Applied Memetics for Disillusioned Dems

EMBRACE MEMES NOW

As I contemplated the depressing outcome of last night's election, one thought kept bugging me. How incompetent can the Democrats be when it comes to the cutting edge of political manipulation? Throughout the Clinton presidency I always felt that the sharpest operators were on the left's side. We controlled cultural discourse. We understood the media. We knew how best to talk to the people about what mattered to them. And frankly, we were better at manipulating our opponents.

But I no longer feel that way. Today it's clear that the Republicans understand the media better than we do, and it's time we admitted it to ourselves. Among other things, the biggest difference in the last two years has been, to my mind, the way Republicans have come to understand marketing and ways to use language to control people's thinking.

Of any president, Bush speaks with the most densely coded language we have ever witnessed. You may think his ideas are moronic, but you might be the moron for thinking it matters that he articulate ideas. Leftists would like to think that in the marketplace of ideas, good ones don't need salesmen - but it's time we realized how wrong we are. We need to give up on reason and embrace memetics; if we don't, the elephants are going to whip us every time. Bush realizes that what matters most is that he communicate to the constituencies that matter: those who already support him and those who might be alienated from doing so. In terms of his ability to speak to these two groups in highly coded language, President Bush's communications people - are masters. Clearly they've read their Dawkins, their Lakoff, and their Levi-Strauss (or at least Karl Rove and Paul Weyrich have). When I mention the phrases "culture of life", "senator from Massachussets", "flip flop", "liberal elite", "hard work", or just the word "prayer", I am using the simple terms that won President Bush this election. They represent just a handful of the litany of linguistic viruses his administration used to shape an electorate that ultimately rated "moral values" as more important than Iraq or the economy as an issue in this election.

How can such simple words be so powerful? They are what zoologist Richard Dawkins, in his 1976 Book "The Selfish Gene" called a "meme". A meme is a linguistic, conceptual, visual, or other social structure that has the properties of a virus. The power of memes is the same as the virus: a well-constructed one gets people to accept ideas they would normally reject and then has them re-propagating the new ideas without realizing it. Memes can be complex or very simple, but Republican memes are usually very simple in construction and usually built on simple language, though their aggregate effect is complex and powerful. In fact, they are so powerful and insidious that they turn otherwise neutral commentators and even leftists into servants of the Bush message. Every time a Dem says the words "gay marriage" or "terrorism", in fact, they are speaking against their own interests. Let's see how a classic Bush meme works.

A BUSH MEME AT WORK

It is a rare Bush speech in which the word "prayer" does not get used. Usually, it is enough for the president to say someone is "in his prayers" or that he is praying for something. In his acceptance speech, President Bush invoked "the simplest prayer I know, 'God Bless America'." Why talk so much about prayer? A naive listener might speculate that prayer is simply important to Bush. It's on his mind. But rarely does something make its way so consistently into a President's speeches just because it is important to him. Presidential speeches are too valuable for that. No, "prayer" is a powerful code word for Bush's base. It says that Bush is on the side of conservative Christians, that he is watching out for their interests. It says that despite the (supposed) anti-religious agenda of the left, despite the fact that political correctness dictates that Bush can't openly profess his profound devotion to God and "God's agenda", his base knows that he knows that his base knows that Bush is on the case. That simple word makes Bush and his base a part of a secret society of persecuted true-believers. It binds him to them like a secret handshake or gang colors. And yet that word promises nothing and accomplishes nothing. Without ever requiring Bush to deliver on any legislative goals, the use of that word shores up Bush's base.

