X-Message-Number: 516 Date: Fri, 1 Nov 91 13:31:58 PST From: Subject: Re: cryonics: #514 Ben Best raises an interesting point regarding the world's attitude toward things American. He was speaking of Canada, but it applies elsewhere as well. Specifically, it was stated that one reason that B.C. officialdom decided to outlaw cryonics was simply because they perceived it as an Americanism! It is entirely possible that the same reasoning may be duplicated elsewhere. For instance, in the Middle East, Americanism carries negative connotations due to two things. One is the U.S. support for the state of Israel, which is of no import to the matter at hand. The other is the constant stream of "un-Islamic" ideas, practices and cultural gewgaws that flows from America to the rest of the world. The fact that America is largely unconscious of all this is neither recognized nor important. As a result, **anything** American is looked on with great suspicion, if not distaste. The fact that some take a contrarian view, seeing things American as good instead of bad, only serves to raise the level of irritation of those who dislike things American. America is perceived as a corrupting influence. Many of America`s exported memes are perceived as evil in and of themselves. The rest suffer guilt by association. It would appear that the cryonics meme will fare similarly, unless something is done. What that something might be is not clear, at least to me. For one thing, even if Immortalism and Americanism can be separated from each other in the world's mind, it is likely that Immortalism/Cryonicism would still be perceived as Western--which is almost as bad as American. And of course, Cryonicism/Immortalism is in direct competition with entrenched and cherished memes local to each society, even without the added connotational baggage of being foreign, Western or American. The bottom line is that there appear to be two possible strategies for spreading the Cryonics/Immortalism meme: 1) Challenge competing memes directly, conceding nothing and taking no prisoners. This is all-out war (intellectually, at least). 2) Compromise with competing memes, convince the audience that Cryonicism/Immortalism is compatible with existing memes--or at least not incompatible. This is seduction, the "soft-sell." My personality type naturally gravitates toward the first strategy. However, my intellect tells me--based on my reading of history--that the second strategy is much more effective for small minority groups such as we are. The basic tactic for pursuing the soft-sell strategy is that the meme must be "repackaged" for each market in which it is being sold. The advertisments that sell Hondas in Japan may differ from those used in Germany. Real sophistication comes when ads can be customized for the religion, political philosophy, economic status, education level and geographic region of the audience. A poor southern Baptist of African descent living in Louisiana and a rich atheist-socialist of Slavic extraction living in the Berkeley hills have completely different worldviews. It is possible for either of them to accept the Immortalism/Cryonicism meme--but each will do so for different reasons, and will internalize the meme very differently. And neither would make a good salesman for the other. This suggests that an attempt at repackaging the Cryonics/Immortalism meme so that it appears more desirable to British Columbia officialdom should be pursued. Cryonicists/immortalists native to Canada will probably have to be the ones to do this. It will probably require much thought and no small dose of creativity. However, if we expect to "convert" the world, we must learn how to do this. Speaking of "converting the world," I have found that resistance to the Immortalism/Cryonicism meme often simply vanishes once the audience learns that you only seek the right to pursue immortality for yourself, and do not intend to persuade the audience that they should do likewise. This does not make converts, but it does make friends of those who would otherwise be enemies. Our number one priority **ought** to be the freedom to practice what we believe. Given that, what do we care what others choose to do with their lives? --alan () Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=516