Meme of the same?

Memes are rather inspired idea – if they didn’t exist you’d have to make them up…

What’s a meme? Well, Richard Dawkins coined the phrase to refer ‘to a replicator of cultural information that one mind transmits (verbally or by demonstration) to another mind’ (so says Wikipedia – a concise definition indeed, considering tomes have been written on the subject).

I first came across them when studying political theory – there’s some fascinating stuff out there about ‘spontaneous’ revolution, the spread of any given ideology, and political control/ manipulation.

Some memes have an intensely practical function, like honing and passing on centuries of knowledge in order to not reinvent the wheel (literally). Others are the things that make us creatures of the herd, seeking safety in numbers, to look and sound similar and behave within the norms of a group.

Other examples of basic memes might be jingles, catchphrases, fashion, urban myths – anything adopted from visual or verbal demonstrations picked up and passed on from human to human. They can be linguistic, physical, cultural, practical, ideological…

Two of the best recent examples of memes are the use of the word “babes” in the Big Brother house (even if you’ve seen 10 mins you’ll know what I mean), and the overnight appearance (and disappearance) of En-ger-land flags on cars.

Inspired by my fairly basic knowledge of the meme, Dave’s “EC impostor” cartoon, and TSK’s photo of the same phenomenon, I’m wondering what are the memes in the emerging church? Mac ownership/ use surely has to be one. But what are the others – past or present or emerging?