But "prayer" has other important properties. It makes Bush's opponents look bad and drives a wedge between them and his base. It tempts the left to point out that such frequent invocation of the word "prayer" is traditionally considered unseemly - at least in the elite confines of Washington DC. It is considered unseemly because of America's long-standing belief in the separation of church and state and because in times past, it was politically dangerous to indicate anything close to a fervent belief in God. What the left fails to realize is that most of Bush's base is unaware of the tradtional disapproval of fervent religious belief, and that they do not believe so strongly as Washington insiders in the separation of church and state. So every time a commentator or a reporter or a political operative scoffs at Bush's prayer talk, or even points it out, he is painting himself as a condescending Washington insider who hates God. And futhermore, he is confirming to the conservative Christian base that the left has an agenda to disempower religious people. Thus the "prayer" meme uses Bush's enemy's personal habits, knowledge, experiences, and agendas as tools to help get the Bush message out. That message: I, Bush, will protect you, while "they" reject you.

Finally, "prayer" is powerful because it offends no one. The vast majority of the electorate, and even the far left, might be perturbed by Bush's use of "prayer", or at least the frequency. But the "prayer" meme is tied to a powerful truth - no one in America can deny the traditional cultural influence of Judeo-Christian religiosity, nor can they censure Bush much for simply exercising his constitutional right to express his faith, not without being hypocritical and offending large chunks of the electorate. So not only does "prayer" unite Bush with his base; just as the hidden video messages Bin Laden uses to order a an attack, Bush actually communicates with his followers via the "prayer" meme. He communicates, "I am pro-life." He communicates, "I am pursuing Christian interests in Israel." And he does this without coming close to risking the political alienation that would result from actually articulating these ideas directly and repeatedly.

So, Republican memes are effective because they:

1. Bind Bush to his base psychologically without requiring him to deliver legislatively.
2. Tempt Bush's opponents to respond in a way that confirms his base's preconceived ideas about them.
3. Suggest Bush's ties to particular stances and agendas rather than stating them explicitly.
4. Avoid provoking a strong response from those moderates or even leftists who might disagree with his specific policies or principles, thereby allowing the memes to be repeated and re-repeated.

The final attribute of the "prayer" meme is one it shares with all the other Bush memes: it is related to a small number of core "metamemes" or umbrella memes, that Bush's handlers use to define him and his party to the American people. Individuals might disagree on Bush's metamemes, but here are a few that might apply: "Resolve", "Values", "Independence", and "Humility". The last of these might provoke cries of outrage from the left, since leftists often think of Bush as arrogant. But the truth is that the Bush "beer-buddy" quality is a core piece of his political persona; it is affirmed by his verbal miscues and frequent appearance in jeans and boots. All these visual memes tie back into the core "humility" meme, as does "prayer". After all, a person who puts himself in God's hands has traditionally been thought humble. A prayerful person is a pious person, a moral person with "values". And a person who prays for God's advice makes decisions without regret; thus they are "resolved". So "prayer" ties back to and reinforces the core Bush memes, bringing into sharper relief a persona that Americans feel makes sense to them, especially conservative Americans, but really a wide cross-section of Americans. Even if they disaapprove of aspects of Bush's persona, it makes sense to them, so well have Bush's handlers constructed and applied the memes that define it.

Compare this with the approach many Democratic politicians (with the notable exception of Clinton) use. Leftists usually begin by wanting their ideas and their policies to be heard first and let their personas recede. Most still naively believe that they can be direct, honest (if reductive), and open with the electorate. Once they are compelled to define a persona, they usually don't do a thorough job of tying their ideas and policies to that persona in the clear, distinct, and reflexively memetic manner that George W. Bush does. If leftists want to win presidential elections, they need to seize on some core metamemes and then find ways of relating all of their policy goals to memes that relate back to the core memes. Then they must beat those memes into the heads of the electorate by sticking to talking points that propagate the memes, avoiding all discourse that does not reinforce and exalt them. When voters say they don't "trust" Kerry, many of them are really articulating the fact that his persona is incomplete or incoherent to them. The "trust" issue really testifies to Kerry's inability to quickly and efficiently construct a persona and tie it to a memetic agenda. People will always vote for a well-understood candidate persona of which they only partially approve over a persona that is poorly defined by self-reflexive memes.

