Actually, I ''stole'' it from the David Lean masterpiece, 'Lawrence of Arabia', one of the truly great films.

Would be a bit more happy with it tough, Gloria, if we remembered--and as this year's billion-dollar election/jokefest clearly showed--that the 'progressive'Left can be as hate-filled (and hate-inducing) as the reactionary right.

SALON is a rag, but there was one good article a while ago on the election in which an unnamed but very senior pollster was quoted as opining: 'All that the 2016 election really comes down to is that economically under-privileged heterosexual white males finally figured out a way to do identity politics of their own. It's called Donald Trump.' (paraphrase).

The nice thing about IT is that absolutely anybody can use it for any purpose whatsoever--just like with nukes.

Dear Gloria

The following link to Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan that describes their view on memes is referenced in my publication Convivencia: Winning the War Against Xenophobia in the Hearts and Minds of People (PDF Download Available)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299174390_Convivencia_Winning_the_War_Against_Xenophobia_in_the_Hearts_and_Minds_of_People

Summary of Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan by Steve Dinan

http://www.spiraldynamics.com/book/SDreview_Dinan.htm

Don Beck has worked in South Africa some years back and I had the opportunity to study his views on the value systems linked to the different memes that dominate various groups in Africa.

May this could contribute in some way to your question.

Best wishes

John 

Article Convivencia: Winning the War Against Xenophobia in the Heart...

Hi, John,

I am even more concerned about how the brain stores information.  I just read a paper in the journal EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY that says that in response to "memes" of a strong bias that the brain will reconfigure its memory storage and erase events and items of possible importance, because now they are "unimportant."  We now know that memory is dynamic and that the mind reconfigures memries as it calls them up.

  That is a chilling finding about the nature of brain storage and constant re-creation of memory.  So, if some entity pounds the same memes over and over endlessly as we see on Fb and somebody is neutral or barely agrees but gets more and more pro- that position because it feels good to push a button passing on a "meme" that proves one so "right" (rat getting food pellet and release of endorphins), that the person used to know that contradict a biased position.

Following?  Make Sense?  People I see are so "addicted to political memes" that they post ten-fifteen times a day.  It resembles nothing more than RATS PUSHING A LEVER to receive a corn pellet.  The "reward" on FB is a burst of feeling clever/smart/good (endorphin release) for being so "right" and having several friends "like" your post.  This is how rats are trained.  Memes tend to reduce complex issues to binaries (yes-no, up-down, black-white).

-Gloria

I am copying those essay abstracts and excerpts below.

From my Facebook page:

ARTICLE TITLE: Cognition through a social network: The propagation of induced forgetting and practice effects. Alin Coman et al.

_Journal of Experimental Psychology_: General, Vol 141(2), May, 2012. pp. 321-336.

Keywords:

attitudes, collective memory, diffusion of information, social networks, socially shared retrieval induced forgetting

Abstract:

Although a burgeoning literature has shown that practice effects and socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting can reshape the memories of speakers and listeners involved in a conversation, it has generally failed to examine whether such effects can propagate through a sequence of conversational interactions. This lacuna is unfortunate, since sequences of social interactions are more common than single, isolated ones.

The present research explores how people exposed to attitudinally biased selective practice propagate the practice and forgetting effects into subsequent conversations with attitudinally similar and dissimilar others and, through these conversations, affect subsequent acts of remembering. The research establishes that the propagation of retrieval-induced forgetting and practice effects is transitive. It also determines when attitude influences propagation. These findings are discussed in the context of the formation of collective memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)

(2) ---Second FB post I made with source to alert FB users.

TITLE: The Redefinition of Memes: Ascribing Meaning to an Empty Cliche

10.2 How Memes Jump Brains

Michael R. Lissack

The question of how memes jump from brain to brain has been the topic of considerable controversy as the analogy to virus, while being apt, is incomplete. In case of virus, there is actual invasion of the protein molecules into the body of the infectee, and once inside, the virus enters the cells and causes them to make

more copies of the virus. In the case of memes, however, what enter the body are sensations, i.e., patterns of neural excitation. Such patterns of neural excitation first take up residence in the brain as memory, i.e., changes in the configuration of

neural arrangement (long-term potentiation, dendritic growth, etc., see Chapter 9).

Such memory then may replicate, form complexes with other memories, stimulate the replication of resident memories, stay dormant, replicate, and mutate, and in some cases fully convert the brain to its energetic replicators as in a religious conversion.

Patterns of neural excitation may occur that may far exceed the original sensory excitation when they interact with existing or induced excitations in the brain. For example, the visual cortical excitation from seeing a photograph may be greatly

enhanced if the face in the photograph is that of a loved one, which in turn may lead to a specific action, such as picking up the phone. In this case, the introduction of a meme (photograph) into the brain caused a cascade of neural excitations that were

not inherent in the original meme.

FULL TEXT: Emergence: Complexity and Organization. 5.3 (July 2003): p48.

Dear Gloria

I really do appreciate your lengthy and very interesting reply to my comments in your question.

As I mentioned, my working with Don Beck has familiarized me with vmemes. Your text focuses on memes with some very serious documented arguments on the complexity of memes and how they change under certain given environments that influence memes into different behaviors. This is a frightening fact as we see "forces" influence the coping mechanisms of people in the current dramas developing around the world, let alone rats in a research environment.

The following link gives a description of the difference between memes and vmemes. In my paper on winning the war against xenophobia, I refer to the application of Spiral Dynamics and how in my experiences in South Africa and Mozambique lived with and saw people living and influenced in different scenarios as they responded to different vmemes up and down the spiral. As changes influenced these people from "war induced environments" to "peaceful environments", their behaviors changed to those in different vmemes as described in Spiral Dynamics. The change agents working to "improve" the vmemes of these people are referred to as "Spiral Wizards".

Spiral Dynamics Online from NVC Consulting

http://www.spiraldynamics.ua/Graves/meme.html

Now that you have brought this question up, I want to learn from you and others as my interest in this important subject requires more in depth scientific understanding.

Best wishes.

John

I will read this essay above.  John, I also contacted Mary Seeman an active practicing psychologist at the University of Toronto to tell her about this issue of "meme addiction" and that we have this question started here.  I think we can all work on this one and none too soon, if my intuitive sense is correct.  It was truly wild to see peopLe behaving so much like little lab mice, unable to stop posting memes because it felt too good, too good, too good...as important as it is, can you imagine telling people not to vote one way or another twenty times in a day or not to allow the bad anti-environmental activities that many times a day? 

