I just finished reading: ‘Thought Contagion’ by Aaron Lynch and found its information life-changing. This book was copyrighted in 1996 and deals with the science of Memetics. Memetics is the study of memes (rhymes with genes). Meme is a term coined in 1976 by renowned British biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins. In his work entitled ‘The Selfish Gene’, Dawkins recognized that just as certain traits are replicated by genes, idea viruses can also be replicated from generation to generation and spread to such an extent that the ideas are accepted without question. Meme comes from the Greek term mīmeîsthai, and literally means to imitate or copy.
‘Idea viruses’ are so widespread they affect just about every decision made by people in general. They are most prevalent in religion, and Lynch discusses in depth the evolution of teachings within the world’s largest religions–Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
The most interesting examples of thought contagion I found were characterized by two religions with similar ideals but different levels of success: Amish and Shakers. Lynch begins his book with a look at the Amish and the strongest meme motivator amongst humankind–parental influence. The indoctrination of the young by their only source of information–their parents–is usually the deciding factor for children as they grow. The more children a given ideal can transmit to, the more widespread the ideal becomes. The Amish ‘population doubles in just twenty-three years’ (1).
Another reason the Amish are so successful in growth and idea transmission is due to their separatist culture. When any group of people keep themselves away from ‘worldly’ influence they guarantee a more productive soil for thought control. If the religiously devout are trained to fear all outside ideas, they will avoid, like the plague, any philosophy or contrary ideas that may come their way. This protects their religious meme from contradiction and doubts. “By staying segregated, the Amish get 78 percent of their children to stick with the faith in a predominantly non-Amish country (5).”
There is, however, an example of a religious faith that clearly didn’t do their homework–The Shakers:
“The Shaker movement started with extreme proselytic zeal, yet it also strongly promoted celibacy among its members. Celibacy probably boosted proselytic activity by giving adherents more time and mobility for proselytizing, but virtually eliminated parental transmission. Eventually, the missionary efforts reached their saturation point–the point when all non-hosts amenable to conversion had already been converted. The American Shaker population peaked at about six thousand in the mid-1800, but from that time on, the faith suffered a gradual, childless decline toward extinction.” (132)
This brings up another interesting point Aaron Lynch discusses in depth–the importance of proselytism to thought contagion/meme transmission. At the outset of Christianity, proselytizing was positively imperative to its growth. But once ‘saturation’ occurred, the proselytizing movement lost its momentum. Few religions today still proselytize in the traditional sense of the word, and those who do find their conversions discouragingly low. Lynch’s observation in the previous quote said it best: “all non-hosts amenable to conversion had already been converted.” This explains why new religious movements enjoy widespread success with proselytizing, but once those who were going to convert have, these faiths find spreading their faith within a saturated society like beating their heads against a wall.
Mr. Lynch discusses many other types of memes within the pages of his book, such as: abortion, family planning, polygamy, and masturbation. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is curious about how much influence society and their age-old ideals hold over us as individuals.