A FEW GOOD METAMEMES

So how should Democrats counter the powerful memetics of the Republicans? The first thing to do is create the metamemes. These memes should be values that any American can and does admire, but which emphasize particular Democratic strengths. These memes should reflect the particular strengths of a given candidate, though I will suggest generic ones. I think the Democrat's best metameme candidates are probably "Rights", "Choice", "Unity", and "America First". Other possibilities are "Hope" and "Struggle". However, I think these are both dying and retrograde memes for the Democrats. They are memes for harder times when people feel more desperate. Whatever you think about Bush's economic policies, they haven't yet rendered America desperate (though they might yet!). Besides, Democrats have sadly allowed the Republicans to poison the "hope" meme by partially claiming it as their own. President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" act is an meme-poisoning meme masquerading as a policy. That's why he's never funded it. NCLB exists solely to make Bush seem to be someone who cares about education, but more importantly to make people think he cares about caring, that he provides "hope". The name of the legislation matters more than what it ever attempted to do or failed to do (though most leftists and educators will idiotically try to argue the substance of the bill in the national media.)

So why these four core metamemes? Let's start with "Rights". This meme reflects the long-standing association of Democrats with civil liberties, labor, and defending the oppressed from intimidation and exploitation. But it is an expansive enough notion to include a vast array of other American "entitlements". Democrats can, and do, talk about the "right to quality health care". That is an excellent impulse, but it is one that could be far more universally applied. All Americans like their entitlements, from the richest, most ornery CEO to the lowliest street criminal (and all the crooks in between), so the appeal of "rights" is universal. When applying this meme, Democrats should remember that almost all legislative or policy initiatives can be couched in the language of "rights". Americans have a right to alternative energy sources and quality public schools. We have a right to be respected in the world. Our troops have a right to come home after their tours end. Etc, etc. An additional benefit is that it dilutes the current power and pride of the "religious right" and "right wing". We may think of these as negative terms or doubt the power of this linguistic association. But by having leftists repeat the word "right" over and over again, we create a classic bit of Orewllian confusion. Who represents the true interests of the "right", the Democrats or the Republicans? Such confusion creates a space, a gap, in a person's knee-jerk thoughtstream, which facilitates the reception of new memes. Democrats have a real opportunity right now to take over the financial stewardship meme - one the Republicans have long monopolized - and take a number of libertarians into the Democratic party. The "right"/"right" confusion is exactly the kind of memetic effect that might make this happen.


"Rights" also feed into people's notions of "right and wrong". Democrats who talk about frequently and passionately about "rights" will simply be thought "right", as in "correct" and "moral". This may seem silly or trivial. "People don't think this way," you might say. But the truth is that linguistic association is powerful. At a low level, average and even non-average people intuit that linguistic association is meaningful, and their habits of thinking will lead them to make these assocations stick, even if they suggest false or tendentious ideas. One key to being a great meme designer is forgetting what you've been told words mean and realizing that human beings have the power to make words mean whatever they want them to. It's the boldness of this very notion that makes most people incapable of recognizing when they are being effected by a memetic assault.

"Choice". This meme is powerful because it can suggest a number of core Democratic issues without directly mentioning them, such as abortion, health care, etc. People who are pro-life can't argue that "choice" is a bad thing, at least in the abstract, while the pro-choice set will "get it" when you invoke "choice" as a key American value. What's more, much like "rights", Americans love more choices, and choices are everywhere to be emphasized in Democratic policy initiatives. Democrats want people to have a choice in their medical insurance, they want people to be able to choose whether to buy their drugs from Canada, and when they become sick they want to offer people the choices that come from stem cell research. Finally, "choice" can be used as a new angle on the "opportunity" meme, the "diversity" meme, and the "class struggle" meme, all of which are hackneyed. Democrats fight to give the children of the urban poor more choices than their parents, just as they fight to give the middle class new choices about where to send their children to college. This meme is also a key anti-meme or meme-stealer. Just as Republicans have eroded the power of the "hope" meme with the "No Child Left Behind" act, Democrats seem to me to be well positioned to erode the momentum of the school prayer issue, the Republican effort to enact school voucher programs, a variety of corporate entitlements, and most importantly, the recent medicare bill, all of which Republicans have tried to sell with the "choice" meme at some point. It's time for Democrats to reclaim this important metameme.