If nothing else, people who might want there not to be too much real AND EFFECTIVE activism can put out a raft of posts people will agree with and think that the have done something real simply by posting these diversionary posters with slogans over and over.  You can almost hear somebody saying "That'll keep those so-and-sos busy."

  Somebody did have a funny cartoon about meme addictions.  I will find it and try to attach it (I certainly won't share it and start meme-ing every body...)

Agree VERY STRONGLY with the need to maintain a clear bright-line distinction between memes and viruses. The original concept of the meme was, if I remember correctly, was developed by Michel Foucault but then stolen by that pseudo-intellectual bully Richard Dawkins who just had to 'Darwinize' the thing be equating image circulation with viral infection. Apparently, anything that is true musty fit into a Darwinist paradigm, otherwise ... it is not true. (Which just makes Dawkin's thuggery that much more noxious--he failed to acknowledge his debt and always lambasts Foucault as an intolerable intellectual fraud)

You are right to classify meme as a form of addiction rather than infection. The meme produces a short, but intense, neural burst, like meth, cocaine, alcohol, or sex. There is no question of adaptation, replication, or invasion. The consequences of holding otherwise would be to deduce a Darwinist model of infection in its entirety--an adaptive mechanism or function of some kind.

Addiction studies are the way to go with this.

Dear Gloria

These are two reference to “Spiral Dynamics” and “The Crucible” both authored by Don Beck that have been the basis of my own understanding of vmemes and my own application in South Africa and Mozambique.

Don Beck wrote The Crucible in 1991 before Nelson Mandela became the President of the first democratically elected government of South Africa in 1994. Much has happened since then but the scenarios that Don Beck describes in that book are applicable today where South Africa has returned to violence and xenophobia as the ANC Government struggles to deal with many social problems, with weak leadership by the current President, J Zuma, and with alleged corruption within the ANC ranks. The ANC party lost its unique position as the leading political party in the last Municipal Elections in 2016 and we see a fundamental change taking place in the country. Don Beck should revisit South Africa and write a sequel to The Crucible   

I also add a short history of VEMSSA, Value Engineering and Management Society of South Africa, in which I have been actively involved,  that has been dedicate to the development of “Value Systems” in business and social environments  since 1968.   

https://www.amazon.com/Spiral-Dynamics-Mastering-Values.../dp/1405133562

Editorial Reviews of Spiral Dynamics.

From the Back Cover

Spiral Dynamics reveals the hidden codes that shape human nature, create global diversities, and drive evolutionary change. These magnetic forces attract and repel individuals, form the webs that connect people within organizations, and forge the rise and fall of nations and cultures. This book tracks our historic emergence from clans to tribes to networks and holograms; identifies seven Variations on Change, and adds power and precision to the design of human systems and 21st century leadership.

Spiral Dynamics is an extension and elaboration of the biopsychosocial systems concept of the late Clare W. Graves; work that Canada's Maclean's Magazine called 'The Theory that Explains Everything'. The authors mesh UK biologist Richard Dawkins' concept of 'memes' with Gravesian 'value systems' in crafting a timely transformational change formula and process. Their concept of MEMES represents the first major statement of the new 'Science of Memetics.'

Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan, who were closely associated with Clare W. Graves, apply the principles of Spiral Dynamics worldwide in both corporate and top-level governmental sectors. They helped transform South Africa out of race categories, design organizational and marketing systems for a wide range of industries, and revitalize local communities, educational and professional institutions, and sports programs. Based on motivational MEMEs, they also designed a "hearts and minds" strategy for the South African rugby union team, winners of the 1995 World Cup.

The Crucible: Forging South Africa’s Future

The Crucible – Forging South Africa’s Future

by Dr. Don Beck and Graham Linscott

$30.00 plus shipping

Order by writing to: [email protected]

As someone familiar with the Spiral Dynamics framework, you have come to appreciate its unique ability to explain human adaptive intelligences. Undoubtedly, you have attempted to convey the eight vMEMEs to friends, family, colleagues, and others. And if you’re really studying, you might have even gone into the Five Deep Strata, STREAMS Process, or XYZ Templates.

You know Spiral Dynamic s “works.”  The only problem is:  The postmodern mind struggles with applying it.

The Crucible stands out amongst a limited range of reference materials as major source for helping to unblock the “application” barriers.

The Crucible is the only work to date that lays out an entire case study and, step-by-step, walks you through the thinking of social transformation using Spiral Dynamics.

On the other hand, if you have no exposure to Spiral Dynamics or Clare W. Graves, this book is written clearly and serves as an excellent introduction to complex fields of exploration.

Originally published in 1991, The Crucible puts the reader front-and-center during the tumultuous and unprecedented shift in human history: the end of apartheid in South Africa. In The Crucible, Dr. Don Beck (a colleague of Clare W. Graves and co-author of the standard Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, leadership, and Change) along with Graham Linscott, a prominent South African journalist, reveal:

* Insights to the root causes of cultural conflict found in every known human grouping; scaling from families, to communities, to organizations, and, of course, within and between nation states.

* Elegantly simple design for extraordinary complex and chaotic situations.

* An approach that understands human nature and  includes and maps other known theories, models and motivations.

* Formulations for MeshWORKS; weaving together existing resources, special interests, ideas and strategies into a cohesive filter that matches need, readiness and capability. The result: highly optimized, resilient and focused activity.

* A frame or a lens to see the deep underlying codes that shape the way we think, what we value, the organizing principles of our social structures, and our behavior.

* The alignment of an analysis of any situation to an often overlooked, fundamental dynamic of human relationship – the Life Conditions we live in.

* New and updated material from the authors: Although Dr. Beck developed an original pathway for South Africa to end apartheid and move confidently into the future, the powers that be of that time had other ideas. Today, the new democratic South Africa finds itself torn apart once again – this time by dangerously high levels of crime, corruption, unresolved racial tensions, unemployment, threats of nationalization of public works and redistribution of land and wealth, and much more.  In the re- release of The Crucible, Beck and Linscott reflect on postapartheid developments of South Africa in light of their preliminary analysis — and provide clarifying insight into how change does — and does not — occur.

What’s left all these years later is a template for designing solutions relative to other crucibles, other hot spots found in and around human interaction.

