The Meaning of Memeing
Ever since Richard Dawkins coined the concept of the meme, it has spread like wildfire and has become the root of a new kind of evolving novelty in our culture: the contagious spread of lolcat content. Seriously though, this is just one enigmatic example of memetic virality, a theme which has had more than its fair share of emphasis since we started to self-consciously metacognize on the concept of memes in 1976. Time and time again has a certain piece of content, be it a fragment of audio or video, or a photograph or a created image, taken on that quality of the burning question of the day where everyone is suddenly asking you if you’ve seen it, and if you haven’t then you’re streets behind. The example that comes to mind is that photo of the dress which was simultaneously black and blue, and white and gold, depending on the lighting conditions under which you viewed it. For a few days, perhaps a week, it was the talk of the internet, so to speak, and people young and old gathered around devices to have their minds boggled by the freaky photograph which played with our perceptions like a child with play-dough. Perhaps a more recent and culturally relevant example of a meme which had a powerful resonance within the collective consciousness was the Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself meme, which served to symbolize the international inter-subjective recognition of the incredibly suspicious nature of his death in custody, which naturally prevented any possible testimony on his behalf with respect to the various nefarious elite to whom he had supplied so many of these underage girls.
This particular meme was, in a way, a collective sigh in recognition of the uniquely corruptible nature of the human soul which makes a paralyzing parody of our attempts at just and fair governance. It was the collective head-nod and nose-tap which signals to the other normies that we all understand we are living in a matrix created for us by the ridiculously rich, those with so much wealth it makes them filthy, and that those at the top of the hierarchy will do anything, including assassinating Jeffrey Epstein, if that is what is required in order to protect them from prosecution for the rape which they are committing, both of society and of nature. Memes became, in the moment of collective whiplash that came upon finding out that he had died in prison under those suspicious circumstances, a way for each and every one of us to stand in solidarity, and to laugh at the absolute audacity of the individuals involved. The meme was our way of saying: we see, and we understand, and you are fools to think you could get away with this. Perhaps, on an official level, it is a quandary, but for each and every individual who liked and shared that meme in the aftermath of Epstein’s death, there was a personal knowledge shared among us all that his death was no mere accident, coincidence, and certainly no suicide, but rather we all knew, collectively, that it signalled a far deeper and more pervasive corruption than most of us had ever imagined. The meme forced us to acknowledge that there was and is something deeply rotten in our ‘high society’, which is never talked about.
Such is the power of memes, in part and at the boundary, to signal to us the deeper realities that perhaps we would prefer not to know about, but at the least to signal the collective knowledge, the collective awareness, which is undeniable to each and every one of the participants in the cultural reality. This is the Epstein meme. Of course, such memes possess in equal measure the opposite power: the power to reinforce our prejudices and confirm our presuppositions. That is, memes are completely capable of reinforcing the echo chambers which have become so prevalent on the internet, by providing a free-flowing and easy-access medium through which to ridicule the ‘other’, and glorify one’s own position, soliciting support in the form of likes, comments and shares when your meme hits the spot with your fellow comrades in ideological warfare. Frequently do I come across memes that are little more than an attempt to ‘other’ the other, and which serve up caricatures and stereotypes with no notion of nuance, no sense of subtlety; in response to these memes, there is a definite feeling of cringe. And yet, these memes are like a double-edged blade which cuts both ways, because insofar as they are comical caricatures of the other, they niggle at the dubious true believer as being an insufficient representation of his so-called ‘enemies’. In other words, to the individual who sincerely believes in his side of a dichotomy, it is not enough to knock down straw-men: one must engage with the real thing, which means engaging not with the memes of one’s own side, but with those of the other.
Through this exercise in exposure, the individual is suddenly engaged in being a part of the proliferation of the exact same sort of biased content as before, but now with the opposite biases, and through this exposure to the other our individual might begin to see that there is a certain underlying unity to the divergent dichotomy he previously regarded as undeniable. Regardless, however, of if he is struck by any transcendent intuitions about the quagmire in which he is ensnared, it is inevitable that this exposure to and experience of the comical caricature of his own position will not only aid him in his defense of it, but so too will it ultimately expose the flaws of his position in the most laughable way. And indeed, he may find himself, despite himself, laughing at himself, for perhaps what he thinks truly does contain some mirth-worthy contradictions. It is only through the engagement with the limitations of his own view, and the sharp edges of the other’s, that he will find out. By laughing at himself, or those who think similarly to himself, he can begin to develop a sense of humility about his own position which is a necessary part of any mature attempt to engage with the political issues of the day. Through his exposure to the memes which make a mockery of his own position, he gains a deeper appreciation for the ways in which his own positions caricatures the other, and may begin to genuinely find both kinds of memes funny, to the degree that each stereotype is taken to absurdity in the attempt to mock it so completely.