"Unity" is first and foremost a replacement for the "diversity" meme, as Barack Obama and others have realized. What's more, it's suggestive of other key Democratic values. America is divided from the world over Iraq. America is increasingly divided between rich and poor. Etc. Finally, there is the "America First" meme. This is an effective replacement for all that unfocused talk about jobs and outsourcing. It can suggest that American companies think of America First when it comes to jobs, and it can also suggest making America an example for other Democracies to emulate again. People sens that America has fallen in stature in the world, and the America First meme capitalizes on this. When it comes to environmental stewardship, health care, education, the quality of our elections process, and the corruption level in our campaign financing system, America should lead the world, not follow it. America should be first. People who oppose campaign finance reform, quality elections, universal healthcare, job outsourcing, and the closing of business tax loopholes. These people, it should be made clear, are keeping America back.

NEW MEMES FOR A NEW ERA

So, what are some specific memes that could be leveraged under these metamemes?


"Gay Marriage" + Universal Medical Coverage for All Families +
"Partial Birth Abortion", "Abortion", "Pro-life/Pro-choice" = "Family Rights"

One thing that irks me greatly is to see Democratic pundits talk about the "gay marriage" issue. What a bunch of fools. Just saying those words kills Democrats, regardless of the opinion expressed. Putting what amounts to a derogatory term right next to a word expressive of sanctity creates a hook in people's minds that makes them hostile to the issue. It's like talking about "fag baptism" - just hearing it makes me uncomfortable. If you really want to help the cause of committed homosexual couples, then you should never mention "gay marriage" again, or even "equal rights for homosexuals". Instead, Democrats need to talk about the bigger issue of "family rights". The same goes for "abortion". It's a dirty word. Stop using it. Don't even mention it. The word itself is a foregone conclusion. We have the right to reproductive control - Roe guarantees it. If someone tries to take it away, ask why they are trying to destroy the rights of American families, and why they want to take away the choices faced by rape victims. This blends our metameme "rights" with the swing-voter keyword "family".

As in: "Today Hillary Clinton introduced new family rights legislation to help guarrantee America's working parents and sick children access to health care and the ability to visit hospitalized loved ones on an unrestricted basis."

Or: "Bush threatened to veto Senator Obama's new family rights bill. 'Why does George Bush want to deny the rights of American families?' asked Obama."



"Terrorists/Enemies of Freedom/Islamic Fundamentalists" --> "Conservative Muslim Groups"

Every time a leftist talks of terror, it hurts the left. Stop doing it. Remember, there's no war on terror, no fighting for freedom. Instead, talk about conservative Muslim groups or conservative Muslim criminals. Remember, this effort is an international law enforcement issue. Don't say it explicitly at first, but as time goes on, the military flags, and Bush's "war" stales in the American mind, people will be begging to think of this as a police matter. At that point, remember, the enemy is "conservative" Muslims. This is just the beginning of a campaign the Democrats should launch to destroy the word "conservative" the way the word "liberal" has been destroyed. The end result should be that both words fall out of use or that both return to inspiring normative levels of skepticism and resentment. Remember, Bin Laden and Bush share many more values than they don't share. The American people, in subtle memetic ways, need to be shown this truth.

As in: "Today it has been reported that Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and members of other conservative Muslim groups bombed a train station. This pattern of violence and anger is not uncommon among these kinds of conservative groups."

Or: "Bin Laden and Zarqawi, two Muslim conservatives..."



"Stem Cell Research", "Environmental Regulation", "Teaching of Evolution", Money for Schools --> The Future of America agenda, the Good Science Agenda, and America First.

