It's all in the memes

Dictionaries define "meme" as elemental behavior that's passed from one person to another usually through imitation. The Guardian's Karl Hodge, writing during the Internet's Cretaceous period in 2000, defined the meme as "self-replicating packets of information" that plants "beliefs and values that gain more authority with each new host." In a real world example of how it works, Dana Milbank bemoaned President Obama's "evolving" personal position on gay marriage today, saying that "this is less about the issue than about leadership. ... if Obama really believes, as he says, that a class of Americans is suffering unconstitutional discrimination, you’d think he would take a stand [i.e., openly support gay marriage] as a matter of principle. Instead ... the president is once again 'leading from behind.'” The meme, of course, is the "leading from behind" bit. Though the argument is bankrupt, the tattered baton continues to get passed. Why do pundits, especially smart ones like Milbank, fall prey to the meme so easily? Intellectual laziness (encouraged by lowest common denominator journalism) is part of it. But truth be told, the phenomenon is more complicated than that. Suffice it to say that the Web is the perfect conduit for the meme. Eleven years ago, Hodge asked, "Is the internet spreading a virus through our heads?" Clearly, the answer is yes. And since there are no antidotes yet, the body politic remains feverish and bedridden.