The English suffix -ism was first used to form a noun of action from a verb, as in baptism, from baptein, a Greek word meaning "to dip". Its usage was later extended to signify systems of belief. The first recorded usage of the suffix ism as a separate word in its own right was in 1680. By the nineteenth century it was being used by Thomas Carlyle to signify a pre-packaged ideology. It was later used in this sense by such writers as Julian Huxley and George Bernard Shaw. In the present day, it appears in the title of a standard survey of political thought, Today's ISMS by William Ebenstein.
The -ism suffix can be used to express the following concepts:
- doctrine, theory or religion (e.g. pacifism)
- theory developed by an individual (e.g. Marxism)
- political movement (e.g. feminism)
- action, process or practice (e.g. terrorism)
- characteristic, quality or origin (e.g. heroism)
- state or condition (e.g. pauperism)
- excess or disease (e.g. botulism)
- prejudice or bias (e.g. racism)
- characteristic speech patterns (e.g. Yogiism)
There are long lists
of isms. To over simplify, an ism is a way to think about a group of
people who do something different. This is a way to think about
cultural changes or paradigms. The more followers or participants an ism
attracts, the more likely it will be to affect the status quo. The
early isms were apparently about regional, racial and linguistic
distinctions which eventually became codified as social norms,
politics, rules, regulations and laws. Such moral implications turned
into religious prohibitions (thou shalt not). In some ways religion
helped stabilize cultures and the family unit, but at a terrible price.
Anytime a belief system tries to separate the human psyche into a good and a worthless portion, there is great danger. This tactic of "divide and conquer" has always been used to bring about mankind's greatest inhumanities. This polarization has been
at the root of almost all murder, war, and the
primary instrument of oppression. The idea that "we are good and they are bad," is invariably used to justify the worst atrocities, usually under the deceptive guise of religious
bigotry.
Both political and religious
restraints sometimes act as a hedge against anarchy and chaos. Such
repressions are usually good for the state but not so good for the
individual. Old Chinese common law was severe; "steal an orange, lose a
hand." Even more cruel and repressive conditions resulted from the
caste systems such as in India, where people born into a lowly cast
were permanently condemned to subservient poverty. Prohibitions against
women and dark skinned races were once almost universal. But perhaps
the most pervasive form of repression is elitism, which insures advantages for the wealthy.
This has become so bad that we now live in
a world where virtually everything is for sale to the highest bidder, resulting in the commodification of everything including the very planet
itself -- the land, the water, and the atmosphere, as well as the
plants and animals. This behavior is menacingly self destructive. And it is becoming increasingly apparent that unless it changes drastically and soon, this
planet cannot sustain anything like 7 billion humans, much less the 9 billion that is projected statistically.
Over time we have become
so accustomed to the exploitation of any and all natural resources that
we somehow failed to see this as a sort of economic Ponzi scheme. The
paradigm of plundering nature and exploiting the poor lasted a long
time, but is apparently unsustainable and coming to an end as natural
resources dwindle. The economies and systems predicated on such
exploitation must fail along with the institutions that support them.
Where then can we turn for a better way?
A meme is "an idea,
behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."
A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or
practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through
writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena.
Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes
in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.
A field of study called memetics arose in the 1990s to explore the
concepts and transmission of memes in terms of an evolutionary model.
The
word meme was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard
Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of
evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural
phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies,
catch-phrases, fashion and architectural technology.
Proponents
theorize that memes may evolve by natural selection in a manner
analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the
processes of variation, mutation, competition and inheritance, each of
which influence a meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the
behaviors that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less
prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread and
(for better or for worse) mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively
enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they
prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.
Dawkins
used the term to refer to any cultural entity that an observer might
consider a replicator. He hypothesized that one could view many
cultural entities as replicators, and pointed to melodies, fashions and
learned skills as examples. Memes generally replicate through exposure
to humans, who have evolved as efficient copiers of information and
behavior. Because humans do not always copy memes perfectly, and
because they may refine, combine or otherwise modify them with other
memes to create new memes, they can change over time. Dawkins likened
the process by which memes survive and change through the evolution of
culture to the natural selection of genes in biological evolution.
So
an idea that spreads quickly through the
Internet is an Internet meme. This process speeds up the development of
concepts and seems to be one of the more promising aspects of technology. If
technology (industrialization) got us into this, maybe it can help with a solution. An idea
whose time has come can get millions of hits almost instantly. Who says
it has to be about gossip, matchmaking, music, porn, or buying and
selling.
If somebody comes up with a way to save the humans, wouldn't
you want to know? Recent developments in contemplative neuroscience seems to offer some hope. Brain plasticity occurs throughout life and it is evident that compassion can be learned by training the human mind using attention and intention.
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