This is a key meme and if handled properly it could inspire a huge shift in American thinking. Basically we live in a country where people resent intellectualism and learning. They mistrust it and feel judged by it. We need to recall the 50s when Americans were proud of our NASA engineers and our physicists, leverage people's positive disposition toward doctors, and turn this anti-intellectualism upside down. Americans need to remember that it is good to have people in charge who are smarter than they are. When they think of PhDs, they need to feel proud, not diminished. All this is part of the America First meme. America needs to lead in science, lead the world in fighting global warming, in medical research, and in the teaching of our children. We need to demonstrate that if America is going to be first in the world again, it will require us to think about the future, the problems we are creating for our children, and it will require very smart people to help us solve these problems.
Once we've refocused people's attentions on good science, we can use the naturally positive associations people have with good science and the doctors who use it on intellectualism as a whole. We should be as proud of our political scientists and our anthropologists as we are of our doctors. The words "science" and "America First" can make this country safe for intelligent people again.

As in: "Today George Bush pitted himself against 30 nobel prize winners when he vetoed new 'Good Science' legislation introduced by Senator Salazar."

Or: "I don't see why George Bush insists on keeping America behind the vanguard of advanced Democracies by refusing to provide adequate health care for America's children. The Democrats want to put America First again, first at home and first in the world."



"Internationalism, Diplomacy, Non-proliferation" --> Good Neighbor Doctrine

Americans need to understand that effective international law enforcement depends on our status in the world. So this is also an America First issue. But we need to take every opportunity to remind Americans that the same things they expect of their neighbors in their neighborhood are the things the world expects of us. Our politicians should drop lots of folksy analogies that show the relationship between signing international environmental accords and keeping the neighborhood clean, etc. It's just neighborly.

"Wiretapping, International ID Card, Civil Liberties Violations" --> Surveillance Society, Citizen Spying

We need to drop "big brother", drop "civil liberties", etc. It all sounds too cliched, too abstract. Instead we need to remind people that America is beginning to look like that classic US enemy of the past, the Soviet Union. We need to invoke our best dystopian writers without resorting to the big brother cliche. And to do this I think we need to talk about the "surveillance society" that is around the corner. We need to also talk about "citizen spying", because it suggests citizens spying on one another. And when police get a wiretap, that's exactly what's happening. But the effect of "citizen spying" is to suggest the sinister cultures of the Nazis and of Stalin.

As in: "Hillary Clinton today spoke out against John Ashcroft's request for a loosening of wiretapping rules, saying that Ashcroft's attempts to create a "surveillance society" is scaring America. 'We don't need any more citizen spying', she went on to say.



"Corporate Deregulation, Corporate Outsourcing" --> America Last policies

Just as good science, education, and environmental leadership are what will put America First in the future, people who want to outsource jobs, set up shop offshore to avoid American taxes, or pressure American politicians from a position of multi-national leverage -- well, we need to make it clear that these people are trying to put "America Last". Democrats have been slow to realize that they are alienating small business owners by talking about "corporate greed", "corporate evil", etc. The fact is, corporations are a legal structure, not a demographic. We need to embrace responsible businessmen and women and tout models of responsible business stewardship while focusing the people's anger on that minority of business owners who take everything America has given them for granted. These selfish individuals don't care about America, because they operate on the multi-national stage. They think of themselves first, and America Last. And that's unpatriotic. These people need to be reminded that America is a unique and wonderful place to do business, and as such, they owe their country a responsible attitude toward workers, investors, and business partners. Remember, corporate America is not evil. It's us vs them, where US is people who put America First, and them is people who don't care about America. Those traitors who put America last are giving the responsible businesspeople a bad name.



For more info on memetics and how to use them to achieve Democratic political goals, check out these books:

• Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives by George Lakoff, et al (Paperback - September 2004)
  


• Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics As a Science
  by Robert Aunger