Memetic Success
<p>Bwahahaha!  My sinister master plan for world domination is<br />
working.  Straight from the pages of the highest-quality general-news<br />
magazine in English, check <a href='http://economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=6826185'><br />
this</a> out!  The money &#8216;graf is the last one:</p>
<blockquote><p>
Moreover, the ease with which the internet spreads<br />
wrong-headedness&#8211;to say nothing of lies and slander&#8211;is offset by the<br />
ease with which it spreads insights and ideas. To regret the glorious<br />
fecundity of new media is to choose the hushed reverence of the<br />
cathedral over the din of the bazaar.
</p></blockquote>
<p>There&#8217;s an old saw to the effect that there&#8217;s no limit to what you<br />
can accomplish if you don&#8217;t care who gets the credit.  More precisely,<br />
when your signature memes start showing up as generative metaphors in<br />
elite and popular usage <em>with your name stripped off them</em>, you<br />
know you&#8217;re winning.</p>
<p>Winning, that is, at the only game that is really interesting &#8212;<br />
changing the world.</p>
<p>(Hat tip to my blogson Walter Hunt over at <a href='http://www.walterhunt.com/blog/?p=11'>Stone of Remembrance</a>,<br />
though I&#8217;d have seen it anyway in my weekly <cite>Economist</cite> and<br />
later did.)</p>
