates and there's nothing that says the Weaponized Christian Meme can't revert to a benign state. There is such a thing as the Christian Left in this country and we'll have to start cultivating it. Christians of goodwill know that Weaponized Christianity really isn't very Christian at all. The sooner we prove to them that we all want what's best for America, the sooner we will have a progressive majority.

In 1972 Richard Nixon won a bona fide landslide over George McGovern. He was out of office less than two years later. I don't know if we can prove election fraud or get a Republican Congress to impeach a Republican President, Republicans have gotten smarter about covering their tracks, but there are the 2006 and 2008 elections and we can win those.

It's time for the Blues to get out of the Blues! Forget that flood of tears! Don't even talk to me about moving to Canada! We have to get better organized. We have to polish up our memes, our ideals and reach out to people that we thought maybe were unreachable. I have a feeling we'll be successful and 2004 will be the neo-con's high water mark instead.

Again, stop crying in your beer, folks! There's work to be done! Thanks for reading and until next month the Closet is closed.

© 2004 - Rusty Pipes

Official Disclaimer: The Publisher and Editors of Cosmik Debris Magazine... well, we couldn't agree more. We're canceling our move to Canada and digging in with Rusty for the fight ahead. How 'bout you?