These kinds of memes — those which capitulate to the in-group and reinforce one’s mental image of the out-group as the other — are among the most contagious memes which proliferate on the forums and Facebook pages which make up the majority of the average internet user’s time online. And yet the myriad is so very many that to focus on any one type is to make a mockery of the whole field which is memeology, informally understood as the study of memes, how they work and their impact on the human/animal population of the world. It is quite the astonishing time that we live in, when cultural information has become contagious and has taken on, in a sense, a life of its own, as is clearly indicated when we call the rampant propagation of a meme ‘virality’. For a meme to be considered viral, it has to resonate with a large enough majority of the population of the world that it spreads as if it were literally infectious, and in this way we can see an unconscious recognition of the truth encapsulated by the meme in the realm of intersubjectivity, because without such resonance with the inter-subjectively-shared perceptions of the world it would not spread in the way that it does. The fact that there are certain ideas which spread as if they used humans as hosts simply to replicate their formula should make us wonder at what the future of humanity is: are we simply the roots of the cultural artefacts which proliferate through us, beyond our control and despite every practical inclination we might have? In what sense are our cultural artefacts the flowers of our cultural mission, and to what extent are we instead the flowers which blossom from the buds which are the memes that most resonate with our perceptual and psychological structures? Are we the seed-sowers, or are we the seeds sown now grown?
Perhaps it will come to be that in the future, we are more a reflection of the most viral memes than they are a reflection of us. Perhaps in the context of transhumanism, the most viral ideas will literally dominate the culture, and will become the template for correct behaviour and, more importantly, the correct anatomical design or reproductive strategy. This echo chamber effect which we have just briefly touched on contributes to a certain seemingly transcendental-emergent aspect of memes, which is their capacity for self-referentiality and an ever-increasing degree of abstraction in the synechdochic reflection of the whole in every part, and of every part in the whole. In this way they contribute to the construction of a hall of mirrors effect, wherein the directional meaning of a meme can be turned on its head without becoming a subversion of the original; rather, it proves itself to be an evolution of that fundamental informational form. The more ways in which a meme can ironically invalidate itself and thereby validate its position in the chain of cultural commentary, the more we feel that it represents what it is like to ‘be’ a being such as we: in other words, it confirms for us our experience of the human condition, which is essentially an experience of self-referentiality.
By encapsulating this experience of recursion, of self-reference, memes provide us with a seemingly limitless fount of references through which we may relate to the other, ways in which we can key-in to the music which may initially seem discordant to us, but which nonetheless possesses the potential to become the lifeblood of our future prospering as a united people. Whether the memes you share merely confirm your prior presuppositions about the way the world works, or whether you work to expose yourself to content that might challenge your characteristic way of construing reality, these morsels of cultural information which are reproducing themselves through the computational complexity which is your mind become the food for the thought which forms the local topography of the zeitgeist in which we are all ensnared. By so serving as the food which nourishes the intellect of each individual, guiding and informing our ideas and behaviours at a level deeper and more subtle than we can consciously imagine, these memes connect us in a rudimentary and primitive sort of hive-mind. They become the means of connection between each and every one of our brains, as if we were each of us but a neuron in the larger collective consciousness which conceives the spirit of our cultural epoch.
In other perhaps less pretentious words, these memes form an implicit imagistic language which communicates to our peers the experiences and insights which are personal to us and which characterize our perspective. In this way, those souls with whom we have a natural affinity are able to gravitate towards us, because we are constantly broadcasting not only information about our temperament, but also about our current existential situation, our attitude towards life, our struggles and our anxieties, not even to mention at all the ways in which our beliefs are signalled by the kinds of things we find funny. As an illustration of this point, I am reminded of the way in which I met my first girlfriend. I was at perhaps the lowest point of my life, having long since resigned myself to the fact that I was going to kill myself, when suddenly she fell out of the sky one day and landed in my lap. I was miserable almost entirely because I was lonely, and suddenly a girl slid into my DMs and started connecting to me as if I were a real person who really mattered. It seemed like the universe had answered my long-repeated and never quite vocalized prayer, and given me exactly what was required, delivering to me the saviour that I desperately needed at the moment when I most needed her. Of course, the mundane answer is much simpler than ‘how it seemed’, because what had happened was that my peak depression had resulted in obsessive meme-sharing on my behalf, many of which expressed and indeed epitomized the existential angst which was so characteristic of my outlook at that time. This girl too had her own struggles, and was herself feeling suicidal and depressed, and therefore found in the memes I shared a sense that I might be a kindred spirit to her, and her to me. If it were not for this memetic outlet during the time when I was submerged in this deepest of depressions, not only could I have potentially ended things before the downward trajectory turned itself around, but I likely would not have had the occasion to meet once more this soul who would turn out to be my saviour in the end.
During this time I spent more time than was probably healthy browsing, collecting and curating memes to share with those few peers who were not in the process of distancing themselves from what I suppose must have looked to them like a train-wreck in the making, but even today in what I would consider relatively good mental health, memes are still one of my favourite ways to while away a little while. In fact, I would wager that the vast majority of us sink at least a couple of hours a week into finding, enjoying and sharing funny little pieces of culture with our close friends and family, and I would be very surprised if it turned out that any of us regretted that time, or thought it time ‘wasted’. The reason for my surprise is that with every so-called ‘indulgence’ we find ourselves growing closer to one another and closer to the cultural spirit with whom we find some sense of affinity, and I honestly do not believe that this is the sort of thing which can be priced and evaluated according to capitalistic or empirically ‘tangible’ metrics. Rather, the value of such time consists in an investment in other people, which is an extremely appropriate way for humanity to conduct themselves considering the meaning of the characteristic we call ‘humanity’. We are, after all, incredibly social creatures who evolved to inhabit a territory comprised mostly of other people, their preferences, and the mutual relations in which we are all engaged. Perhaps these considerations go some way to explaining how it is that becoming the effective reproductive organs of these artefacts of cultural information can be for us such a delightful experience: we get a dopamine reaction not only from the experience of the meme, but also from other people relating to the content we decided was worth curation and sharing.
