Applied Sociology 201: "Memetic Feudalism"
Nobody loves preference cascades more than I do.
My next video will be an explanation of the epic idea of Memetic Feudalism.
Memetic Feudalism is a conceptual framework that models how ideas spread throughout a population based on the social power and influence of particular individuals.
Memes are like biological viruses in that they replicate and mutate as they come into contact with new individuals in a population, but there are some important differences that need to be understood.
When an individual is infected by a biological virus, the only thing that determines whether or not they will spread the virus is if they come into physical proximity with another person.
But memes are different. A meme can only spread throughout a population if it infects people of influence and charisma; individuals who others regard as worthy of admiration (and therefore imitation).
A biological virus that infects a homeless schizophrenic in the town square is able to replicate itself so long as that homeless person gets within a few yards of another individual. But if that same homeless person becomes convinced of the ideas in a book like Maps of Meaning, there is very little chance that he is going to spread that meme to others because no one puts stock in anything he has to say. If anything, people will be less likely to adopt the meme because they associate it with such a socially undesirable individual.
In contrast, a single individual like Jordan Peterson is able to infect hundreds of millions with that same meme due to his communication skills, charisma, and influence.
So when it comes to spreading memes, the quality of the individuals you infect matters as much if not more than the quantity of the individuals who initially come into contact with your meme.
Intersecting feudal hierarchies of influence
Unless one is deeply isolated from society, every individual is part of many different feudal hierarchies of influence, and they occupy different positions within each feudal structure.
For example, a pastor will be at the top of the feudal hierarchy of influence for everyone who attends his church. He will be regarded with admiration by others due to his competency when it comes to matters of spirituality and religion, and the members of his parish will defer to his influence. They are his vassals so to speak.
But that same pastor or priest who just started doing Karate on the weekends will be at the bottom of the feudal hierarchy of influence compared to his Sensei, who will be regarded with admiration by others due to his competency when it comes to matters of physical prowess. The pastor is himself a vassal of the Sensei.
And that same Sensei who has a passion for science may be at the bottom of the feudal hierarchy of influence compared to his friend and neighbor, who is a chemistry professor (and perhaps attends the first pastor’s church).
So on and so forth.
The totality of the feudal hierarchies of influence within a given a society form a rhizomatic structure. They are diffuse and overlapping, but within each hierarchy there is still a differentiation in status between individuals.
Memes spreading across feudal hierarchies
Once you start to see society as a series of interlocking hierarchies of influence, interesting insights about memetic spread begin to emerge.
For example, if you want your memes to spread, it is not necessary to have a large audience. In the age of social media, an individual with 100 followers has the potential to unleash a memetic virus that can spread across the world, assuming just one of their followers are themselves the head of a large feudal hierarchy of influence.
My point about the war of ideas being a war of memes rather than logical arguments might not be reaching hundreds of thousands of people directly, but if I have changed how someone like FD Signifier thinks about it, than my meme will spread nonetheless.
Additionally, it’s important to understand that the same meme must be diffused through different feudal hierarchies in order for it to reach the full range of personality types.
For example, if I make a video explaining why Jordan Peterson has some good ideas, it might appeal to an audience who is willing to tolerate my white nationalist haircut and frat bro aesthetic, but an audience of bisexual queers will turn off their brains as soon as they see me.
But if CJ the X makes a video about how Jordan Peterson has some good ideas, those same bisexual queers will be receptive to the same meme, so long as it is filtered through an aesthetic they are comfortable with.
There is a lot more to say on this idea, including specifying the characteristics that establish people as heads of the feudal hierarchy, but that will come later.
Please share any thoughts in the comments below.
As someone close to community coordination, one of the ways you create change in a community isn't by creating your own change, but finding people and training them how to create change. In this way you are both serving the community by not only creating a community of change but also their apparatus on how that change will induce.
Specifically, my observations are in christian outreach and one of the best ways to reach Christian communities is by recruiting leaders and tasking them with sub-missions, usually with the youth. In this way, one thinks they are outreaching to the youth but are themselves the community a leader has grown and raise.
Analogously, I think of how quickly King Kamehameha of Hawai'i conquered the rest of the Archipelago mere years after western interaction. Instead of simply teaching his soldiers how to use new technologies he recruited advisors how to teach people hoe to teach people how to maintain, drill, and fight with the new war technology.
This whole idea of enlightened centrism doesn't need to hopefully fasten itself to fertile hosts, but instead needs to target and groom specific individuals who will do what you said, how you said, ie Jordan Peterson's influence on yourself and the gender binary counterpart. Again, a viral memetic is allowed to strategically and consciously target these 'feudal lords' (I would use a different descritption) instead of coming across them by happenstance.
So you're saying, that if I want to infect respectable people with my important ideas, I need to get off the streets and start taking anti-psychotics?
But that's takes time and money. Tell us paul, if a homeless schizophrenic wants to expand his memetic influence, how should he go about it? Is Diogenes really to much to strive for in this memetic landscape?