A meme is defined as a cultural assumption that is transmitted by repetition and that replicates in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes - or perhaps a better analogy would be that it replicates like a virus. The meme to be successful must sink into the sub-conscious of a people, and this is mainly achieved by aggressive repetition. The poet John Oxenham wrote, "The high soul climbs the high way, the low soul groups the low, and in between on the misty flats the rest drift to and fro." The thought processes of the masses groping about on the misty flats today are almost entirely governed by memes.
An example of one very enduring meme is that Christ and His apostles were poor. Where did that meme come from? - out of the left of course. Christ and His step father were skilled tradesman, why would they be poor? As for the Apostles, St Peter had his own family fishing business that was so successful it could afford hired labour - so why do we assume he was poor? As for St Joseph, do we really believe that God would choose a man to take care of the Christ Child and His Holy Mother who was incompetent at doing so? Money is the receipt that society gives to its members for contributing, if the Holy Family were poor it is because they were not contributing - is it possible for a Catholic to really believe that? When Mary Magdalene poured expensive oil over Christ, Judas protested and suggested that it ought to have been sold and the money given to the poor. Christ responded, "You have the poor among you always, so you can do good to them when you will; I am not always among you." Would that response have made sense if Christ perceived Himself as poor? At His Crucifixion the Roman Soldiery considered His cloak to be of such good quality that it would be a crime to damage it, so they cast lots for it - would that make sense if Christ was wearing the rags of the poor?
Some memes are mercifully short lived or geographically restricted. The meme that Jews were some sort of inferior race that was a threat to civilisation was a meme very successfully propagated by the German Nazis, but it mercifully ran out of most of its steam with the military defeat of its propagators.
The meme that the French Revolution was the result of a brave and noble peasantry rising up against a cruel aristocracy has been far more enduring. The truth, as opposed to the meme, is that the French Revolution was the process by which those who enjoyed economic power extended their grip on political power, and the poor were the biggest losers. A similar meme that is still with us is the one that tells us that General Franco was some sort of evil right-wing dictator. The truth is that General Franco was only persuaded to draw his sword reluctantly in defence of the innocent after the Spanish Communists (financed and radicalised by Moscow) had slaughtered over nine thousand innocent unarmed priests (plus bishops, nuns, laymen and even junior seminarians) and burned innumerable Catholic institutions to the ground. Had it not been the hard left that Franco defeated, he would have been universally regarded as a hero of the common man. He also had the misfortune of opposing Moscow (and defeating its machinations vis-a-vis Spain) at a time when Stalin and Churchill were allies.
There are a couple of enduring memes around the American slave trade. One meme heavily implicates the Catholic kings and queens of Europe, especially the Spanish and Portuguese thrones in the slave trade, completely ignoring the historical fact that most of the movers and shakers in the new world slave trade were Masons, the arch-enemies of Catholicism, and for that matter the arch-enemies of monarchy - they cut off the head of the French King remember. Another meme around the same issue is that this was one of the worst examples of slavery in the history of the human race, blithely ignoring the facts that the Arabs of North Africa have practised slavery on a vast scale for over fourteen centuries, and still practice it to this day.
Another enduring meme is the one that tells us that the Northern Ireland troubles are the result of Catholic and Protestants hating one another. Ignoring completely the fact that the dispute has little or nothing to do with religion and that one of the early leaders of the IRA was a Protestant and the current leaders are Communists. As I say, because the meme resides in the subconscious, facts have little power to weaken or dent it; the meme moves, exists and has its being in some spire outside and beyond the real world.
A more recent meme is the one that tells us that unborn children are, well, not unborn children. That is one meme that is showing signs of beginning to run out of steam, but it still has legs and unfortunately some considerable way to go.
Another recent meme that has been surprisingly successful is the global warming meme, which has more recently morphed into the climate change meme. Memes just like viruses will sometimes mutate to protect themselves. Because the meme largely exists in the subconscious, those infected often reveal the meme by self-contradiction, which can be amusing for those not infected by it. Recently for example ITV wheeled out their science correspondent to inform us that there was a consensus in the scientific community that the recent flooding in the West Country and elsewhere was caused by global warming. They then switched to their field correspondent wading down a flooded river, who one can only assume had not read the script, because he eagerly pointed out a marker on the river bank that was at least two meters above the level of the current swollen river, and informed us that this was where the river came to in the 1960 floods. If this was not funny enough, he then pointed out a further marker a couple of meters higher even than the first one, and informed us that this was where the river rose to in the 1929 floods. Most viewers would I suspect not have noticed how hilarious all this was, because, as I say, a successful meme resides in the subconscious and is therefore safely beyond the reach of rational thought. Readers should note that when the media say things like this is the worst flood since 1960, they are actually saying this flood is not as bad as the 1960 flood. We have since learned that some of the experts behind this meme had a few weeks earlier sent a memo to local authorities in the area warning them to prepare for an exceptionally dry winter! Note: the dates given above are arbitrary - I don't remember the exact dates referred to.
