Metaspore n. A bastardisation of the word ‘Metaphor’ with semantic cross-over with the concept of the ‘meme’ – the metaspore being a violently self-propogating meme with particularly little interest in the survivability of its hosts, with propogation being of such a speed and virulence that conceptual spread is maintainable even though long-term prospects of communication disintegrate when the meme spreads globally. An example of a highly dangerous meme could be the suicide cult, or the concept of teenage suicide itself (cf Micronesian suicides in Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Tipping Point’), while the most obvious contemporary candidate for status of ‘metaspore’ might currently be global capitalism in its full environment-damaging form.
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