Weekend with Bernies

The Meme. An idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. At least that is, according to Richard Dawkins, who coined the word itself in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene.

Let’s think of this in a non-internet sense. Did you ever see that group of kids at school who used to hang out at lunch, quoting lines from Monty Python, or a similar comedy show? Or maybe you have worked with a group of people who spent half the day talking about last night’s episode of Love Island. These are the cultural things that bind groups together and sometimes even forge identities.

But Dawkins says memes must evolve over time or they will die off. When memes travel verbally, like stories told in the oral tradition, they evolve slowly, but with the internet, we can see this evolution happening at ever increasing speeds.  From the Hamster Dance to the lady shouting at the cat who just stares back, memes have become a quick way for people to get their ideas across.

For much of the last five years, we have become accustomed to false and misleading memes. It’s human nature for people to have knee-jerk reactions to things and these memes can spread very quickly when they inflame us in some way. It’s not our fault, it’s part of what makes us human. And there are people out there who know exactly how to exploit this, made worse by the fact that critical thinking hasn’t been properly taught in schools in most major English-speaking countries for a long time.

So, after such a long time of seeing memes created out of hate which sought only to divide people, it was amazing to see all the Bernie Sanders memes this past weekend. And I think a lot of us were caught a bit off guard by this. Why would a photo of a Senator from Vermont, bundled up from the cold and wearing his face mask find its way into so many shareable photos in such a short period of time?

We believe, for the first time in a long time, a meme went viral for the reasons that a meme is meant to exist, and the people who spread it did so out of love. They did so out of a cultural unity. They memed because they are hoping things can once again be normal. Perhaps the reason for this joyousness is connected to the same reason why the word ‘slept’ trended on Twitter last week. A substantial portion of the world breathing a collective sigh of relief.

And then what does Bernie Sanders go and do? He puts the photo on a sweater and officially sells it on his website, sells out almost immediately, and donates all the proceeds to Meals on Wheels. This is all more proof that the world was waiting for some sign of positivity, and it all came flooding at once.

Of course, there are still angry, hateful and divisive memes out there, and there always will be. We are still seeing our share of Trolls online, sniping away at people, name calling, and all of the usual. And this isn’t going to go away. Being a Troll is just as much a part of human nature as it is to meme. We must still be vigilant, seek out the truth in what we see, and warn others of falling down the rabbit hole.

But the most important thing that this weekend brought to lift is that we must not let go of the joy that it is to meme. Find something that makes you smile and share it with others. Make those smiles drown out the anger. We will never get the Trolls on our side, but if we are memeing together, we can flood the internet with love and happiness and drown out the hate.

At least for a moment.