Now, imagine for a moment that there was a way to capitalise on this invested time, in a tangible and monetarily meaningful manner — wouldn’t this simply reflect the inherent value that we already find in this kind of content, and provide a pathway for those who contribute to the aesthetic aspect of our existence to support themselves based upon the support that they can generate for their capacity to curate and create content which constitutes a significant cultural contribution of some kind? If the audience who follows your feed consistently regards the content you curate as being of a so-to-speak ‘objectively’ high quality, then surely you should be compensated for your efforts and time, not to mention your talent, in selecting for the valuable attention of your audience the kinds of content which will strike a chord within their souls, and not only ring as true, but strike them as hilarious! This is the spirit in which this essay has been written: I believe that you do deserve to have the value you are contributing to society recognized and compensated by the majority, and if we could find a way to facilitate this unfolding and intertwining of peak comedy and popular commerce then we would finally have found a way to bring together two of the most powerful and endlessly self-referential memes humanity has ever known — capitalism and memes themselves. I believe that meme creation and curation both add aesthetic value to the world of our experience, and it is in our best interest to invent a path for such work to be tangibly compensated. In so doing we will be laying the groundwork for a future we would all want to be a part of, where the notion of quality content is raised up and reified, becoming our new god. In other words: meme pages matter too, and we should subscribe to their patreons.
Step 1. Make a meme page.
Step 2. Publish this essay about monetizing memes.
Step 3. ????
Step 4. Profit.
Thusly and therefore: Calling all memelords and memekings, prepare to meet, greet and yeet your maker: let us explore the potential of the collective commodification of the untold digital real-estate constituted by the meme empire and emporium we have all constructed through our participation, conscious or otherwise, in the collective dream which gives birth to the individual meme. By embracing this emergent existential revolution, we position ourselves ideally to ride the wave which is being generated by the unfolding of the flower of potentiality which is at the core of Being. If you can see what we can see, namely that memes are at the forefront of an expanding horizon which involves pushing the boundaries of human potential, then you too might agree with us that this is something which needs, nay, deserves to receive recognition in the form of the economization which makes possible the profession of memer as a legitimate mode of existing within our multifaceted world. Given the incredible and unparalleled potential of memes to revolutionize our way of interfacing with the world at large, not to mention their subtler implications for the position of humanity within the cosmic order, there are plenty of reasons to want to support this mode of relating and connecting the disparate individuals within a functional, if momentary, hive-mind. The importance of memes to our collective cosmic evolution can scarcely be overstated, yet we do not yet possess the means in language of articulating the potential futures which memes make possible.
Memes today have an untold impact on the cutting edge of social dynamics, and it is incredibly important that we figure out how to validate and reward those individuals who are putting in the work required to create and curate feeds of hilarity. It is a form of cultural evolution the implications of which are as yet hidden by distant horizons, and consequently it will ultimately be up to our descendants to harness the full potential of memes. The task left to us is to support and facilitate the integration of this species of artistic work within the capitalistic model of society to which we are all currently beholden, so that the future of our species is insured by virtue of the investments we have made in the productive power of those memes which are the cultural lifeblood of the children of that unfolding future. If we as a species are able to take this momentous step and achieve the glorious goal entailed by the monetization of memes, we will have provided the fertile soil for the further unfolding of the future of memes and the destiny of mankind, interwoven and inseparable as they are. With dollars and sense fuelling the meme-inferno — that bonfire around which our entire species is progressively gathering — we will have finally created the correct conditions to promote what the Greeks called Eudaimonia, or flourishing.
It is in this setting that we will finally see which is primary: the fruit or the tree, the chicken or the egg, and it is here that we will discover, if we learn how to look, just what our relation to these memes really is. This naturally brings us back to a speculation mentioned at the beginning (of the middle), namely that of the prospect that we are perhaps not making memes, but maybe they are making us instead. Perhaps, just as the mushrooms we see above the surface are merely the reproductive fruits of the enormous underground mycelial network, we are similarly merely the reproductive organs by which ideas are conceived, birthed and brought to fruition by the collective unconscious which wishes to transmit, develop and perfect its myriad ideas about the world. These myriad ideas, all the many different ways of looking at the world, of being rooted in the world, and of interacting with that world — all the different thoughts and prayers and highs and lows — these are the memes that we, as a species, find so very scintillating. And for good reason; what else is life, after all, except to imitate or invent for future imitation a unique way of being. Maybe, that is, the real memes were the mes we made along the way. Food for thought.
