Margaret McGhee

Genes and Green Memes

There are two interesting views I have discovered of the "green meme" thing - one from evolutionary biology the other from memetics.

The EB take, greatly simplified, is of course that we evolved to have a capacity for altruism. Long ago humans lived in groups of 150 to 250 people. There was a good chance that any altruism toward group members would benefit your genes directly (kin selection). It also evolved because altruism is not a zero sum behavior. When someone is in desperate need, you may be able to help them significantly at little cost to you. And now you have someone prone to return the favor. Eventually we also evolved the tendency to admire altruistic behavior in others and to want to appear altruistic to others - or at least more altruistic than we are. More benefit - less cost.

The memetic take is that we imitate the behavior (memes) of people who are likeable. That generally means outgoing, friendly, generous - or altruistic. We want to be liked so we imitate their behavior. It therefore becomes fashionable, in a memetic sense, to be more altruistic than we would otherwise be - say from genes alone.

I like them both. When I place these explanations in a current events context I see a basic human social tendency to be altruistic - modulated by cultural memes. Right now there is a meme war going on. Liberals have generally become alarmed at the damage to the environment and pollution caused by massive development and extraction of resources. Their altruistic genes, enhanced by green memes, call for enforced altruism - setting legally enforceable limits on pollution for example. They are generally not too well organized - but their green memes appeal to the genetic tendency in almost everyone to be altruistic.

Conservatives, sensing a threat to their profits or at least to the status quo, are waging a meme war against this movement. They take up the anti-PC banner and fund the campaigns of politicians who are willing to wield the club of governmental power to quash memes that might get in the way of progress (profits). Drill the Artic Wildlife Refuge, scuttle the Global Warming Treaty, etc. They spend massively on PR campaigns and lobbyists and political campaigns to support that effort (meme spreading). One favorite tactic is spreading the "bad, mean, nanny government meme" - that appeals to our genetic tendency to be independent and mistrustful of power wielded by others.

But that's just one slice of the same political battle that's being waged at several levels. Liberals generally believe a better society results from enforced altruism in some important areas - like health care, education, social security as FDR designed it, welfare, Medicare, industry regulation, etc. Conservatives generally have what they need to get by just fine thank you, and can purchase those services for themselves. They would like to see much less altruism in society - which is a drain primarily on their resources. Actually, most of them would be fairly altruistic anyway, as they are in Europe and many other countries. But they have been targeted by the expertly produced anti-green memes and have fallen under their spell. Anti-green, anti-PC is all the rage now, even among many lower and middle class persons who have much to lose and little to gain by decreased altruism.

The money meme could ultimately sway the outcome of this battle since it greatly favors the side with the most money to lose and the most money to spend to prevent that loss. A couple of years ago I would have bet on that outcome.

But if the genes and green memes get their way, eventually the more liberal view has to win. The conservatives will only be able to sustain their control of the process by spending more and more of their money to convince the (ever more skeptical) majority to go along with them and vote against their own interests. I think I see some cracks in the wall (their memes are losing power). I hope so.

Of course, if the threat to their income and assets is serious enough, they could always instigate a war. It's hard to worry about drilling in the Artic when someone is trying to kill you. Nah, they wouldn't do that would they?