Spotlight on memetics Written by Sameh Askar

Spotlight on memetics
Written by Sameh Askar on 3/30/2024
A few days ago, my dear professor and friend, Hossam Badrawi, gave me his interesting and new book with an unprecedented idea in Arab thought, entitled, “Me and Memes.” This book is summed up in exploring and extrapolating the cultural situation in Arab and Islamic thought, based on the latest Theoretical sciences in that; It is the science of “memes,” which means the study of cultural evolution based on knowledge of memes, which constitute a partial unit of thought and behavior, just as genetic information forms a partial unit of genes.
Dr. Badrawi presented his book in a mixed scientific, experimental and literary framework. It is a somewhat detailed autobiography that tells of his realistic experiences in monitoring and extrapolating the intellectual, political and religious state that Egypt was in in recent decades. From that angle, the book can be guided as a life story of an intelligent and intelligent thinker who extracts the essence of society to conclude its nature and way of life, and the most important thing is the influences. The ideology that accelerated his transition to religious extremism with such remarkable speed; Whereas, by looking at the reality of Egypt 50 years ago, for example, we will see a different nature, inclinations, and interests than the people have now.
The idea on which this new science emerged is that just as we can study Darwinian biological evolution by studying biology and genetics, so we can study the evolution of thought by studying memes, which are a group of ideas, behaviors, and convictions that a person may see as small and marginal, but they constitute a large and important part of culture and its development. The meme here does not necessarily mean that it is a realistic or positive behavior or idea, but it may be an expression of negative fantasies and imaginary convictions, which are closely linked to the desires of religious, political and social authorities for influence and control, and from that part, Dr. Badrawi wrote his book to extrapolate a crisis of thought. Arab and Islamic from a different scientific perspective.
A meme is an information or cognitive construct that can be reproduced through the minds of its human dependents, and affects their behavior in a way that makes them help the meme to spread.
Dr. Murad Wahba comments in his introduction to the book by saying: “The meme is similar to DNA; Just as this acid carries genetic information, so the meem, in that it is an idea, carries information that turns into knowledge with development. Dr. Ahmed Okasha comments in his introduction to the book by saying: “The concept of the cultural meme is the product of new concepts similar to biological concepts, and the social sciences, through these models, are to understand the movement of transmission, circulation, and change of some ideas and cultures, exactly as naturalists understand the movement of genes; Just as genes provide us with the ability to transmit characteristics biologically through reproduction; Culture provides the social transmission of patterns of behavior through education or imitation, and just as genes contain information that has a determining role in building and reproducing an organism, so memes – or patterns of cultural behavior – contain information that has an important role in building human societies.”
Dr. Okasha adds: “A meme is an information or cognitive structure that can be reproduced through the minds of human beings, and affects their behavior in a way that makes them help the meme to spread. A meme in general is the smallest and simplest intellectual or cultural unit that is transmitted or replicated from one mind to another.” .
In order for the meme to spread, according to Dr. Badrawi, he set several conditions that must be met, which are essentially characteristics and conditions of religions and popular and historical myths. Among these conditions are:
First: the believability of this meme
Second: It concerns a large number in society
Third: It must be frightening and frightening in part. We all like to scare each other…
Fourth: It must be easy to spread and transfer
Fifth: The climate must be prepared for it or against it. In both cases, spread is possible
To explain what these people say regarding the definition of meme science, some examples can be given to bring the issue closer, and I begin with what Dr. Badrawi proposed in presenting a model of the cognitive cultural meme on page 75, which are the religious beliefs that the child knows; He was not born with it, but learned it from his community/family. Humans have three basic sources of knowledge: It is (instinct, culture, and experience), here the child grows up on a small unit of knowledge (the meme) that has nothing to do with the three, but he acquired this meme from the family, and it is a cultural meme developed from the ancestors that was taught to the child. Without prior knowledge or warning, or even preparation and awareness of its meanings, and because the child does not understand it, it is not transmitted through him, but rather it grows and develops within him under influences and circumstances that may be different from those to which his grandparents were exposed.
Hence, the new meme acquires other dimensions and characteristics than the old, inherited one, and this leads to the development of ideas and religions. What affects the change and development of these things in history are social and material influences on that inherited meme – which are not realized – in the first place, exactly as a living organism develops. in nature; Its shape, character, and behavior change based on challenges and social and material influences of the ancestors, as happened to whales, for example, in their series of evolution from a land animal that walked on all fours, to a marine animal that swims with small hands in the front, and legs tucked under the flesh in the back.
Another example was narrated by Dr. Badrawi on page 46, although he did not call it a cultural meme, but with reference to his awareness of memes. I read this reference between the lines, and it is a model in which he tells of the attempts of the Muslim Brotherhood through Dr. Mohamed Morsi and others approached him when he was Chairman of the Education Committee in the Egyptian Parliament in 2003; They asked the doctor to intercede with Gamal Mubarak and inform him of the Brotherhood’s support for him as President of the Republic. Here he remembers the warning of Major General Hassan Abu Pasha, who is Dr. Badrawi’s father-in-law, of the danger of the Brotherhood if they came to power. And what they want to do with Gamal Mubarak is similar to what the Wahhabis and Salafists did with the royal family in Saudi Arabia.

