(पञ्चसप्ततिवर्षेभ्यः पूर्वम् )
मानवाद्यधिकारोऽपि जनस्य यत्र नाभवत् । घोरातिपापिदूराष्ट्रं ध्वस्तं – तत्कृद्-भ्य आदरः ॥
(Seventy-five years ago : )
“Where people did not have even the most basic human rights, that evil regime of terrible and excessive criminals was destroyed : respect to those who did it.”
Jan Houben for MemePeace.org, 5 May 2020
From 5 to 9 May several countries in Europe celebrate the end of World-War II, the liberation of their country (for the Netherlands on 5 May 1945) and the formal acceptance by the Allies of the Nazi regime’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945. It is the occasion for these countries to commemorate the enormous sacrifices which led to this achievement and to transmit to younger generations awareness of the importance of the adherence to human rights in democratic governments. Victims of World-War II are also usually remembered on these days or on a separate day (4 May in the Netherlands), and this is sometimes extended to remembering the victims of other numerous wars that have been raging in the world even after World-War II.
The propagation of agressive units of information or memes targeting some communities in a country have usually preceded the perpretation of atrocities against these communites, political opponents, etc. On the other hand, the potential of consistently formulating and making available positive memes has till now not been explored.
The immediate aim of memepeace.org and of the website “Memes for Peace and Progress” is precisely to do this.
The concept of the ‘meme’ in cultural evolution as parallel to the ‘gene’ in biological evolution has been proposed by Richard Dawkins, 1976, The selfish gene, Oxford: Oxford University Press. In this line of thinking, Stephen Jonathan Whitty, International Journal of Project Management (2005) 23 (8): 575-583, discussed a “memetic paradigm of project management”: accordingly, the “management” of a “Memes for Peace and Progress” project should be as modest and minimalist as possible. Efforts should be primarily focused on formulating well-founded, positive and constructive ‘memes’ and on making these available to teachers, educators, etc., preferably in several current and classical languages of the world.
The peace that is aimed at in the Memetic management project proposal [1] is not a static condition but a competitive enterprise by individuals and groups inspired by various backgrounds. It is the first proposal for a memetic management project with this aim, but it is hoped and expected that in the course of time other memetic management projects will be formulated which, together, will contribute to a robust equilibrium of ‘peace in justice’ going hand in hand with ‘sustainable progress’.
- [1]
Jan Houben, « Des conflits armés à la compétition dans la création de paix et de progrès : un projet de gestion mémétique ».
In : After Paris 13.11.15 – conflits, exodes, attentats : notes et analyses de chercheurs du monde entier, sous la dir. de Pierre Musso, p. 110-113. Paris : Editions Manucius, 2016. ↩