As individuals across the globe continue to adapt to excelerating change, leading thinkers are embracing the clarity found in Spiral Dynamics and the thinking behind Natural Design.

This 3rd edition, now out in paperback, includes the additional 2nd edition chapter titled “Stratified Democracy,” which outlines a novel approach to nation-building and multi-sector governance. Stratified Democracy extends Dr. Beck’s model of Natural Designs into the sphere of public policy, offering concerned citizens, public and private leaders, and social activists an edifying framework for facilitating the emergence of healthy societies. This is the same template Dr. Beck is actively applying in exciting initiatives for Israel/Palestine, the Netherlands, Mexico, and elsewhere around the world.

Interesting debate here - is Howard Gardiner of any help?  Thinking wider than the biologists, keeping it real and making sense of it works for me, though I wish I had more time to read, learn and think about the design model.

Helen I am in total agreement. 

Gloria I started being involved in the development and promotion of value systems in South Africa in 1983, not in 1968 as mentioned above.

Spiral Dynamics as defined by Don Beck works in very practical applications in a number of countries. I am interested to learn how viruses are connected to vmemes. 

I got the gist from a Flikr account  I am interested in Reflect Methodologies - Spiral Dynamics would work with these I expect.  Thank you - back to the everyday.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kentbye/3923632107/

Memes have both benefits and costs.  The ones active at Facebook oversimplify and make complex issues seem simple.  They reduce thinking to binary logic and as true-false exams.  I am not in any way endorsing memes.  I am, in fact, concerned about their use on social media.  As a writing college teacher I have seen much of binary thinking.  We work to try to get people to be more independent and to frame both their questions and attempts at solutions in ways that are not overly simple. 

Trading "memes" is just mental laziness in most cases on FB.  The people using them believe they are doing meaningful activity but others either unfriend them for sending so many almost identical messages in a day or simply tune them out.  Yet people do seem to be addicted to "meme trading' on FB no matter to them if nobody is listening.  

Experimental Psych journal: This is beginning to be studied as a form of addiction and even what changes are occurring in the brains of those who "trade memes" all day long on FB.  They are studying whether people who "trade memes" on FB show the lack of ability to choose that cocaine users begin to show. So, this is a serious subject to me and not just an "aren't "memes' a great way to engineer societal change.  I would be reluctant to choose something that may be addicting and possibly that robs people of their critical intelligence.

With respect, the issue of "trading memes" on FB appears meaningless to me if it is being applied to try and change people's ideas. A typical poor use of a social media that I have stopped using for other reasons. 

May be my intellectual capacity cannot entertain memes and viruses. All I know is that Spiral Dynamics is based on sound scientific research  that I have seen applied successfully in real life environments  as noted above. 

Dear Gloria,

Trading memes as mental laziness. A highly consumerist form of idolatry, isn't it? Encapsulate the image of the form (minus the body) and, magically, you ''possess'the thing. There is clearly a strong convergence between MEME and MIMESIS here. Michigan State University Presspublishes an excellent series of books on mimesis and brain function and its application to the Humanities and Social Sciences (Literature, Economics, Theology). Paul Dumouchel, 'The Barren Sacrifice: An Essay on Political Violence'is a good place to start.

So much of neo-liberalism/post-capitalism/hyper-reality relies upon a collectivized form of the subliminal that seems to suggest the magical. The more that I study the post-modern condition, the more I realize that it directly parallels the pre-modern condition.

Eric

Hello John and Eric,

I go now to Facebook each day to watch some subset of my real life friends who appear there seeming to grow whiskers, white fur, and big pink ears.  Pull the lever--out comes pellet.  That feels good!  Repeat. Etc. Maybe 15 times a day.  I really hope some psychologists get word out on the "induced forgetting" and addictive aspects found in that study.

You get on Memes--many repeats make that position of the Meme stronger and stronger in your mind.

The memory is now known to be dynamic and we actually recreate memories when we call them up.

Associated with this, we (the human mind) relegate memories that contradict the narrative favored by the memes to lower and lower storage spaces until they disappear.  It all becomes less a spectrum of causes and effects and arguments than yes-no, up-down.  The issue seems very Black and White due to the reductionist tendencies of the memes.

More later...

The problem with the meme-as-virus theory is that it falsely attributes to the meme the internal bio-machinery that makes viruses self-replicating. Under the correct environmental conditions, any virus can spread because that is what it is genetically engineered/evolved to do. A meme--ANY meme--is simply an image and possesses no inherent capacity for self-replication.

However, if we frame the meme--and social media more generally--in terms of addiction, notice what immediately happens: the near perfect SIMULATION of a viral proliferation/contamination. The images repeat not because of their internal structure, but because of the sender's susceptibility to repetitive behavior. Therefore, any parallels with spiral dynamics or complexity theory are just that--parallels, not identical phenomena.

I am not at all against spiral dynamics; merely, I don't think that we need it to explain memes. Addiction does the job perfectly; while accounting for the apparently external similarities between meme and virus.

Gloria and Eric

I experienced the result of Don Beck's strategy to unite rugby in South Africa in 1995 and felt the change in myself and all the people in this country as it came at the time when Mandela had been sworn in as President in 1994. The link below describes the process of how it all happened.

We see the importance of mangers on football teams and wonder, if the success of the South African rugby team in 1994, where Don Beck communicated privately with their coach/manager throughout the Rugby World Cup competition held in South Africa, was driven by the theories in Spiral Dynamics.

This experience, along with my own as a change agent or in "leadership" positions in social, business and academic environments, applying the principles promoted in Spiral Dynamics, makes me wonder what influences the minds of team members to work or perform better under leaders that have value centered principles.

We see every day examples of bad and good leaders. The former are motivated by self indulgence, using power for their own benefit and because it's seen as "right" in their own culture. The latter come from a different cultural value system where power is used to promote a benefit to those that they serve. To me it's interesting that these two extremes in leadership fit those described in Spiral Dynamics.

So where does this leave memes and viruses?

Don Beck’s 1995 Strategy to Unite South Africa through Rugby | The MEMEnomics Group. Uncovering the values of a sustainable future

http://www.memenomics.com/2013/12/08/don-becks-1995-strategy-to-unite-south-africa-through-rugby

John and Eric,

Yes, there is no automatic replication of "memes" or "fantasy themes," obviously, as in neurobiology.  That is a metaphor for rhetorical strategies of the few to direct the many.

