TCAHR - Better Living Through Memetics

Issue 11
Anatomy of a Meme                                   12/18/00
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Hopefully, issues 9 and 10 have wetted your appetites for
memetics.  While ProgHu introduced specific techniques and
CEORp1 showed the long-term memetic techniques, TCAHR has
decided that taking you through the lifespan of a meme and
its viral shell will serve to promote TCAHR's ideas and
philosophy.

The dissection of one of our most popular memes will lead to
the destruction of its effectiveness, however I believe that
in this case the ends justifies the means.

PHASE ONE -- INSPIRATION
A while back, I visited the website Gothic.Net
(http://www.gothic.net).  Gothic.Net decided to change its
visual style from one that was based on Egyptian philosophy
to one that resembled old-time freak show advertisements.

The response was less than fantastic.  Visitors to
Gothic.Net bitched and moaned about how clowns and carnivals
were not Gothic.  This gave me an idea on the construction
of a viral shell made to spread the following meme:

What is Gothic?

PHASE TWO -- MEME
Anyone who answers the question "what is Gothic" in broad
terms, has also subconsciously decided what is not Gothic
in broad terms.  If we look at the trappings and symbols
Goth has defined itself with, we can easily manipulate that
data to "prove" other data.  If Goth symbology is based on
darkness, Goth cannot define light.  If Goth philosophy is
depressing, then Goth philosophy is devoid of happiness.
If Goth beauty is based on pale, thin women, then Goth
ideas of ugliness can be defined as dark skin or males, or
being overweight.

Therein lies the danger of painting something in such broad
terms.  I decided to expose the stupidity of this by
writing a little rant now known as "A Letter on Gothic
Racism".

PHASE THREE -- VIRUS SHELL
I knew racism was a hot button.  This made racism the
perfect shell to host the "What is Gothic" meme.  The whole
MopeyGoth/PerkiGoth rant has been done to death.  Weight?
Boring subject.  Darkness of the soul?  Stupid role-playing
crap.  But racism in Goth is a dangerous subject, especially
since the events in Littleton.  It was the emotional drive
of this event and racism in general which powered the virus.

So I took the idea of "what is Gothic" and embedded it in
a rant accusing Goth of racism.

PHASE FOUR -- INITIAL INFECTION
For the virus to infect many people (or "hosts") as
possible, it must infect a target market or environment
where the overall sensibilities further its cause.  In other
words, my Goth/racism virus had to be implanted into a Goth
environment.

To be fair, I had a few failures in this department before 
hitting paydirt.  My first two attempts were were total
failures due to bad research.  I finally achieved initial
infection when I sent this virus and a few others to
Darksites (http://www.darksites.com) as articles.

PHASE FIVE -- FEEDBACK
Luckily, Darksites has feedback forms and counters.  I was
able to gauge how many people have read my virus and their
reactions.

I couldn't have been happier with the results.  Discussions
on what Goth is and isn't appeared.  I received e-mails of
praise and hatred about what Goth is and isn't.  I then used
someone's angry feedback to launch the "My Apologies" virus
that lives on this page.

I would have to rate my "what is Gothic" meme and its virus
a success.  I'm almost sorry I killed it here.  However, if
the readers of this, ProgHu, and CEORp1 are inspired to
launch their own virus against stupidity, then this little
butterfly didn't die in vain!

Okay, this is the last of these kinds of articles.  TCAHR
will return back to its plans for world domination as of the
end of this sentence.
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tcahr@hotmail.com                             Copyright 2000