Culture and Power

As easy as it is to see how much people tend to blame "society" for their own misfortunes, and as much "society" is actually just a collection of all of the individuals in it, it is still undeniable that a group of people can have characteristics in much the same way that an individual can. An effective way of thinking about what differentiates a mere collection of individuals from a society in the holistic sense is the concept of memes. Memes are essentially units of cultural information, especially ideas. They propagate in a similar way to genes in that the survival of a meme is dependent on its integration into the whole complex of memes within a person and among a group of people. Some memes are closely related to other memes; some memes propagate in bundles along with other memes; some memes are mutually exclusive with other memes; some memes prevent other memes from spreading. Theoretically, any idea could become a meme: a religion, a personality trait, a social structure, a method of thinking, a method of competition, and so on. If you take any group of people, all of their common memes are their culture. Further, you have not only the most common memes--which can be said to be "the culture" of that group--but also the less common memes--which can be said to be the "subcultures" of that group.

The really interesting thing about power in this context is that it can be defined in terms of memes: power is control over others' memes. Some would say that that many of the problems in modern society stem from poorly chosen memes that people in the society have taken up. I beg to differ. Taking power into account--and it is undeniable that certain individuals have been, and continue to be, more powerful than others--it becomes clear that these ineffective memes were not chosen by the people who now live and stand by them, but were rather forced onto them by people with more power. Parents, teachers, legislators, bureaucrats (including police and presidents), corporate leaders, advertisers, and product designers are just some of the major power holders in many modern societies. Don't get me wrong--these people's positions are extremely important in any society for a variety of reasons which I would be happy to discuss. But the major problem with power arises when the people holding it use it to propagate memes that are unproductive or counterproductive from a social standpoint. Usually they do so because they lose sight of the true value of their positions in the excitement and glory of sheer power itself. Thus, pure power becomes power overwhelming. The potential for others' empowerment becomes, tragically, the source of their disempowerment.

It is easy to see that this is the source of virtually all of any society's woes. Altering a singular meme--one which is isolated from being part of a culture by being restricted to one individual--is a relatively simple matter of one person's will. Altering a cultural meme is more difficult, especially if it is deeply rooted into other cultural memes. But the most difficult memes to alter are those which are imposed by someone in a position of power. Just think: how hard is it for a child to change their parents' moral values, even if they are corrupt? How hard is it for a citizen to repeal legislation, even if it is unfair? How hard is it for a revolution to occur in a state, even if it is decrepit? Any power structure can become a locus of stagnation if it is not given due scrutiny.