Poison Coffee
The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.—Richard Dawkins
[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]Welcome to meme week! Sort of. I have this well-engrained habit of taking pictures that leave room for copy (those are the words in an advertisement). Almost every set I shoot has a couple of images that leave that kind of space. So, I thought we’d play with that a little bit this week.
In the most strict sense of the word, what we’re presenting this week probably falls short of actually being a meme. You see, we have British biologist Richard Dawkins to thank for putting the concept of meme into the public lexicon. The definition he was using, though, had nothing to do with silly pictures or the Internet. He coined the word in 1976. There was no Internet. Rather, he was using a definition more like this:
a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition and replication in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.
For something to actually be a meme, it has to spread, such as from parent to children, President to citizens, teacher to students, or pastor to congregation. The presumption is that for a meme to spread, there must be some value to the idea or concept, something that make it worth sharing.[/one_half]
[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]Nothing we’re going to share with you this week is that heavy. I’m not going to pretend that any of our photos this week have an ounce of actual value to them. Instead, what we have here more falls in line with the Urban Dictionary’s definition:
Used to give a bit of pseudo-academic gravitas to stupid viral shit.
I’m not even going to claim that any of this week’s photos are funny. Funny wasn’t what we wanted. Instead, we went for things more along the line of insulting (such as today’s), egotistical, and sexually inappropriate. If my read of the Internet is correct, those factors should make them immensely popular.
But that works only if you share them. And since we’ve disabled right clicks on this page, you’ll need to share the whole post, not just the picture. If you don’t share them, then all we have are pictures with bad copy on them. You’ll find the social media sharing icons below each post, or if you came from Facebook, you can share the link there. The success or failure of this week lies in your hands.
Yes, I’m very frightened.[/one_half_last]