What are called "memes" here have also been studied as rhetoric under different names such as "fantasy themes" in Symbolic Convergence theory. and a primary theorist is Ernest Bormann 1985 study The Force of Fantasy: Restoring the American Dream.

Symbolic convergence theory (SCT) is a communication theory that offers an explanation for the appearance of a group's cohesiveness, consisting of shared emotions, motives, and meanings. Symbolic convergence theory provides a description of the dynamic tendencies within systems of social interaction that cause communicative practices and forms to evolve. This theory allows theorists and practitioners to anticipate or predict what will happen and explain what did happen. One thing SCT does not do is allow for prediction and control of human communication. It attempts to explain how communication can create and sustain group consciousness through the sharing of narratives or fantasies.

Fantasy theme artistry (In FB these are called "memes")

Fantasy theme (or "Meme") artistry is the rhetorical ability to present situations in a form that appears attractive to people so that they will share them. By presenting situations in a form that appears attractive to an audience, or showing that you have an understanding of the stories that group shares, you can speak to their stories and turn their opinions into your favor.

Maybe I'll get in touch with Ernest Bormann's group and see if they are addressing this.  My training is in rhetoric.

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_convergence_theory

And

Prof. Hem Raj Kafle has place this here at ResearchGate about the uses of SCT:

LINK:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275272865_Symbolic_Convergence_Theory_Revisiting_Its_Relevance_to_Team_Communication

Article Symbolic Convergence Theory: Revisiting Its Relevance to Tea...

Gloria thanks for the link to Prof Kafle's paper on SCT. I will read it with great interest. That looks more aligned with my experience and research on team communication than Fantasy theme artistry. 

Fantasy Theme Artistry is what communications theorists call team communication themes that draw teams together.

What  A fascinating research idea! 

Hello, all,

Another aspect just opened up.  I keep seeing "AdiictiveInfo.com" as the source of the memes posted by my frieends on FB who post 10-15 memes a day. Many of the people who apparently addicted to trading these inflammatory, biased "junk memes' are pulling them off a site called "addictive Info.com."  I just skimmed an essay on The Daily Cos saying the addictive info posts (memes) have been banned from Reddit.com because they are using everyone else's materials and infringing upon what people have created. 

Addictiveinfo.com has some sister sites all run by one man and a few cronies.  I would like to know more about them because they are attempting to "corner the market" with their addicting memes on Facebook.  Although the daily Cos article was by a member who goes by the moniker of "LowGenius" who has his own little new site and--perhaps--an ax to grind, he says he is truly concerned by the behavior of AddictiveInfo.com.  I don't even like the name of this site.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/7/1/990532/-

Dear Gloria

I have reviewed four different references that deal with Change and Communication.

The first one is the work I did in 1995 that addressed Consulting and Change as skills required to be a Change Agent at the company I worked at, SAB Ltd, South Africa. This programme was accredited by the Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg, South Africa. The processes used were the latest on the subject in 1995 and also included the learnings of Graves & Don Beck in “Spiral Dynamics”.

The documents is attached below "Cluett J.D. Programme on Consulting and Change  1995".

“Memetics in Team-Building Education” by Ljubica Bakić-Tomić et al.

The document is attached below.

The first section of the abstract notes the following. “Contemporary knowledge societies’ educators and team-builders are obliged to meet the needs of diverse groups of learners and team members through individual approaches, bridging cultural value gaps and solving complex social dynamics problems through integrating various knowledge domains. Upon the foundations of Grave’s spiral dynamics theory, where human development is perceived as an open-ended process leading towards systems of increasing complexity, the authors explore a variety of human value systems transferred via memes that make up the vMEMEs or deep-level value systems.”

FTA

After reviewing “Wichita “Twitters” about the 2008 Presidential Election: Fantasy Theme Analysis of Messages During Three Election Night Time Phases” I began to understand the application of FTA and the impact it has to influence the minds of the users of Twitter or FB.

The document is attached below. 

SCT

“Symbolic Convergence Theory: Revisiting Its Relevance to Team Communication” by Hem Raj Kafle is an excellent paper. I can relate to the content of this publication as I have been involved in similar circumstances where new staff have entered an existing company creating conflict with the cultures of each company.

 The document is attached below.    

Thanks for looking into FTA, John. I think we have now laid out for cost and benefits of memes. 

This is tangential but sometimes RG can be inspiring in odd ways.

It inspired me to think about creating a new surreal painting: Screaming Meme-ies.

Or I have an existing painting that this title fits better than what I have on it now.

Just in time for the local science fiction convention art show.

Gloria, like the idea of a new surreal painting, its certainly been quite a scientific discovery of the Meme-ies in the mind. Thanks.

Sometimes an intervention to disrupt the dominant Meme is in order.  There are mindless junk Memes for days of the week and much nastier Memes for politics on FB.  Examples: HRC nasty political Meme, anti-Trump Meme, Throwback Thursday day-of-week junk Meme

These promote bullying (not to mention senility and induced forgetting) because people will say things more harshly is written by "anonymous" and they are just passing it on with SHARE button at FB  I am composing Ode to Protozoans one stanza at a time each Wednesday.  I am sure these will be my usual "no 'like' buttons pressed" posts.

I am doing PROTOZOAN WEDNESDAYS.

==========FACEBOOK==============

Gloria McMillan

4 hrs · 

PROTOZOA Wednesday!

I sure love paramecia

In water or in greas-ia!

stanza 1, Ode to Protozoans, G. McMillan

... See More

Paramecia Tutorial

The basic biology of paramecia

(LINK below)

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(File below)

Gloria McMillan Here's a sketch I made for Sci. Illo. class...A bit Aubrey Beardsleyesque.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN42ggEgO8g

Gloria I am fascinated by your on-going study and research of Memes and the examples there are of negative political memes. 

Like most of the world that has access to any form of communication on visual, written or electronic-tv-social networks-FB,Twitter or even the spoken word, Memes are there influencing our ideas and actions in a positive and negative manner.

What about the impact of our past in terms of our genes and influence of our past? I am thinking of the essay I wrote in attachment I sent to you as part of my Consulting and Change programme? In there I wrote about many examples of how my character had been influenced by my past and by the learnings while researching the material given to us by Dr Pat McLagan, the professor, during the programme. Has all that determined my current Meme population?. If that is the case then I am very glad I joined your original question and now enjoy this journey of discovery. . 

John   .       

