Simple Things Replicate; Complex Things Grow
Simple Things Replicate; Complex Things Grow
Rene Girard, Part II — How an Atheist Biologist Helps Illuminate the Christian Anthropologist
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 …’ ♪♫
Where do mature humans come from?
It might be tempting to say, “from mature humans.” But when I asked that question on my latest appearance on the “History Homos” podcast (listen at Spotify, Rokfin, Odysee, Rumble, Bitchute, and here on Substack), that wasn’t the response I was going for.
Before I get into the answer, however, let’s consider the set-up (because every good question has a set-up)!
Podcast co-hosts Scott Abrams and William From England invited me back to their show for a deep dive into mimetic theory — a way of looking at societies that concentrates on collective, social pressures to conform — as describe in Christian anthropologist Rene Girard’s book, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning.
I wrote the first in this Rene Girard series of articles two weeks ago, “Ancient Memes & Modern ‘Lawfare’ ” (and you can check out all my podcast appearances and my Substack articles in which I reference them in a handy document conveniently titled, “All My Podcast Appearances”).
In order to understand Girard’s work more thoroughly, I drew on my experience with another seminal work, The Selfish Gene, by renowned biologist Richard Dawkins.
How does knowing a groundbreaking scientific theory about genomes help me understand a work of human history tinged with myth and mysticism? Especially since Dawkins is a very public atheist, and I’m trying to understand a work with a clear respect for Christian tradition!
Because Dawkins’ extended analogy between biological replicators (genes) and cultural replicators (what he named “memes”) answered for me the question as to why it’s so easy for people to copy one another, even when the imitated behavior is devastatingly destructive.
The paths of least & greatest resistance
So, where do mature humans come from?
As I explained in the podcast:
Simple things replicate; complex things grow.
You don't get mature humans from mature humans. You get mature humans from immature humans, and you get immature humans from very immature humans.
Simple things, like single-cell organisms and even the cells in our own bodies, can create copies of themselves. But complex organisms can’t do this; humans don’t reproduce by suddenly splitting into two identical copies of the original person. Humans have to distill their information into a very simplified form known as a gamete (sperm or ovum). The best we can do is transmit the information about how to become a new, complex organism, and hope that the information gets where it needs to go to become this new human.
During the podcast, I accepted Dawkins analogy between genes and memes, and extended my own insight to the world of ideas: Simple ideas have a comparatively easy time copying and therefore spreading, while complex ideas only emerge through the much more challenging process of building upon simpler concepts.
Developing complex ideas and rigorous systems of thought, is a path of much greater resistance, requiring much more effort than the simplistic “going with the flow” (to use a metaphor from the path water takes toward areas of lower resistance).
The mimetic cycle that Girard describes in great detail, happens not because it’s good, productive, innovative, or beneficial in the long term, but because it’s easy. Mimetic cycles travel the psychological path of least resistance.
This is vital to understanding why — if mimetic cycles have been so detrimental to the progress of humanity beyond the brutal and Satanic (as Girard called it) — this behavior is seen so consistently across civilizations and generations.
Simple things replicate, because they can.
Complex things grow, because they must!
Bro! Listen, bro. Broooooohhh!
I appreciate people who can find the humor in things. Jokes can be memes, because while a good joke tends to be sharper than dull, it’s still fairly shallow and can spread easily.
Unfortunately, as already discussed: The dullest, dumbest, potentially harmful memes also spread easily.
Here’s a wonderfully clever, animated, two-minute video by Freedom Toons that uses humor to show the overwhelming prevalence of ill-formed, meme-level opinion:
I don’t think I can improve upon the humorous delivery of the message, so I won’t try to.
Instead, I’ll bring the discussion back to the connection between genes and memes.
The key to human social progress — to genuine good neighborliness — is finding the simple things with the potential to grow far beyond their simplistic origins, and to develop them in the direction of human dignity and consent-based interactions (good ol’ anarchism/voluntarism!).
The atheist biologist Dawkins and the Christian anthropologist Girard each explored how ideas spread. Their respective fields and expertise complement each other.
Whether concerning our biology and physical nature, or our psychology and mindsets: Simple things replicate; complex things grow.
You, a mature human, have become far more than the pair of gametes that began your life.
Become more than a simplistic cycle of memes, too.
Leave me your best meme in the Comments …
… Or, leave me some thoughts that are more developed than a meme. I appreciate your engagement, whichever way you lean.
As I said in the podcast, “You need Dawkins to fully understand Girard.” What do you think of the analogy between biological development and intellectual/behavioral development?
Can you identify an area of your life where your views and values have sharpened, deepened, broadened as you’ve made the effort to develop them?
If you watched the embedded Freedom Toons video, do you find yourself battling that kind of simplistic thinking as you strive for understanding? Also … Bro, do you got a hundred million?
Anything else on your mind after reading this?
Let me know your thoughts below …
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Me, I'm a simple man, I desire what I think my neighbors have and I desire to think, only as my neighbors do. I will happily go to my grave this way, so long as I'm not forced to change by events outside of my control.
Well not exactly, but I do understand the desire to "fit in", I've just never been very good at it, which is about all life amounts to for so many people, fitting in that is. By the way, I think it's perfectly fine and even healthy that the vast majority of people behave this way. It's always been a rare individual who moves the ball in any field. You need very few thought leaders, if the herd desperately believes it needs to change directions.
I think the problem we have today is that the ball is moving in the wrong direction, the few real "thought leaders" are either unheard, unheeded or demeaned. Wrong headed ideas flourish, while older more evolved ideas are being swept away and sadly, not for fresher newer ideas, that move us forward, as it should be.
Our "progressives" are clearly "regressive", their gods are old gods.
In the world of business it's an extremely rare business that can stand still, we either grow our business or the business decays. It's true for almost everything else as well. Organisms don't just grow larger, they grow old and die, they decay and crumble.
The West seems to have been trying to avoid any form of spiritual or intellectual growth, the concept itself is seen as Passe, we are all too smart to learn anything new.
This belief, that we have it all figured out, has led to stagnation and stagnation eventually leads to decline. Personally I assume this is just what happens when we become too content and have things too easy, we aren't forced to work harder to make it better, not when it's good enough as it is.
Invention, whether that's a physical or logical invention, is the child of necessity after all.
People are capable of growth, we will rarely do it, unless we absolutely have to and it's a rare person who really feels comfortable thinking outside of the box . On top of that, nobody wants to hear someone who thinks outside of the box, not unless they have a problem they desperately need fixed.
We aren't yet desperate enough to grow, but that could change in the blink of an eye.