An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Can a simple idea change the world?
Who’s In Control?
If I were to say, “Long before the terrorists on 9/11 hijacked those planes, beliefs hijacked their minds,” few would disagree.
But if I then said, “We are all hijacked by our beliefs,” you might think, “Not me, I’m smarter than that,” or you might agree without thinking about what that really means, i.e., you aren’t in control, your beliefs are.
It’s as if we all have split-personalities. There’s the “real” you and then there are the beliefs that infect you as you go through life.
We see the hijacking or “infection” in others but not ourselves.
“The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If beliefs are the real issue, can a new understanding of beliefs solve our problems? What exactly is a belief? How do they get into our heads, and why are some of the most irrational beliefs so hard to remove?
The answer was found over 40 years ago but hasn’t been realized for what it is. Let’s examine the evidence, redefine meanings, and flip conventional wisdom on its head.
The Selfish Gene
In 2017 a Royal Society poll listed The Selfish Gene as the most influential science book of all time. Many of the participants commented on how the book had changed their perspective of the world. If we are to understand ourselves, we must also change our perspective.
How does a book on genes and evolution pertain to beliefs?
There is so much to take away from The Selfish Gene, it’s hard to choose where to start. This article will focus on three main points for now:
- Natural selection works for genes, not individuals or groups.
- Genes are replicators and we are their vehicles a.k.a., hosts.
- Anything that replicates will undergo selection pressures making future generations better adapted.
In The Selfish Gene, Dawkins introduces a new replicator he called a “meme.”
An idea, belief, or thought pattern that replicates via non-genetic means; a parasitic code or virus of the mind.
This is different than the typical definition of internet memes you may currently have in mind. But, if we concentrate on the word “belief” in the definition above, we can start to connect some very interesting dots.
Idea, Belief, or Meme?
Let’s distinguish a meme from an idea or belief. It’s useful to think of one leading to the other in stages.
If I were to say, “I have an idea, go jump off that bridge.” You wouldn’t think that was a very good idea so you don’t.
But if I said, “My God wants you to jump off that bridge to prove your faith,” you still wouldn’t, but under the right circumstances someone could be persuaded to jump.
The moment someone jumps, you know with certainty that the idea has become an accepted belief.
Finally, if the person who believes can convince others to join them in jumping the belief has gone viral and becomes a meme.
Note: Cults are well-known for starting with low bridges to get people excited and involved, but it’s common with most forms of persuasion. It’s a way of getting the oxytocin flowing so budding members feel like they are loved and belong to a new family. It also starts the in-group/out-group dynamics.
Check out Shin Jie Yong great article on oxytocin:
There is a progression or “evolution” from idea, the least powerful, to meme the most powerful. Moreover, the process for memes is the same as it is for genes:
- Natural selection works for memes, not individuals or groups.
- Memes are replicators and we are their vehicles a.k.a., hosts.
- Because memes replicate, they will undergo selection pressures making future generations better adapted.
Two important points to note from the bridge example above: (1) the truth of the meme does not matter and (2) the host is expendable.
The only thing that matters is that the meme survives and spreads as far as possible. It may seem counter-intuitive that eliminating the host could benefit the belief, but it does.*
We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators. — Richard Dawkins
Selfish Replicators
To keep it simple, know that beliefs and memes are both replicators and the terms are mostly interchangeable, but they are not exactly the same as indicated above.
A belief’s interests and the host’s interests may not be the same. All replicators’ primary goal is to replicate, but which replicator wins when there is a conflict?
The evolution of genes is vertical, taking many generations for changes to occur. Memes far outpace genes when replicating because the process is both vertical and horizontal. With the advent of modern telecommunications, memes can travel far and wide at near the speed of light. Which replicator do you think has the upper hand?
Beliefs are mindless replicators getting better and faster at what they have evolved to do — hijack minds and replicate to hijack more minds.
The idea that we are the hosts for beliefs may sound strange, but in nature, co-evolving parasites and hosts are the norm. There exists a kind of arms-race between parasite and host that often improves both. This explains much of the complexity and diversity of life on Earth as well as why our brains are so large.
…we do know that parasitism is the most popular lifestyle on Earth. Most animal species are probably parasitic.— Kevin Lafferty
Parasitic co-evolution is neither good nor bad, it’s just a process. We are the result of that process, and understanding how it works gives us a new perspective and a better way to explain human behavior.
Imagine the reason it’s so hard for people to change their minds is that once a belief infects a mind it has many tricks to stay there. Natural selection has produced beliefs that are very effective at getting into and staying in our minds. Knowing this provides a way to understand otherwise irrational behavior.
For example, our current beliefs will try to fight any new ideas that threaten them. When we see two people arguing, we are literally witnessing a fight for survival — the survival between two beliefs.
Beliefs have evolved ways to hijack the brain’s fight-or-flight response and that’s why it looks exactly the same as if we were fighting for our physical “genes” survival.
A more extreme example; when a suicide bomber takes himself out of the gene pool, the belief benefits at the expense of the individual.
*How does the belief benefit?
- By calling attention to itself in a dramatic, memorable fashion
- By encouraging people to investigate the belief so it can spread
- And by reinforcing the belief in those who are already infected
You can see that from the beliefs or meme’s point of view, the loss of a few individual hosts is well worth the cost. Memes trump genes.
On the positive side, if it were not for memes there would be no language, culture, science, or big brains. This is the power of co-evolution and what has separated us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Animals have instincts. We have instincts AND beliefs.
With most people disbelief in a thing is founded on a blind belief in some other thing. — Georg C. Lichtenberg
Our Most Cherished Possessions
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” — Evelyn Beatrice Hall (Summarizing Voltaire’s beliefs)
Think about that quote and what is being implied. Would you really die for someone else’s beliefs? What if they were demonstrably false beliefs?
No, you say, it’s the concept of free speech that is more important than my life. Free speech is a noble cause and many have died defending it, but don’t forget that it is itself just a belief. Why do we consider it so important?
Because the tacit message is, “I’ll let you believe whatever you want if you let me believe whatever I want.” This may be respectful and politically correct, but is it rational?
We live in a time of conspiracy theories, “alternate facts,” and “fake news.” When you think about it, those are simply ways to maintain irrational beliefs.
The next time you see otherwise smart, rational people acting in irrational ways, try imagining the beliefs they must be harboring. Suddenly they don’t seem so irrational. They’re just defending their beliefs or, more accurately, their beliefs are defending themselves.
We seem more concerned with upsetting people and their beliefs than we are with the truth, at least until they stop returning the favor. At some level, we know our beliefs make us who we are.
Attacking someone’s beliefs will make them feel as if they are being physically attacked themselves. Such is the power that beliefs have over us.
The Takeaway
The world looks very different when seen through the lens of parasitic beliefs. They are responsible for making us the way we are by controlling our minds for their benefit, not necessarily ours.
By defending our beliefs, we are made to feel like we are defending ourselves. It’s no accident that we feel the same fight-or-flight response whether defending ourselves or our beliefs.
Most of us have a hard time changing our minds because once established, beliefs are in survival mode and don’t want to leave. Knowing this should make us more tolerant of others and diligent about the types of beliefs we allow into our own minds.
We all have a moral obligation to make sure that our beliefs are aligned with reality. If we do not there is the real possibility of repeating the atrocities of the past for the benefit of false beliefs.
So yes, a simple idea can change the world.
Nothing is more powerful as an idea whose time has come. — Victor Hugo