'A' is an Evolved and Good Man

Let us examine person A, who lives in a green home designed and built on eco-friendly principles, meditates every day, and is very compassionate with the people he meets and transacts with. However, when we widen our frame to accommodate a larger systemic view, we see that his huge estate is protected by an almost impassable barrier and policed by an army of people equipped with the most up-to-date technology. If we move the frame even further, we see that the surrounding areas are slums run by slum lords. The economy of these slums is based on sending raw materials, dug out of its grounds and its non-renewable wealth, to the household of ‘A.’ Also, the agents of ‘A’ do business with these slum lords. The slum lords envy A and create a small coterie around them that profiteers and creates an oasis mimicking ‘A’s lifestyle in the slum. This creates tensions and strife, but A and his agents turn a blind eye to it.

In fact, if we extend the frame across time, we see that A took the land he lives on by force and trenchancy. Any attempt by the slums to become self-sufficient, stop exporting raw materials, and become more egalitarian, democratic, and focused on discovering solutions relevant to their slums is actively and sometimes forcefully disrupted. At other times, ‘A’’s agents offer to help the slums by lending money and drawing up development plans. The slum lords are happy because they control the flow of funds, and they can appear benevolent.

Obviously, the impoverished, disinherited, and dispossessed slum dwellers get drunk, fight, become superstitious, and regress into clannish groups or warring gangs.

How will we map this context onto value memes? Would ‘A’ be schizophrenic, and would the slums just be people reacting to deep hurt and loss? Would the slum lords be schizophrenic, too?

A, in the meanwhile, selectively takes the people with the best minds from the slums and puts them to work. Some go into developing new assessments, others into new technology, and many into ways of entertaining the people in the household and catering to their whims.

What are these value memes? The espoused values, practical values, propagandist values…?