POLITICS AND MEMETICS

"An idea is something you have;
An ideology is something that has you."

A meme is a pattern of information embedded in your memory that you are able to replicate onto the memory of someone else. Typical memes include slogans, ideas, catch-phrases, fashions, etc. I may sound a bit sinister, this idea that people are hosts for mind-altering strings of symbols, but in fact this is what human culture is all about.

MEMES AND THE SUICIDE BOMBER ---
In practice, some people are going to be all too ready to commit any new meme that comes along, even if it should turn out to be deadly nonsense, like:
JUMP OFF A CLIFF AND THE GODS WILL MAKE YOU FLY.

Such memes do evolve, generated by crazy people, or through mis-replication. This meme may have a lot of appeal. The idea of magical flight is so tantalizing, maybe if I truly believed . . . 72 virgins in the afterlife.
This is a vital point: people try to infect each other with those memes which they find most appealing, regardless of its value or truth. The carrier of the cliff-jumping meme may never take the plunge, but continue to infect other people, inducing millions of gullible fools to jump.

I suppose if I have a point here it's that the memes that are spread in the Islamic fanatics promise the 72 virgins in the afterlife (some, if not most, buy into it), enough to keep the bombings coming. The memes that are spread by the neocons is that danger lurks around every corner but have no fear, just trust us to protect you even if we need to take away some freedoms to ensure security.
Ben Franklin said something to the effect:
If you give up feedom for security, you deserve neither freedom nor security.
In closing -- DON'T DRINK THE KOOL AID !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!