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The case we will review concerns mysterious and unintended consequences which take place when ancient, dormant memes become active once again in modern foreign policy scenarios.
Such developments are like ancient microbes becoming active once again in a modern laboratory after being away from the view and knowledge of civilization for ages and aeons of time.
Recent developments show us that ancient microbial life forms can revive to come alive to our eyes and knowledge once again (Ancient Microbes Found in Antarctic Lake, Cold, Dark and Alive! Life Discovered in Buried Antarctic Lake).
Similarly, in the previous post of this series we discussed an ancient, dormant meme that had somehow been revived from relative obscurity to become activated within the mind of one particular world leader (The Universal Smedley - 2).
That ancient, now activated, meme is the "Battle of Armageddon" (BOA) meme, which somehow infected Winston Churchill, a world leader who, at that time in history, could have an impact on world affairs:
From the moment he arrived at the Admiralty, a young man of destiny, Churchill started to prepare the fleet for the Battle of Armageddon he believed was inevitable.(Viva Egypt - 2, quoting history books, emphasis in original post). While the BOA meme was circling in the dark lakes of religion, deep under the icecaps of time, it was merely ink on the pages of ancient scripture scrolls, hallelujahs during sermons to the choir, yet unknown to the most of us:
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Then, in 1911, the German Kaiser provoked the Agadir crisis ... Churchill went to the Admiralty and his outlook transformed. He was immediately confronted with the decisive question: to convert the navy from coal to oil ... the "fateful plunge" was made ... in April 1912 ... five oil-burning battleships were approved.
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It was the Royal Navy which was the impetus for the development of the oil industry in Britain. The problem was supply and the security of that supply. Initially, the British government purchased shares in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, subsequently, British Petroleum [BP].
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Then, to prevent further disruptions, Britain enmeshed itself ever more deeply in the Middle East, working to install new shahs in Iran and carve Iraq out of the collapsing Ottoman Empire.
Churchill fired the starting gun, but all of the Western powers joined the race to control Middle Eastern oil.
Armagedōn ... will be, according to the Book of Revelation, the site of gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location. The term is also used in a generic sense to refer to any end of the world scenario.(Wikipedia, "Armageddon", emphasis added). How Winston Churchill got infected by the BOA meme is uncertain, but history tells us that he was exposed to it in his early life while attending services of The Church of England (Anglicans), who still hold to that belief (Armageddon).
It did not have an impact on Churchill's concepts of foreign policy until he was exposed to power, along with a perceived threat, whereupon the BOA meme began to alter or control Churchill's thinking about foreign policy.
It got to the point that the BOA meme influenced his efforts to change the British Navy and middle east policy, which still impacts history to this very day.
We see, then, that memes can lie dormant in obscure places to later become viral pathogens that live on long after their creators have died.
Memes can eventually become more permanent as brain circuits in our cultural amygdala (e.g. Comparing a Meme Complex to a Cultural Amygdala, Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 4).
Which brings us to the events that are material to this post, events which impact upon the news you may read or hear today.
That is because in the news today, years after Churchill died, the BOA meme is actively at work once again.
It is influencing Middle East Foreign Policy among warmongering subcultures, such as the feudal military and their lackey officials in government:
Senior Pentagon officials described the Islamic State (Isis) militant group as an “apocalyptic” organisation that posed an “imminent threat” on Thursday, yet the highest ranking officer in the US military said that in the short term, it was sufficient for the United States to “contain” the group that has reshaped the map of Iraq and Syria.(Apocalyptic ISIS, emphasis added). Warmongering now animates the BOA meme as a cause of war preparation no matter whether Winston Churchill's ideological descendants have the infection, whether the conjured up enemy has the infection, or whether both now have the infection.
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This is an organisation that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision which will eventually have to be defeated.”
The militant ideology generated by the BOA meme infection has been diagnosed, by historians and statesmen alike, repeatedly over many years:
"The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells."(GWOT: In The "Eye" Of The Beholder?, emphasis added). Memetics, like any other discipline, can be helpful as a tool for observing and analysing ideological dynamics that mysteriously continue seemingly in perpetuity.
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The Worldwide control of humanity's economic, social and political activities is under the helm of US corporate and military power. Underlying this process are various schemes of direct and indirect military intervention. These US sponsored strategies ultimately consist in a process of global subordination ... US strategists, in an attempt to justify their military interventions in different parts of the World, have conceptualised the greatest fraud in US history, namely "the Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT). The latter, using a fabricated pretext constitutes a global war against all those who oppose US hegemony ... The US has established its control over 191 governments which are members of the United Nations. The conquest, occupation and/or otherwise supervision of these various regions of the World is supported by an integrated network of military bases and installations which covers the entire Planet (Continents, Oceans and Outer Space). All this pertains to the workings of an extensive Empire, the exact dimensions of which are not always easy to ascertain ... The main sources of information on these military installations (e.g. C. Johnson, the NATO Watch Committee, the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases) reveal that the US operates and/or controls between 700 and 800 military bases Worldwide ... In this regard, Hugh d’Andrade and Bob Wing's 2002 Map 1 entitled "U.S. Military Troops and Bases around the World, The Cost of 'Permanent War'", confirms the presence of US military personnel in 156 countries ... The US Military has bases in 63 countries. Brand new military bases have been built since September 11, 2001 in seven countries ... In total, there are 255,065 US military personnel deployed Worldwide ... These facilities include a total of 845,441 different buildings and equipments. The underlying land surface is of the order of 30 million acres. According to Gelman, who examined 2005 official Pentagon data, the US is thought to own a total of 737 bases in foreign lands. Adding to the bases inside U.S. territory, the total land area occupied by US military bases domestically within the US and internationally is of the order of 2,202,735 hectares, which makes the Pentagon one of the largest landowners worldwide (Gelman, J., 2007).
Such disciplines can also get off track (e.g. Death & Resurrection Of Memetics).
So, watch the short video below, if you haven't already, for an example of ongoing memetic concepts spoken by a philosopher.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
Dangerous memes:
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