Thanks for your perceptive comments, John.  Yes, we are all constructing today's worldview based upon our whole past lives.  As I stated citing the study by Alin Coman et al., memories are actually recreated, not just "called up" intact. 

The influence of repeated short messages (memes) is to cause any memories that contradict the recurring stimulus (meme) to be sent lower priority in storage until so low as to be erased. So we grow more and more excited and fanatical in our belief.  That is the induced forgetting study I cited.

Alin Coman "Cognition through a social network: The propagation of induced forgetting and practice effects" *

*Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol 141(2), May, 2012. pp.

321-336.

Memes, then, are as powerful in their way as some form of natural energy--solar or nuclear--and we need to think how to use these in positive ways with goals that are for the common good and that also do not dumb down people, make them meme-addicted.

Teaching logic and an individual's skill at critical thinking is a core value of education.  We teach the opposite of what polarizing memes condition people to believe.  That is, we teach use of in-depth research, viewing a topic from multiple points-of-view.  Meme addicts lose this ability.  Now that is what to me is a challenge.  There are still many great empowering things we can help along, but we should never allow this methodology of over-simplification to overrule the solid values of education. Science is finding what is there, not only the findings we have hoped to see.

-Glo

Gloria what you have been explaining on memes now hits a serious level of influencing the outcome of the US elections as mentioned in these two links. How lawful is this?

Cambridge Analytica were involved in the voting at Brexit referendum in UK that resulted in a serious political and economic situation for UK, EU and many other countries. 

Clinton, Trump schooled by Twitter on debate tactics - CNET

https://www.cnet.com/news/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-presidential-debates-president-isis-fact-check/?utm_content=buffer2717b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Trump Campaign's Data Firm Partner Cambridge Analytica Worked for Cruz | National Review

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438739/trump-campaigns-data-firm-partner-cambridge-analytica-worked-cruz

John and others,

These revelations about the uses to which data mining of social media can be put are alarming.  You and the cited articles are probably right in that the memes and twitter real-time scraping will be a major factor, if not the major factor, in elections to come.

Gloria, that's a frightening thought, thanks for your comment.

Actually, its an AMUSING thought.

Guy Debord had it right all along. The Society of the Spectacle--the wholesale reduction of politics and governance to mass media-- is the true name of the historical era that we live in.

ALSO:

Paul Virilio: the politics of the very worst

Jean Baudrillard: simualacra/simulation

George Orwell's "Animal Farm" published in August 1945 is funny but realistic as he gave us an insight into what today's situation would be. 

Just because something is realistic doesn't mean that it can't be funny. Just as something that is funny can be realistic.

Like Truth.

I have assembled a Power Point slide show of my data set and enlarged it with a couple new slides about the data analysis corps. that John mentioned. In his recent post.

See this ref.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica

This relates to E. A. Poe's best hiding place in "The Purloined Letter." Right out there sitting in plain view, as it were.

I was inspired to post to Facebook again. 

This sketch is called Screaming Meme-ies. 

Gloria in my research for my publication on Convivencia ,https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299174390  I came across the use of Psychological Operations or PSYOP that are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behaviour of organizations, groups, and individuals. Used in all aspects of war, it is a weapon whose effectiveness is limited only by the ingenuity of the commander using it. The following reference seems to indicate that your question and the development you have recorded are aligned to PSYOP in warfare.

Ed ROSE Psychological Operations/Warfare, www.psywarrior.com/psyhist.html

www.psywarrior.com/psyhist.html

.

Article Convivencia: Winning the War Against Xenophobia in the Heart...

Memes can be useful in the oldest rhetorical games.  When our neighbors can seem no longer to be our neighbors but some demon to fear, this is not a good way to proceed.

Hello, Everyone,

I have a couple more articles to share:

ARTICLE 1:

The first is from Bloomberg and it is very topical about meme use and election manipulation.  Perhaps the data miners can work with campaign staff on developing memes that match the traits that they uncover via this data mining firm's personality tests--5 or 7 point test.

LINK:  http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2015-11-12/is-the-republican-party-s-killer-data-app-for-real-

ARTICLE 2:

You may wish add Theresa Enos (pron. THUR-esa) and her

"eternal golden braid" to your methods. She died last week and the field of rhetoric is in mourning.

Back story: Thera Enos was my dissertation director and Head of our U of Arizona RCTE Program. (Rhet., Comp. Teaching of English). She also founded the _Rhetoric Review_ and co-authored _The Encyclopedia of Rhetoric_.

She made a successful case for the paradigm shift from the old Aristotelian win-lose persuasive rhetoric to a new rhetoric of identification that is win-win. She changed my life in terms of how I see human communication because the ingrained--as you know--is pervasive.

Her landmark essay is "An Eternal Golden Braid" Subtitle Rhetor as Audience, Audience as Rhetor. Here she entered a profoundly male arena at that time and made the case that the old forensic model could be spiraled upwards--as some put it--to a newer model called identification rhetoric that operate son a win-win basis.

I add this in honor of my mentor.

-Glo

Hello,

My colleague form the WPA-L list (US Writing Program Administrators list) pointed me to this new article from Bloomberg after he had read my data set.

Here is that link:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-27/inside-the-trump-bunker-with-12-days-to-go

I asked the colleague to start thinking of ways to counter subliminal meme flogging in our writing classrooms.  We have always used rational appeals in rhetoric as well as emotion and the appeal of what Aristotle called the 'fronimo,' good man, who wants to lead because he claims to have the 'ethos' (ethics, character) needed.  The use of subliminal social media "meme flogging"  apparently gets around the rational and conscious mind to the unconscious where few controls serve to balance self-interest.

Does "meme flogging" more and more specifically targeted audiences overcome their better selves and better judgment in terms of eliciting more "knee jerk" responses that "feel good" because so polarized and ego-flattering?

Before we had to deal with social media in writing classes, we have taught that the selfish in our own positions could be made more in tune with common good and meeting of people with differing views to find negotiated solutions.  Now we are having to work on how to teach in a time when brain stem thinking may be being massaged.  This digital brain stem massage is outlined in this Bloomberg article.

The dirty tricks of politics. The new learning as a profession on offer to our students at classrooms and at varsity lectures.  

People are showing up in large numbers here at ResearchGate to read the working draft of my unpublished essay Citizen Kane and How Green was my Valley turn 75 in a Time of Demagogues.  From a rhetorical standpoint, this essay touches a number of issues tied to memes such as ingrained biases in language itself.

