模倣子 Symmetry of Apathy and Anxiety/Cowardice

 Memetic Index 

related essay: The Counterintuitive Simplicity of Republicanism

Medium Article: Close Cousins of Anxiety & Apathy - Check out my comments there!

“Bullies trade on the innate cowardice of the average person” (1)

I would say that “apathy” is more apt [than “self-interest”]. 

Reverend Niemöller:

First they came for the communists, but I said nothing because I wasn’t a communist 

Next they came for the trade unionists, but I said nothing because I wasn’t a laborer 

Next they came for the Jews, but I said nothing because I wasn’t a Jew

Then they came for me, and there was nobody left to say anything

Are apathy and cowardice effectively the same thing?

I’ve worked out that “assisting” and “bullying” have interesting similarities. There may be a supersymmetry there, where common factors are “irresistible control” and the symmetry-breaking property is something like “overtness” and “does the original actor benefit or ‘get what he wants’"

Anyway, probably not popular ideas. 

This is the obverse of what a bully does, that is, know that nobody will act for the same reason, lack of clear memetically resonant course of action. 

As soon as even one person steps up, as you have recounted, and I have experienced as well (only as the anti-bullier, never as the beneficiary), the bully is usually sunk. 

The first anti-bully provides a meme which others can easily pick up, which represents a kind of percolation, terrifying to a bully. 

This of course underscores further the idea of the symmetry between bullying memes and alliance memes. 

Macromemetic symmetries are an exciting idea. Much like in physics, the idea that every new discovery might simply be a new "spin" (pun intended) on an existing body of theory, and that many of the same principles, rules, and body of theory might apply. Certainly the notational systems I've built up around bullying translate directly over to alliance memes.

Follow-up Post about memetic marking and closure as they relate to apathy.

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(1) Apathy, or Cowardice, or Anxiety? Are they all effectively the same thing, or from a memetic perspective super-symmetrical much like helping (allying) and bullying are?