Jesus Christ, Memelord?

Rene Girard, Part V — A Sower Went Out to Sow Some Memes?

Articles in the Rene Girard series:

Part I — Ancient Memes & Modern ‘Lawfare’

Part II — Simple Things Replicate; Complex Things Grow

Part III — Antivirus Mindware

Part IV — ♪♫ ‘We Built This City …’ ♪♫

Part V — Jesus Christ, Memelord? [YOU ARE HERE!]

Part VI — Does God Accept You As You Are?

Part VII (Series Finale!) — Christmas: More Than ‘Wonder & Awe’

Substack AI-generated image of sowing seeds, except the seeds are memes! Yes, AI images are weird, but I like how colorful this one is, so it gets to stay.

I’m highly critical of meme culture, calling it dull and shallow. But as a Christian, this leaves me with a difficult question: Don’t the canonical Gospels of the Bible record Jesus using what are essentially memes in His parables?

What follows is my attempt to answer this seeming conundrum.

Fortunately, I’m getting some help — again! — from the late French anthropologist Rene Girard and the fine lads at the “History Homos” podcast.

Mimetic cycles are the realm of evil / Satan

To review briefly, Girard’s book, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, makes the case that humans exhibit very imitative, rivalrous behavior that can take on a cyclical aspect of violence and temporary complacency (until the violence starts again). Scott and William from “History Homos” and I discussed the book at length during Episode 224 of their podcast a couple of months ago (listen at Spotify, Rokfin, Odysee, Rumble, Bitchute, and here on Substack).

For the full list of my interviews, click the image or this caption.

The particular contagions are popularly described as “memes.” Coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, “memes” are cultural replicators — simple ideas that spread from person to person — the way genes are biologically material replicators.

Then there’s the question of what kinds of simple ideas are spreading so easily. Girard observes that, unfortunately, violence is very infectious.

On the macro scale, emotion-driven, imitative messaging and its resulting actions spur the madness of crowds and mass formation psychosis.

On the micro scale, consider how easy it is to become angry over an inconvenience, escalate emotional reactions in social settings, and take out your frustrations on others. Consider how easy it is to get stuck in thoughts, emotions, and actions (or inactions!) that are depressing and otherwise unhealthy for yourself.

Girard explicitly identifies this as the domain of evil (Satan, in traditionally Christian parlance), and views the Gospel message modeled and preached by Jesus as the most effective antidote.

But is Jesus merely creating His own version of a mimetic cycle? To answer this, we can start by understanding a narrative device Jesus often uses: the parable.

Not exactly what Girard had in mind for a “mimetic cycle” … but disturbing nonetheless 🤔

How is virtuous behavior different?

At its base, a parable starts with something simple — perhaps meme-like — that the audience knows. For Jesus and His contemporaries, these are things like …

• “A sower went out to sow [some seeds].”

• vines and branches

• a dangerous road and stock characters (the Good Samaritan story, which I featured in my book).

… and plenty more.

A parable then draws a comparison to connect new knowledge to the already-familiar. Jesus especially emphasizes effort and process when delivering parables; it’s exploration and growth and development, rather than complacency. As I said in the podcast:

Jesus gives people something more to do than imitate. … The  point of Christianity is not to copy Christ, because you don’t have all of Jesus of Nazareth’s experiences.  You have your experiences.  The point of Christianity is to find the part of you that comes from Christ.  It’s not to become a carbon copy of Christ.

A little later, I tried my hand at a parable (or, at least, a simile):

The best a meme can do is be over the target, like a mark on a treasure map.  When you find it, you can’t just stay there looking at the mark.  You’ve got to get out your shovel, and you’ve got to dig … and see if there’s something there that’s worth continuing to pursue.

And if there is, then you keep going. … The parables that Jesus uses, they mark where a deeper treasure is buried, if you are willing to make that effort and develop.

Treasure map, photo by N. on Unsplash

Neighbor vs. citizen; seeds vs. memes

In the Introduction of my book, I describe the mimetic outsourcing of ethics as the citizen mindset, and draw the contrast to the dignity-centered expression of good neighborliness.

Akin to how government doesn’t become good “if we just get the right people in charge” — something we anarchist/voluntarist folks know by heart! — getting stuck in mimetic messaging doesn’t become good “if we just get better memes.”

There’s something intrinsically problematic about an obsession with external validation, with acting on emotion and imitation (something I first tackled on Substack in the Curious-Gullible Matrix), and with settling for the dull, shallow and simplistic.

The trappings of meme culture are indeed a trap!

Made from this clipart.

Jesus, of course, knows this and always makes easy ideas serve a more engaging purpose. He also presents people with truth beyond the wisdom-filled preaching and parables. His greatest lessons come from leading by example: how He embodies virtue and offers redemption to all us flawed humans through His actions.

In good words and good deeds, Jesus is the sower of seeds that can grow, not merely memes that can replicate.

It’s up to each of us individually to pursue more than dull, shallow copies of a meaningful life.

What do you think …

… of my attempt at a parable? Does it work for you? Does it have a glaring flaw?

Do you have a favorite parable, from the Gospels or from another tradition?

Have you overcome unhealthy, meme-like habits/patterns/cycles in your own life? How did you do it?

Anything else interest you about today’s topics?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section …

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