The essay analyzes the cult of the mighty and literary film genres as currently set up to reflect the focus on the mighty.  I guess Dubord's and Bordieu's theories of spectacle could be used to deepen the observations.

I have close ties with working-class family but the huge numbers of under-employed or precariously employed do frighten people who are less connected and perhaps do not see working-class people as people like themselves.  The MEMES exacerbate and replicate (by sharing so many memes) fears between racial, gender, class, etc., groups.

I can see the dangers in populist appeals via social media we are discussing here but I also must conclude that there is little real participation or connection with people who feel but cannot affect the decisions from the top strata of society.  The memes are causing less thinking for oneself than ever because they are so easy to share. This film review takes on some of these issues from a different angle.

I have no pat solutions or answers but noticed that when How Green was My Valley won the best picture Oscar in 1942, that act unleashed resentment of the film HGWMV.  There are deep and subtle cleavages of class at work in the resentment of critics for the film's Best Picture Oscar over Citizen Kane in 1942--still a very sore spot with critics in 2016.

Gloria, in my own research work, the history of fascism is referred to in my following publication stressing the irreparable damage this tragedy has had on our minds and those of families that fought, died and survived the Spanish Civil war during 1936 to 1938 and the years that followed under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Network Africa A Complex System

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273766071_Network_Africa_A_Complex_System

This legacy of Franco and fascism has survived and been recorded more recently in the following link.

Spain and the lingering legacy of Franco | World news | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/28/spain-lingering-legacy-franco

Fascism is still alive in our civilization as reviewed in the following link.

8 Signs You Are Living Under a Fascist Regime | Dissident Voice

http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/01/the-resistible-rise-of-global-fascism-2/

Book Network Africa A Complex System

I think that the GREAT UNKNOWN at work at this election--and it may be something that I would like to start a separate thread on--is simply this: WHY, exactly, is it impossible to have a discussion about CLASS in the USA? Or, more precisely--what is it about our political culture that causes us (collectively) to re-encode issues and problems of CLASS in terms of RACE, or, more recently, with the entry of Feminism into the mainstream, in terms of GENDER? We collectively prefer cultural/identity explanations rather than materialist or economistic explanations for class conflict, translating them into the conceptual frames or paradigms, of racist discrimination or misogyny. Whereas in Europe (in general), one would regard Racism as a by-product of class inequalities (a la Bernie Sanders), in North America, it is the reverse: class inequalities are the by-product of racist persecution.

So:

American political orthodoxy:

Racism causes class conflict

American political heresy: class conflict causes Racism.

And this is not an abstract question; as Bernie Sanders learned the hard way, he was labelled as a RACIST by the African community  precisely because his social and economic reform programs were intentionally cast in terms of RACE NEUTRALITY. And, with perfect 20/20 hindsight: the DNC would have been much better off nominating Sanders as their candidate (who almost certainly would have appointed Elizabeth Warren as the VP nominee).

And let's be honest: how could the recent billion dollar clownfest that we laughably call 'the election'be understood in any other way than a massive nationally coordinated exercise in IDENTITY POLITICS, this as the simulacra for apocalyptic warfare? (check out Aaron Sorkin's open letter to his daughter published in Vanity Fair if you do not believe me on this last point).

Here's an interesting (= subversive) thought. If we buy into the central tenent of identity politics--namely that subjective identity 'trumps'(!) everything--then how, exactly do we explain the existence of POOR WHITE people? I mean, if race-is-really-everything (=identity-is-really-everything)  then every single white person is absolutely privileged (at least in comparison to Blacks and Latinos).

So how do we explain dirt-poor whites?

SIMPLE!!!

In America if you are white and poor, then--THERE MUST BE SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cause, like--you've got no excuse!

Which means that--ABSOLUTELY NO ONE HAS TO LISTEN TO YOU BECAUSE YOUR POORNESS AS A WHITE PERSON PROVES THAT YOU ARE A BASKET CASE/DEPLORABLE

Or, at least Aaron Sorkin and his daughter do not have to take you seriously.

MEMES anyone?

Mignolo, see attached link, reminds us that the word “Racism” originates from the word “raza” that is attributed to the process of selecting a pure line of horses in Spanish.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299174390

Walter MIGNOLO. Islamophobia and Hispanophobia: How They Came Together in the Euro-American Imagination. IN Arches Quarterly

“Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hatred: Causes & Effects”, Volume 4 Edition 7, Winter 2010, ISSN 17567335, Published and available online,

The Cordoba Foundation, pp 23-76 www.thecordobafoundation.com (Accessed 18 February 2016)

Article Convivencia: Winning the War Against Xenophobia in the Heart...

John,

Looked at your complex system research and you may be intersted in what I have been doing at Facebook.  I am giving open tutorials there in how data is mined from people at Facebook and how this may be used for various purposes.  Here is that most recent post.

QUOTED FROM FACEBOOK:

Data Mining Tutorial #1:

By reading one computer science paper at MIT's Department of Management, I learned that there is a nifty free tool at Google called "Google Trends" (search that and try your own key words) that will allow user to track the trending word searches. I chose a couple popular names in the news. Understanding a trend has been important for marketers, of course, but also tracking opinions of various topics. My MIT source says that the quantity was too small in Google Trends to be truly "Big Data" for use in machine learning of whether--say--voters will zig or zag over a given topic and this paper offers some help for would-be predictors of human behavior.

Google Trends

Explore search interest for Stephen Bannon, Jared Kushner by time, location and popularity on Google Trends

google.com

Gloria

Many thanks for your message and for your Data Mining Tutorial # 1.

I tested the Google Trends you suggested and got the following on the word "xenophobia" in South Africa.

It was the second in the list. I will test this more as I like this process but need to understand how I am going to add value of this data in my research.

John

About 10 500 000 results (0,58 seconds) 

Search Results

xenophobia

It then gave me many references to read.

And consider this, John.The text Hooked is shedding light on how ppl get hooke dby Facebook and made susceptible to "radicalization" via various repeatedly shared "memes":

A good text is also _Hooked: How to Build Habit-forming Products_, 2013, by Nir Eyal.

I just figured out something about Facebook, for example.

QUOTED from my post to the national Writing Program Administrators' list.

"Into your email box pops this message. "Jane Smith commented your (or someone else's name here) post."

In traditional operant conditioning, lab rats learn to pull the lever for a food pellet and here is how we lear to do similar behaviors and get a tiny endorphin dopamine rush.

