"The life of the bee will be the life of our race" - Nikola Tesla.
We seem to be at a point in human evolution as unprecedented as every other point that has come before us on this ever-unwinding line. As part of a generation that seems destined to be shaped by the latest bust of our rather crude boom-and-bust economy, there are many fears, anxieties and uncertainties that we are trying to grapple with. There is much to be concerned about, starting from the micro-level instabilities, such as those regarding our personal financial stability, career prospects and most essentially, maintaining a core group of social support. On a more global level, worrisome trends include the barely comprehensible algorithm driving the global economy, the wave of political wrangling between and within countries and, to throw things into even more of a loop, the onslaught of natural catastrophes. However, after taking continuous deep breaths (meditation/yoga has been good for my sanity), I am able to step back and observe the remarkable shift in thinking that we are experiencing in the form of the rapid circulation of "memes."
Whether we are aware of it or not, we seem to be in an age of ever-increasing interconnectivity. With the beautifully incomprehensible, fluid and ever-expanding entity that is the Internet, we are constantly circulating our experiences, identities, emotions and ideas, which as a whole can be encapsulated in the term "memes," or a unit of social information. Memes, now brought to life in a medium in which they can thrive, appear to be revealing their true nature — that they transmit themselves virally. This appears to be true whether the meme contains mischievous cats (LOLcatz), the lovely Rebecca Black, conspiracy theories such as the recently in-vogue Illuminati references or most alarmingly, words and images that circulate hate. The infectiousness of ideas is quite clear. You have to look no further than Youtube comments to see that the degree of classist, sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and other comments symptomatic of "categoryitis" oscillates considerably depending on which video you are viewing.
In fact, the viral nature of memes means that they are capable of being spread far and wide with just a moment of awareness and a click of a button. And they attain power in the most peculiar ways, rational and irrational, filtered through our Internet-attuned senses directly to our mind. This means that being mindful of the memes to which we expose ourselves on a daily basis is part of a larger picture. Or to put it simply, as a good friend of mine likes to say, "Good input equals good output." I think she means that if you expose yourself on a daily basis to ideas that consist of beauty, logic, creativity, tolerance and so on, you are more likely to generate such ideas. Conversely, if you expose yourself on a daily basis to ideas that contain hatred, irrational fears, prejudices and so on, you may find yourself working for Fox News. The viral power of memes works on an individual level and on a societal level.
In regards to the power of memes, I believe there is one that trumps the rest in its sheer effectiveness in transmitting meaning: the symbol. I am utterly enchanted by the ancient power of symbols, which appear to me to be one of the most potent forms of memes due to the ease and speed in which they are circulated. Their power is manifested in many of our dominant cultural activities whether it be religion, sports, corporations, nation-states (most notably used in recent history by Nazi Germany) and my personal favorite, music. In regards to musicians, I am particularly fond of Justice, the French electronic duo and their re-appropriation of the Christian cross, Aphex Twin's "A" logo referencing the ability of machines to one day recognize fluid concepts, and the Rock-a-Fella "Diamond" hand gesture flashed by Jay-Z and Rihanna, signaling that wealth equals power, as especially effective and meaningful memes.
What does the viral nature of memes and their power mean for you? Fortunately, I can only speak for myself. For me being aware of the viral nature of memes has allowed me to become a more compassionate person. Before, when I heard comments filled with ignorance and hate, I tensed up and occasionally made a snappy retort. Now, when I hear someone denigrating other people or clutching to their fundamental belief systems or caught in a loop of perpetual self-aggrandizement, I treat them as if they have a common cold. I try to smile with compassion and hope they get better because people seem capable of changing as long as they open up to the possibility of different ideas. To put it shortly, I have learned that creating and circulating my own memes, like the one you are reading now, is much more effective than the occasional "snappy retort" in real-time.
I would like to close with the "memes" of two very alert human beings. They deal with the apathy virus that seems to have infected much of our Millennial generation. The first is from Douglas R. Hofstadter, whose book "Escher Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid" changed my mind quite a few times, addressing the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. In an article he writes: "Apathy on the individual level translates into insanity at the mass level." The next is from Buckminster or "Bucky" Fuller, who was also a polymath like Hofstadter. One of my favorite lines of his is: "The Things to do are: the things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done — that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual." I think there will be much to ponder in our lifetimes, but hopefully not overwhelmingly so. I believe that every single one of us has new memes to generate and actions to take. I look forward to what the effects of these may be.