zenzero

I have begun some preliminary research into the similarities between memes, parasitic relationships and the cycle of abusive relationships between humans and why it is so difficult for people to get out of abusive relationships. A meme needs not to be forgotten and needs to operate in a cycle and repetitively recur. In the world of memetic theory you will usually be sited cultural examples such as fashion and music how trends tend to revive themselves as people grow and reflect back towards their youth. In the world of emotional/domestic abuse it is also a well know fact that when a person tries to leave the relationship, it is the most dangerous time. The pathogen(abuser) will stop at nothing to keep its host(abused) to maintain control of them, since they depend on the host to sustain and validate themselves. This relationship biologically and culturally could be explained also with mematic theory for why such abuse tends to be passed down generation by generation. Bringing into it the whole nature vs. nurture debate, I cannot see how abuse could be hard coded genetically into our systems, rather that it is learned as well as the predisposition to become a host to such abuse.

It is well documented that all forms of abuse are forms of disease.

A victims abuser is quite literally a parasitic host.

Like a bacteria which cause a disease in a compromised host which typically would not occur. The host acts as an opportunistic pathogen.

The abuser infects its host through a complicated method over time. Weakening its hosts both constitutive & inducible defense systems.

A meme, being the building block of cultural evolution or a diffusion that propagates from one mind to another analogously to the way in which a gene propagates from one organism to another as a unit of genetic information and of biological evolution.

If a meme is to be spread by a host for a long time, the host must remember the meme. If a host is infected and later forgets the meme and/or stops acting out the new behaviour before the host has spread the meme on, the host has not done the meme any more good than if the host had not been infected in the first place. Thus successful memes encourage permanent or long-lasting changes in the host. Note that it is not necessary for the hosts to remember the meme itself, just change their behaviours in a way that will promote the spread of the (reconstructed) meme.