This is an 'external trigger' from Facebook, according to Eyal's text.  External triggers cause habit formation.

How many "someone commented' messages do we get each day from Facebook? These alerts plead with us:

DON"T YOU CARE? Don't you want to see what ego-gratifying words Jane has posted to your comment and GO TO FACEBOOK to answer them?

(I must pause now to scratch my little mouse whiskers--Bye!)"

Gloria

I have run Google Trends and researched on LinkedIn the words ABInBev, SABMiller and Heineken over the last 12 months as the merger between ABInBev and SABMiller was being finalised. See attached where the results are captured on Word as screen dumps from Google.

I found the results very interesting and allow me to compare the results in 12 months time as the joint company merged formally on 16 October 2016.

I was also interested as I researched this subject and its published in LinkedIn https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308035374

Your comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

John

Technical Report Cross cultural analysis applying World Value Survey principl...

John,

In you posted essay above.

One problem in the world value survey comes from the summary.

Maybe it is inaccurate.

But if accurate, then the same problem here as with the election in the US.  People cared more about economics than social issues.  They voted for Trump even when not racist themselves because he promised good paying jobs. Memes serve to fire up hostility over the issue of jobs, as with other issues.

Your summary seems to minimize the importance of well-paid jobs on people's thinking.

Otherwise, I thought the whole essay welldone and packed with much information that can be applied cross-culturally.

Gloria

4.1. WVS Principles20

The World Values Survey (WVS) is a global research project that explores people’s values

and beliefs, how they change over time and what social and political impact they have. It is

carried out by a worldwide network of social scientists who, since 1981, have conducted

representative national surveys in almost 100 countries.

The WVS measures, monitors and analyzes: support for democracy, tolerance of foreigners

and ethnic minorities, support for gender equality, the role of religion and changing levels of

religiosity, the impact of globalization, attitudes toward the environment, work, family,

politics, national identity, culture, diversity, insecurity, and being. The findings provide

information for policy makers seeking to build civil society and democratic institutions in

developing countries.

Gloria

I very much appreciate your comments on the essay posted, especially your final comments. 

I believe the summary is accurate, as I assessed it. Your comparison with the US election is very interesting.

May be I have minimized the importance of well paid jobs on people's thinking. This could be because the pay across the international brewing industry evaluated  is not a key issue of discontent at present as these companies have good parity in salaries and hourly rates even considering variations across countries. Strong Labour Unions protect workers in these countries and companies.  The key issue could be job losses as these mergers and acquisitions drive savings by contraction of employee numbers  and optimisatiom of operations, typical of globalization: the danger of the new age of civilization!  This issue is being researched extensively academically and its impact on social policies and strategies in the public and private sectors, as you well know. 

WVS measures are important as the brewing industry cultures and values are not always aligned with those of the WVS. 

John

Hello, John,

I wish I could locate source but it seems over several articles about how more upscale critics have misread the supporters of the tea party, Trump, etc., it is because the two opposed groups cannot agree even on what are the types of evidence in support of claims. If you survey omits omse of what the least affluent have in mind that determines their behavior this can be a validity concern (stats term usage of validity) for that survey.  It may well be that in war zones salary issues are secondary but whereever not active fighting, it is best to keep this in mind with US example.

See Jean-Francois Lyotard The Differend. (1983) wherein the example of Holocaust denier and Holocaust survivors is given as proof of two discourse groups who do not credit each other's type of evidence, thus leading to intractable conflict.

Disaffected populism: (US) wants those well-paid jobs back, they like folksy and idiomatic usage as well as profanity and sexually charged language, they follow those who tell off the elites and their proper speech approach.  This is advanced on social media via partisan memes which come to a person's FB page in long cascades.

Establishment rhetoric: (US) "overlooks" economic triggers in audience--things that can cost money to firms or cut into shareholder profits. Emphasizes personal and civil liberties, propriety and fair speech.  Now the more educated are also adopting the memes to lash back at the populists on Facebook rather than maintaining a more reasoned approach.

Hope this helps! Glo

How "radicalization" happens in social media must be due in part to seeing streams of hate-filled memes.

My musings below may weigh in more on the "dangers of memes" side than the opening question above (apologies), but I think some kind of check on all this meme activity is in order. Another RG researcher I follow, the Temple University philosopher H. G. Callaway, has a question about defining authoritarianism.

I see the problem with memes as being semiotic and philosophical.  What one person calls a "hate" meme could be labelled "important information that needs to get shared" by another.

I made my little "NO HATE MEMES" graphic and have made this my FB page profile background photo.

However, that ambiguous definition of what is hate is the problem.  I *hope* that this graphic will at least slow people down in sharing their addiction so many times a day.  Perhaps if we consciously wonder if this poster is contributing to the overall hatred, then we will think twice before posting. (Even if being totally right feels so good.)

As always I welcome your comments and have no great hopes that my little anti-meme will vaccinate many against the hate memes.  I just have never seen a graphic like this taking on hate memes.

BIG THINGS HAVE SMALL BEGINNINGS

Gloria, greatly support your "Hate Memes" campaign.

As you know my passionate research on Convivencia as a means of communicating the  importance of Peace has been ongoing. From the comments I have received from many of my RG followers from around the world after over 800 reads of my publication, has  convinced me we are on the path to dealing with hate by understanding how it destroys the very essence of life and friendship. 

May be Eric is right with what he quotes above; "Big Things have Small Beginnings". 

I will certainly stick to what I know works, "treat people as you want to be treated yourself", one of the great sayings my father always said to me over the years. Sadly I faulted on his words of wisdom more times that I care to think about, but it still works for me. 

Actually, I ''stole'' it from the David Lean masterpiece, 'Lawrence of Arabia', one of the truly great films.

Would be a bit more happy with it tough, Gloria, if we remembered--and as this year's billion-dollar election/jokefest clearly showed--that the 'progressive'Left can be as hate-filled (and hate-inducing) as the reactionary right.

SALON is a rag, but there was one good article a while ago on the election in which an unnamed but very senior pollster was quoted as opining: 'All that the 2016 election really comes down to is that economically under-privileged heterosexual white males finally figured out a way to do identity politics of their own. It's called Donald Trump.' (paraphrase).

The nice thing about IT is that absolutely anybody can use it for any purpose whatsoever--just like with nukes.

