TCAHR - Better Living Through Memetics Volume 02, Issue 04 Deconstructing Johnny 12/09/01 ------------------------------------------------------------ This was going to be a fun issue. I had all these great topics running around my head. Tops on the list were things like women and relationships, memetic ancestory, night-time patrols, and comic book superheroes. We were going to have fun, but Mr. Ashcroft, U.S Attorney General and all-around asshole ruined all that. Now I have to go ahead and deconstruct Johnny's virus. Everybody thank Johnny. Besides, I've been getting a lot of spam this week from the Republican National Congress this week addressing me as "Dear Republican", which only helped put me in an absolutely foul mood. Around the TCAHR office, thems fightin' words. This week, Ashcroft unleashed this carefully crafted soundbite: "Our legal powers are targeted at terrorists. To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends." The first thing that should be noted is mood. The tone of the language used is meant to establish two moods. Use of the words "targeted", "terrorists", "tactics", "ammunition", and "enemies" create one of these moods. Lest we forget America is at war, Ashcroft drills it home by using words with military connotations. The second mood established by the above virus is that of fear of loss. The intended host of this is meant to feel "loss" by the words "phantoms", "lost", "erode", "diminish", and "pause". These word are linked to other words of powerful connotations to promote imagery, such as "lost liberty". This would be considered an NLP (Neuro-Lingustic Programming) technique in its use of juxaposing something "good" with something "bad". Readers with a passion for verse may have discovered a use of poetry techniques to create rhythm within the virus. This is established repetition of sounds. In the sentences: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty" and "They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends", the use of repetition of intial consonants are used. Rhythm helps in continuing the process of making this piece more agreeable to the human ear, hence making its memes more easily digested. I have no doubt that this piece of Ashcroft's speech was meant to be disseminated throughout the mediasphere: it is more poetry than political speech. While the above techniques were used to attract attention, it is the wording of the soundbite which is used to propel the meme. By coupling "those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty" with "Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve", Ashcroft gives us a fine example of a meme with a propagative profile; a meme with more than one mode of transmission. The Ashcroft virus equates speaking out against the government's tactics to hunt down terrorists with the eroding of "our national unity" and diminishing "our resolve". The mood of fear is used to promote the "dissention is un-American" meme by proselytic transmission. Fear is encouraged to make the meme more acceptable to its host target and create an appeal for security. The "dissention is un-American" meme also uses adversative transmission to minimalize those who argue against the government. If you speak out, you "erode" and "diminish" America. You are automatically an enemy, or to paraphrase Bush's own virus, "you're either with America or with the terrorists." There are no shades of gray in Ashcroft's words. Cognitive transmission is acheived by majority opinion. If most of a group agrees and retains Ashcroft's ideas (which would be those Americans whose memetical valances tend to agree with him: Republicans, conservatives, and warhawks), those of the group who do not agree are more easily converted. Finally, there is motivational transmission, which is accomplished by the adoption of an idea if these is something to gain. Destruction of an enemy, victory, more power, release from fear, security...make your own list. So Mr. Ashcroft sends this virus into the mediasphere. Naturally, he is attacked in the newspapers and television for this. After, he pretty much implicated the media, which has poked through every nook and cranny of his questionable actions and has the power and resources to comment on them in a national scale. So what happens next? On Friday Mindy Tucker, Justice Department spokeswoman played sheild for Ashcroft and said: "Ashcroft was very clear he wanted public debate. Anyone who reported that he criticized anyone who opposed him was absolutely wrong and in doing so became part of the exact problem he was describing." Ohhhhh. So everyone misunderstood him. He wants public debate, but then slams the newspapers and televisions. I mean, "to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists" can be taken in so other many ways. See? The newsreporters were wrong. They're the exact problem he was describing. They're aiding the terrorists and eroding our national unity while dimishing our resolve. I get it now. I'm so convinced by the brillance of Ashcroft, I'm gonna go re-enlist right now and kill me some towelheads while drinking a beer and blelching out "The Star-Spangled Banner". Yeah, Riggghht! Mr. John Ashcroft, you pig-fucker, I've seen better set-ups in B-grade action films. ------------------------------------ This renga was inspired by BMC's writings in issue #177 of N-Com (http://www.neo-comintern.com). Since I've already aided terrorists by excercising my limited right to free speech, this is as good a place as any to post it. This renga may be forever reproduced freely. AMERICAN JINGOISM RENGA There is no honor in vindictive, bloody fists feinting innocence? America, haven't you been a terrorist yourself? How can I believe in the word "freedom" coming from your liar's mouth? Your Latin neighbors are forced to swallow your freedom raw. Wasn't it your hand that directed the troops that burned Nicaragua? The silos held no missiles; your freedom fighters burned grain. Who destroyed more Cubans; Castro or your embargo? Your freedom brings death. Mr. Citizen, killing is easy from the suburbs. Mrs. Citizen, is it easy to yell for nuclear weapons When your country has many and your enemies so few? What whetted your taste for atomic destruction? Japanese children? Hirshiman firestorms? Nagaskian mushrooms? You would cheer the death of innocents and soldiers just to say you won. You're worse than politicians... Fuck you, U.S. Citizen. Jet Jaguar TCAHR CEO ------------------------------------ Smart people I ripped off this time! Blackmore, Susan. "The Meme Machine", Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK: 1999. Lynch, Aaron. "Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through Society", Basic Books, New York, NY: 1996. Rushkoff, Douglas. "Media Virus", Ballantine Books, New York, NY: 1996. ------------------------------------------------------------ tcahr@hotmail.com Copyright 2001