The cultural meme here is “political opportunism,” accepting alliances with the powerful and obeying them until they gain possession and reach the stage of empowerment. This meme is the most important characteristic of the Brotherhood element and those who belong to Islamic groups in absolute terms. They do not hesitate to accept or request support and insist on it from the powerful and influential, if they see that it is in their immediate interest to help them rule, or to reach the minimum level of necessary power that prevents the ruler from oppressing them and thinking several times about relying on them, and hesitating. In any case, consider them as a group with strengths and weaknesses that become a compulsion for those with influence if they become aware of those forces and make a decision to engage in dialogue with them.
The idea of “Islam is the solution” can be extrapolated as the most famous cultural meme that groups have relied on to root and legitimize religious rule. He has achieved the five conditions for meme fame: In addition to its effectiveness and its reliance on large groups of confusion, ignorance, and illiteracy with terms and concepts, as a result of the deterioration of education in recent decades.
It is the same meme that produced what is called “obedience to the ruler” in Islamic thought. Where the ambition of jurists and clerics to control and monopolize rule is high, and because they are not those who carry weapons, and in most cases they are not notables. They need to ally or cooperate with these two groups to ensure the power necessary for survival on the one hand, or to ensure rule on the other hand. Human beings have never known a power of influence, subjugation, or control greater than the powers of “money and weapons,” meaning that people are only governed by these powers. Any society is controlled by these forces that created the first idea of the police in history. As for the power of money, it has the effect of magic, and it is of the soft kind that addresses interests, conscience, and morals.
The power of the police and money is very entrenched in the human psyche. There is no ruler who rules and stabilizes except with a strong economy and a strong police, and no customary session succeeds in solving tribal problems except with mediators who bring together the two people or one of them. As for the power of the mind, it addresses a limited group of people, but it serves as a complementary aspect to other powers, meaning that it is the basic condition in The ruler or mayor is the sheikh of the village. He must be rich and powerful and have something to give. If he were poor, a tramp, or a working person, he would have become broken and would not have dared to raise his eyes to rule people and convince them of himself. Likewise, these people must have a police that enables them to intimidate and terrorize deviants and violators, and help them extend control and ensure the stability of their rule.
Here, the political opportunism of groups and clerics is consistent with the conditions that must be met for the meme to spread, and the summary of these conditions set by Dr. Badrawi is the belief of a large group of people in it, and the appropriate circumstance for its presence; In addition to its believability, there is no doubt that submission to the powerful is logically and intuitively justified on the grounds of survival.
The idea of “Islam is the solution” can be extrapolated as the most famous cultural meme that groups have relied on to establish and legitimize religious rule. He obtained the five conditions for the popularity of a meme, as Dr. Badrawi proposed on the one hand: In addition to its effectiveness and its reliance on large groups of confusion, ignorance, and illiteracy of terms and concepts, as a result of the deterioration of education in recent decades on the other hand; This meme has spread like an infection and has become a slogan raised in demonstrations and elections without realizing its dangerous and monopolistic meaning, which spreads takfir in society by obscenely reproducing the experience of the Kharijites at the beginning of Islamic history.
Studying cultural development in recent decades enables us to understand what this meme is, how it spreads, and what its composition and elements are. In its development, it relied on people’s love for religion and worship and their attachment to the personalities of the Messenger, the Companions, and the Prophet’s family. The promoters and transmitters of this meme relied on this love by repeating the sayings and interpretations of these symbols and multiplying them, to the point of saturation and control, in exchange for promoting the meme with hatred and contempt for non-Muslims, or those whose Islam is doubted, because the meme in its essence either evokes a strong feeling of joy and happiness like the slogan of Islam. It is the solution, or it raises a feeling of hatred and contempt, such as denouncing non-Muslims and those with different opinions in general.
The meme is not just a slogan; Rather, it is a practical application of signs, conversations, and theories, and through studying the meme, the development of man and society is understood through his experiences and expertise. The more mature his experiences were, the more mature and accurate his memes were, and vice versa. There is no doubt that the criticism directed at the religious state in the West greatly prevented the monopoly of Christianity there, and the implicit and direct atonement, or the claim of the unsalvation, heresy, and blasphemy of those who differed in opinion, decreased, while The experiences of Muslims say that they have not yet developed intellectually; Where, through their experiences, we see that Mayamah has a monopoly in religion, politics, and thought
Dr. Badrawi’s goal in his book is that studying memes enables us to understand the nature of society and predict its future to a large extent. Just as biologists and evolutionary scientists predict the future of species through genetic information and behavior, thinkers predict the future of man through his memes and behavior, as if there were a mathematics table and statistical values indicating the existence of data for these memes, through which one can search or develop specific algorithms and codes that enable researchers to Predicting the nature and future of this being
The religiosity of work is a famous cultural meme that relied on another meme in its series of structural development, which is “belief in the end of the world.”
During my reading of Dr. Badrawi’s book, one of these memes came to mind that the doctor did not mention, but it is close to the meaning he refers to; When Islamic groups began their political emergence and social presence five decades ago, this political emergence had to happen after the formal religiosity of society. Whereas formal and ritual religiosity will be the Trojan horse, or the ship through which groups will cross to the shores of religious rule.

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