(in sexual species, eggs or sperm) at the right time (fertilisation) before it propagates itself in any genetic sense. None of this stops genetics being a real science, and a very exciting and important one. So the fuzziness of definitions is not a good stick with which to beat the memetic dog, or indeed any dog that has anything going for it.
In his original discussion, almost as an aside, Dawkins suggested that religion is a meme, which goes something like 'If you wish to avoid the everlasting fires, you must believe this, and pass it on to your children'.76 The popularity of religion is no doubt more complicated than that; nevertheless, there is the germ of an idea here, because that sentence does correspond rather closely to the central message of many -not all -religions. The theologian John Bowker was sufficiently disturbed by this suggestion that he wrote Is God a Virus? to shoot it down. The fact that he bothered shows that he saw it as an important (and from his viewpoint dangerous)
question.
Blackmore recognises that a religion, or any ideology, is too complex to be propagated by a single meme, just as an organism is too complex to be propagated by a single gene. Dawkins recognised this, too, and came up with a concept that he called 'coadapted meme complexes'.
These are systems of memes that replicate collectively. The meme 'If you wish to avoid the everlasting fires, you must believe this, and pass it on to your children' is too simple to get very far, but if it is allied to other memes like 'The way to avoid the everlasting fires can be found in the Holy Book' and 'You must read the Holy Book or face eternal damnation', then the whole collection of memes forms a network that replicates far more effectively.
A complexity theorist would call such a collection of memes an 'autocatalytic set': each meme is catalysed, its replication is assisted, by some or all of the others. In 1995 Hans-Cees Speel coined the term 'memeplex'. Blackmore has a whole chapter on 'Religions as memeplexes'. If this line of argument bothers you, hang on a minute. Are you saying that religion is not a collection of beliefs and instructions that can be passed very successfully from one person to another? That's what 'memeplex' means. Anyway, replace 'religion' by 'political party' if you want to -not the one you support, naturally. Those other idiots who advocate/despise (delete whichever is inapplicable) free market economics, state pensions, public ownership of industry, private ownership of public services ... And bear in mind that while the secret of the spread of your own religion may be that it is The Truth, that can't possibly be the secret of the spread of all those other false religions in the world. Why the devil do sensible people believe that kind of rubbish?
Because it is a successful memeplex.
The evidence for memetic transmission of ideologies is extensive. For example, every one of the world's religions (barring ancient ones whose origins are lost in the mists of time) seems to have started with a very small group of believers and a charismatic leader. They are specific to particular cultural backgrounds; the meme needs a fertile substrate on which to grow. Many cherished beliefs of Christianity, for example, seem absurd to anyone not brought up in the Christian tradition. Virgin birth? (Well, that one was actually an inspired mistranslation of the Hebrew for 'young woman', but no matter.) Restored the dead to life? Communion wine becomes blood? Communion wafers are the body of Christ -and you eat them? Really? To believers, of course, all this makes perfect sense, but to outsiders, uninfected by the meme, it's laughable.77
Blackmore points out that when it comes to a choice between doing good and spreading the meme, religious people tend to go for the meme. To most Catholics, and many other people, Mother Teresa was a saint (and she looks well set to become one in the fullness of time). Her work in the slums of Calcutta was selfless and altruistic. She did a lot of good, no question. But some Calcuttans feel that she diverted attention away from the real problems, and helped only those who accepted the teachings of her faith. For example, she was staunchly against birth control, the one practical thing that would have done the most good for the young women who needed her help. But the Catholic memeplex forbids birth control, and in a crunch, the meme wins. Blackmore sums up her analysis like this: These religious memes did not set out with an intention to succeed. They were just behaviours, ideas and stories that were copied from one person to another ... They were successful because they happened to come together into mutually supportive gangs that included all the right tricks to keep them safely stored in millions of brains, books and buildings, and repeatedly passed on to more.
In Shakespeare, memes become art. And now we move up another conceptual level. In drama, genes and memes cooperate to produce a temporary construct on a stage, for other extelligences to view. Shakespeare's plays give them pleasure, and change their minds. They, and works like them, redirect human culture by attacking our own mental elvishness.
The power of story. Don't leave home without it. And never, never, never underestimate it.
A WOMAN ON STAGE
It was the smell of the theatre Rincewind remembered. People talked about 'the smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd' but, he assumed, the word 'roar' must have been taken to mean the same as 'stink'. He also wondered why this theatre was called The Globe. It was not even completely circular. But, he supposed, the new world might happen here ...
He'd made a big concession for the occasion. He'd unstitched the few remaining sequins from the word WIZZARD' on his hat. Given its general lack of shape, and his robe's raggedness, it now made him look far more like one of the crowd, albeit a one that knew the meaning of the word
'soap'.
He worked his way back through the throng to the wizards, who had managed to get real seats.
'How is it going?' said Ridcully. 'Remember, lad, the show must go on!'
'Things are fine, as far as I can see,' whispered Rincewind. 'No sign of any elves at all. We did spot a fishmonger in the crowd, so the Librarian slugged him and hid him behind the theatre, just in case.'
'You know,' said the Chair of Indefinite Studies, who was leafing through the script, 'this chap would write much better plays if he didn't have to have actors in them. They seem to get in the way all the time.'
'I read the Comedy of Errors last night,' said the Dean. 'And I could see the error right there.
There wasn't any comedy. Thank gods for directors.'
The wizards looked at the crowd. It wasn't as well behaved even as the ones back home; people were picnicking, small parties were being held, and there was a general sense that the audience looked upon the actual play as pleasant background noise to their personal social occasions.
'How will we know when it starts?' said the Lecturer in Recent Runes.
'Oh, trumpets get blown,' said Rincewind, 'and then generally two actors come on and tell one another what they already know.'
'No sign of the elves anywhere,' said the Dean, looking around with a hand over one eye. 'I don't like it. It's too quiet.'
'No, sir, no, sir,' said Rincewind. 'That's not the time not to like it. The time not to like it is when it's suddenly as noisy as all hell, sir.'
'Well, you get backstage with Stibbons and the Librarian, will you?' said Ridcully. 'And try not to look conspicuous. We mustn't take any chances.'
Rincewind worked his away around behind the stage, trying not to look conspicuous. But it was a first night, and there was an informality about the whole business that he'd never seen back home. People just seemed to wander around. Back home, there never seemed to be so much pretence; here, the actors played at being people and, down below, people played at being an audience. The overall effect was rather pleasing. The plays had a conspiratorial quality. Make it interesting enough, their audience was saying, and we'll believe anything. If you don't, we'll have a party with our friends right here and throw nuts at you.