The Meme Meme

Thought for the day: The term meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene. A meme is an idea. Ideas exist within the population (who are their hosts). The point he was making was that strong ideas live and multiply and spread - just like strong (or perhaps more aptly, fit for the current environment) genes.
The idea of a meme is, clearly, in itself a meme. the meme meme (or meme2).
Interestingly common use of the term deviates from the original. It has evolved into something new. The meaning in most quarters is now this. Grotesque image plus big white writing plus bad grammar equals meme. Simples.
But the real meaning is far more interesting. Currently our world is populated by some powerful and dangerous memes. I won't put specific names to them here. There are several - and they generally follow the same pattern. "I believe that my set of ideas is the only correct one - believers in all other sets of ideas are therefore by definition wrong". I disagree with this wholeheartedly. Many sets of ideas can get you through life very nicely and do nobody any harm, and hopefully do some good. There are only a few no-no's in my view, but complete intolerance of a diversity of views, cultures, physical characteristics etc. is definitely high on the list of bads. But why so many bad memes? Compare back against the gene example on which the meme meme is based and you immediately see the answer... Because they thrive in the current environment. That's the thing we've got to understand and do something about... What is it about the current environment that allows these quire damaging memes thrive? The environment is pretty much us, the human hosts, or human society. We need to take a serious look at that.