Brin

From biology, technology, and ideology, Dawkins created the notion of "living bundles of ideas" which he calls memes. In thinking an idea, you in a sense cause the idea to live. Giving it continued existence, or life. We proliferate ideas by not only thinking within ourselves but spreading copies, i.e. telling others. Brin notes that while we compare the spreading of memes to be infectious, they can also be beneficial. A good example given of this would be the notion of washing hands before eating. He compares Soviet Russia to an immune system and then to memes. In this example, the immune system (the white blood cells of Russia) were the KGB- resentful of anything that contradicted Communistic ideology. Border guards were the equivalent of antibodies, but now instead of confiscating foreign objects, their new duties are to let anything in and "infect" them.

Brin describes the four major worldviews. Claiming them only as models, and nothing to do with "superficial slogans" such as communism and capitalism. The first worldview mentioned is Paranoia. Paranoia is based on keeping the people under a layer of fear; peace is the threat to this worldview. Capital is mostly put toward arms and war in this system.

The second worldview, Machismo, is also the most powerful. This is an environment wheere male-centered society rules, and women and professionalism are compromised. Claimed as the most natural human self-organizing system, social patterns such as hunter-gatherer tribes and feudal sytems from Machismo.

The third worldview is called The East. The main concept of the East is that of homogeneity; sacrifice individuality for the greater good of the group. This theme was dominant in China. Brin made a comment in his section about The East, which I found really important in the workings of the system, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." This system seems like the essence of Communism, I'll repeat, the goal is not to stick out individually but as a group.

Finally, the fourth worldview is known as the Dogma of Otherness. This meme seems most consistent with our society today. It encourages modernity, tolerance, and art while holds suspicion toward authority.

Brin claims an underlying struggle between these four memes, one that claims life or death. He claims that the major factor of this war revolves around diversity, and whether it can and/or will be dominant.

Was interesting to read that many of our fairy tales being based upon versions of Machismo. Brin makes the example of the themes of revenge, male honor, rescues and strictly defined gender roles. The fate of this tradition of worldview is threatened by equality of genders and western values.