Loopy, but true: these facts will rock your world - Make Me Feed

http://us.makemefeed.com/2016/12/01/loopy-but-true-these-facts-will-rock-your-world-3490179.html

Research: David Mccandless, Stephenie Smith, Esther Kersley

Sources: CIA. NYTimes, Bloomberg, UN, The Economist, World Bank, Reuters, BBC, and many others.

Loopy, but can these indicators be termed, memes, behaviors, trends or what ever the IT  body that has contributed to this extraordinary accumulation of data from people who are on any of these data bases. 

As we read that South Africa's indicator is DEATH, US is Spam mail, Canada is Facebook Addicts, Cuba is Doctors, Australia is Data Breaches, Mexico is Lemons, Israel is Medical Research, France is Whiskey Drinkers, we wonder what this tells us about ourselves as people? That we are LOOPY! 

Not only LOOPY but filled with de-contextualized information.  The meme stream is a prime example of info bleats with zero context by which a person's brain can build dendritic webs that allow for comparisons, generalizations, exceptions to generalization and all the machinery of what we call critical thinking.

This LOOPY data dump came just as I was thinking of the dubious contribution of meme streams: the huge growth of decontextual factoids.  And because a whole generation or two is unlearning the value of study of a target topic IN context, nobody now knows how to confront the most outrageous lies and cynical manipulations.

I may be off on one side in favor of building a context.  Even contexts can be skewed, filled with gaps and lacunae, not to mention biases, but having no context makes us resemble those delightfully simple Eloi in H. G. Wells The Time Machine who were being raised and harvested by the cannibal Morlocks who still knew how things worked at a basic level.

 Critical thinking

My studies in the science of "Change in Complex Systems", such as corporates organizations , taught me the importance of Critical Thinking. Having applied this theory over the years, communication within teams coming from very different ethnic and gender roots has been very positive as the benefits of maintaining "The Eternal Golden Braid" (Theresa Enos) between us have been successfully achieved. In my publication below I stress the importance of identifying Critical Thinkers to ensure all participants involved are allowed to contribute to a change process, in this case changing the hearts and minds of all those effected by Xenophobia.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299174390_Convivencia_Winning_the_War_Against_Xenophobia_in_the_Hearts_and_Minds_of_People

These two references on Critical Thinking are only two of many other publications.

[C01] What is critical thinking?

http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php

cultivating critical thinking within organisations. frederick a ricci - Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?q=cultivating+critical+thinking+within+organisations.+frederick+a+ricci&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8rZyiq9fQAhXKJsAKHXGzC18QgQMIFjAA

Now we see published data as the one referring to the world being LOOPY in my previous message, and wonder if there is a new wave of psychologists trying to indoctrinate us into thinking "their way". We have seen this happening very effectively over the ages in religious, political and educational institutions set up to change the minds of the population they wish to dominate.

What is concerning are the school history books in different countries, where children only learn about the "glorious past" of their countries that reflect history from a one sided perspective. We see this happening every time there is a new regime change, so children are brought up with the lies of the past, where the "victims" of the old regime are made to be bad people and children of the new regime are the good people. I saw this happening in Spain after the Civil War and now in South Africa after the fall of apartheid. This is causing serious xenophobia across the world.

Is scientific research getting closer to the TRUTH of what we are and what we need to be to survive in the world we live in through fast moving IT systems as social networks, audio-visuals, TV and printed material, being these the many ways it exists today?

Interpersonal communications at grass roots level in villages and small communities or as mass rallies also carry their own messages that influences us in positive and negative ways. How does the brain assimilate and digest all this into some form of logical process that make us into people that contribute to peace and harmony?

Gloria thanks for our on going debate on this important aspect of learning.

Your question was focused on the effect of Facebook "memes" on the brain, but it has created more in the passage of knowledge sharing. 

John 

Article Convivencia: Winning the War Against Xenophobia in the Heart...

Always liked the Morlocks better than the Eloi.

The Eloi were creepy--once you really got to know them well.

The Morocks were just Lancastrian miners, even more hyper-devolved, with a really bad attitude...

I will synthesize Eric's and John's previous answers here:

John "wonder(s) if there is a new wave of psychologists trying to indoctrinate us into thinking "their way". We have seen this happening very effectively over the ages in religious, political and educational institutions set up to change the minds of the population they wish to dominate."

The way data is clouding our vision, only a few will be at the tap end, turning the faucet on and off and directing the flow of disjointed endless chatter (yet people will be unable to detach because of the market principle "FOMO"--fear of missing out).

A pleasant picture, indeed.  The "Morlocks," if I may use that metaphor again, will be those few who can walk away from screens, living their luxurious lives with their minions sending out endless streams.  Now there are Morlock psychologists and it appears there are psychologists studying the effects of what the Morlocks are doing to the poor shallow Eloi.  Who will prevail?  I just contacted George Lakoff emeritus from Berkeley about the data set.  He is one researcher in both linguistics and cognitive science with a global reputation.  He says he will look it over because it looks interesting and will reply.  Perhaps he will.

PS: My sympathies are with the old working-class Morlocks, but these new model are nastier and not even that sympathetic.

'My sympathies are with the old working-class Morlocks'

YOUR FEELINGS BETRAY YOU!!!

DARTH PLAUGEIS (currently masquerading as SUPREME LEADER SNOKE) has already divined that the fatal flaw of the Galactic Empire was SENTIMENT ('Luke, I am your Father'= 'Luke, you are my Son')

Let me know if George Lakoff responds--I am not up on memes much, but I am big on phenomenology.  Am very interested in his thoughts on this.

As we know, Morlocks and Eloi are characters in Time Machine by H.G.Wells published in 1895, where he expresses his political views concerning life's imbalances between the rich and the poor. Those were the conditions in the days of the industrial revolution in England. Interesting that psychologists are now comparing the Mortlocks and Elois of today. "Morlocks" aka "miners" or "rubbish" and Eloi" aka "lesser gods".

Technological advancements and Corporate mergers and acquisitions in the modern era are just as profitable for some and destructive to many more, creating wider gaps between many in knowledge and in human and natural resources. The richer get richer and the poor get poorer, and some do not get an education, work, water or food. 

I would also defend the Morlocks.

this link is useful

https://thetartan.org/2017/10/9/forum/meme

regards

Dear Colleague Hassan Nima,

This is very good journalism. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I will have to read it a couple times.

I totally agree with Eric Wilson

John Cluett has a good idea