The most recent meme successfully propagated by the left, and most memes come out of the left, is the one that homosexuality is innate, like being left handed or blue eyed. This meme is now firmly lodged in the sub-conscious of possibly a majority of the folk that make up the North Atlantic civilisations, notwithstanding the fact that there is not a single shred of scientific evidence to support it, indeed the promoters of this meme don't even pretend to advance scientific arguments (unless you believe asserting that it is genetic without advancing a scrap of evidence to back your assertion, qualifies as science). This is one meme has been implanted solely by aggressive repetition.
A better and more accurate analogy for homosexuality would almost certainly be smoking. I hasten to add that I am not suggesting that sodomy and smoking are morally equivalent, merely that the two addictions are strikingly similar in their origins and progress. Smoking could be described as a disgusting unhealthy addiction usually acquired in one's early teens, which like all addictions is extremely difficult to break. Some, like the members of ASH and the sodomite collective, militantly embrace their addictions, and champion it as some sort of noble right. Others seek to break their addiction; some of whom will succeed but many sadly will fail. And many of those who do succeed, unhappily, subsequently relapse. Another fact that fits the smoking analogy perfectly is that one is usually first introduced to it by an older boy.
As I say, most memes exist within the secular asylum and come out of the left. The Church before Vatican ll was a meme free zone. Since Vatican ll and its rapprochement with the world, the meme has sadly seeped into the Catholic blood stream. For example, the notion that a large body of Catholics, the SSPX, who embrace every last iota of the Catholic faith without mental quibble, who acknowledge the Pope as head of the Church and pray for him daily, and whose bishops are not excommunicated now (if they ever were) are nevertheless, on the basis of legal quibbles, outside the Church. Whereas those innumerable modernist bishops and clerics who ignore Rome, Catholic tradition and the dogmas of the faith (and their contracepting flocks) are nevertheless, by some bizarre double standard, in full communion - in full communion with what precisely one might reasonably ask.
Another meme is the notion that the Novus Ordo, a post-Conciliar rite of Mass fabricated by a committee under the direction of a Freemason, with input from six heresiarchs, is "ordinary", whereas a rite of Mass that has been celebrated in its essentials for 2000 years, indeed in many features even extending back into the Jewish church, and which has been celebrated by all our saints and martyrs, is "extraordinary". Those well-meaning traditionalists who repeat these silly labels are actually helping reinforce the meme and giving it substance.
How do we tell a meme from a fact? Well one clue is that the meme is usually maintained by intolerance, aggression and anger. If one is promoting truth, anger has no place or indeed reason to exist. A simple illustration: if I'm teaching a child that two plus two equals four, I might take four oranges and separate them into two sets of two, put them together again and invite the child to count them. However, if I want to teach the child that two plus two equals five there is no way I can calmly demonstrate it; I am forced to resort to aggressive repetition. And if the child resists my attempt at brain washing, I will naturally very quickly become frustrated and angry.
If you want to see a meme in action, join a prayer vigil outside an abortion clinic; you will be very lucky to get through an hour without witnessing at least one instance of irrational, and seemingly bizarre, anger feeding of a meme. Those seething with meme inspired rage will make completely irrational statements: in 2013 for example, while quietly praying my Rosary outside an abortion facility with my wife, I was accused of single handily blocking a five meter wide pavement, asked whether I was aware that there was a war in Syria and accused of being a f*****g bigot for embracing a weeping young woman - in addition, a significant number of completely incoherent comments were shouted in my general direction. Another clue that you are dealing with someone infected by a meme is that those infected seldom hang around. Their normal modus operandi is to shout some irrelevant comment in your direction and then immediate step on the gas to put distance between themselves and you. It is as if they are terrified that you may actually be inconsiderate enough to seek to engage them in rational debate.
