A friend of Memes.org has started a new site called Kool is Bollocks.
As he states in an email, “Sometime ago i heard of a conspiracy theory that stated that the phenomenon of cool was an entirely artificial concept, engineered by shadowy groups and ‘enlightened’ philosophers, for the sole purpose of breathing life to capitalism,” and that “big reservations that such a conspiracy exists in such a calculated form” but thought the concept are dead sexy (my words).
He is a bird of a feather for sure as I really am not completely sold on memes and memetics either, but Memes.org is dead sexy.
Hey Memoid (Chris),
Congrats on deciding to keep Memes.Org open - it’s a wise choice!
I just want to let you know about a site I have just developed. Basically, I was so concerned that you were going to shut Memes.Org that I decided to investigate how the PostNuke software worked, with a view to setting up a similar site to carry on the legacy of Memes.Org if you did indeed actually shut down. Luckily, you kept Memes.Org going, and so i decided instead to create a new postnuke website based around a new concept which i have always been fascinated about: “The Philosophy of Cool” and how the profound effect on humanity that it has. Let me give you the background:-
Sometime ago i heard of a conspiracy theory that stated that the phenomenon of cool was an entirely artificial concept, engineered by shadowy groups and “enlightened” philosophers, for the sole purpose of breathing life to capitalism. The theory goes that in order for capitalism to work there needs to be a perpetual desire for humans to acquire money. This desire can only be achieved where there is enough reason to want to spend money, and bare neccesity products and services alone are incapable of generating such demand - sooner or later, man will become content and maintain that money is no longer important to him. In order to prevent this, humankind is psychologically conditioned to be at the mercy of external “movements” of cool, which has the effect of forcing the subject to never arrive at this feeling of contentment.
To be honest, I have big reservations that such a conspiracy exists in such a calculated form. Especially when you consider that the concept of cool occupies many other faculties of human emotion aside the capitalist domain of consumerism (e.g sex, status and security). However it did inspire me to re-evaluate my awareness of the concept of cool and it’s profound role, along with other socialogical concepts. So I set up this website http://www.kool-is-bollocks.com as a testing ground for articles, essays and comments for like-minded minds to come together. I’m specifically interested in the realm of the “unwritten” laws that govern sub-cultures, along with an investigation into materialistic trends that maintain a negative effect of people external to the specific phenemenon (sweat shop workers for example).
So I would love to have you on board as a member - please feel free to sign up. In addition I have used the Memes.org RSS feed to for an extra block on the homepage, so that readers at www.kool-is-bollocks.com can check out the headlines at Memes. “Kool is Bollocks” was inspired by Memes.org so i think it is only fair that it people can link to it.
