Satan Is The Antimeme

antimeme (noun): an idea, fact, or entity that erases or prevents knowledge of itself from being remembered, recognized, or transmitted after it is perceived.

I.

Sometimes a book is so intense that I have to set it down against my will. The Bible does that to me regularly. Very rarely does this happen with other books, but There Is No Antimimetics Division by qntm is a phenomenal read. What if these two books are more connected than not?

René Girard, in I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, identifies Satan as a system, inclusive of its own resolution: mimetic desire feeds rivalry, rivalry spreads like fire, and the fire goes out (for a while) only when a victim is found and "removed for the greater good.” Often, this scapegoat is innocent. Then the memory gets edited out, and the cycle runs again:

Desire → Imitation → Rivalry → Crisis → Scapegoat → Relief → Forgetting → Desire, again

What if Satan is not just the feedback loop of rivalry and imitation and scapegoating, but also the forgetting? What if qntm's ultimate antimeme (U-3215) is a stand-in for Satan?

Mimetic rivalry itself has antimimetic properties. It makes one thing brighter by making everything else dimmer. It reinforces what you compete over, but you forget other parts of yourself along the way. You chase the bonus and misplace your marriage. You win the argument and lose your friend. You get what you wanted and cannot remember why you are empty, or even why you wanted that thing in the first place.

In qntm’s world, the antimeme has consumed nearly all of humanity and civilization. The last bet is to find an idea so powerful it can beat U-3215. Marie Quinn, at the end, manages to find (or be) this anti-antimeme.

If Satan is this system of all-versus-all, of mimetic rivalry and war, the conquering system of light and order is Christ. This is the story that actually ends the loop instead of feeding it.

II.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Exodus 20:17

Girard pinpoints the tenth commandment as strange. It does not just forbid an act. It forbids a desire. The commonality is not the objects, but the owner. We covet because someone near us--the neighbor--bestows value upon those objects.

Notably, the only thing we know about the neighbor is that he is close.

Closeness is magnetic. His nearness brings him into your field of view. You first want what he has, then to be who he is. Desire becomes rivalry. Rivalry culminates in hatred and hatred demands discharge. A scapegoat is chosen. Peace comes.

And then we forget. The cycle turns again.

How do you end this cycle?

Desire cannot be destroyed, only redirected. We must replace the neighbor, but if the neighbor is right next to you, what could be any closer?

Christ does not stay across the street. He abides within us. He dwells within us:

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. John 15:4

But you know [the Spirit of truth], because he resides with you and will be in you. John 14:17

God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Col 1:27

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 1 Cor 3:16

We must fight proximity with proximity.

III.

When Adam Quinn (Adam, man in Genesis) asks Marie (Mary, woman) for a peek at the big idea that could destroy U-3215, Marie can't tell Adam the full idea, but instead responds with a "seed."

That detail matters. The “seed of the woman” (Genesis 3:15) points to a kind of victory that does not look like power at first. Her concealment of the full idea parallels God's concealment of His plan for humanity.

For example, Satan's temptations can be seen (per Heiser) as fishing of information (note that Satan is merely clever, not omniscient). Who is this Jesus guy and what does he want? Later on, as Jesus hung on the cross, Satan may have thought that this problem was solved--after all, killing prophets was a historically successful strategy. However, God not only prophesied his death, but even with all of prophecy, Satan played into God's plan, ensuring the possibility of salvation for all.

None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 1 Cor 2:8

This singular event is embedded across the Old Testament. It was hidden in plain sight since the foundation of the world.

This is neither a meme nor an antimeme, but what I call a parameme: an idea fully present yet consistently misinterpreted, only intelligible after its fulfillment. For example, "seed of a woman" is likely unintelligible until the virgin Mar(ie) gives birth.

Back to the story. Adam asks what her idea is. She says she can't tell him, but could give him a "seed":

"People shouldn't have to be afraid, Adam. Of anything. The universe is vast and terrifying and unthinkably dangerous and you deserve to be protected. To be kept safe and sound. Because otherwise those terrible things rule you and fear rules you and you can't be who you really are. Freedom means no fear."

It sounds familiar:

Perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4:18

And:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear... 2 Timothy 1:7

What is U-3215? If Satan is a system, and the purpose of a system is what it does, then let us look at what U-3215 does:

Beneath it, within its context, everything becomes corrupted into the worst version of itself. It takes joy and turns it into vindictive glee; it takes self-reliance and turns it into solipsistic psychosis; it turns love into smothering assault, pride into humiliation, families into traps, safety into paranoia, peace into discontent. It turns people into people who do not see people as people. And civilizations, ultimately, into abominations.

Similarly, the antichrist is not just “the opposite” of Christ. The antichrist is more like a counterfeit Christ, a pseudo-Christ. Evil doesn't invent another vice, but hijacks virtue and pushes it past its limit.

Perhaps all of this is a warning against the antichrist. The antichrist is the superposition of a meme and an antimeme. He wants you to forget Christ, yet remember only him. He wants to be transmitted. He wants to be worshiped. He wants to be “obvious.”

There remains one discomfort for me in this excellent work. The end of TINAD portrays one human fighting this evil memeplex without superhuman help. That feels unlikely. Of course, the author does not have much of a choice. He cannot simply invoke the Holy Spirit on the last page. However, in practice, that is what actually happens.

The Holy Spirit has mnestic qualities. He does not only comfort, he reminds:

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. John 14:26

This is the real antidote to the antimeme. Not willpower. Not grit. Not “trying harder.” The Spirit restores memory. He restores sight. He makes all things new.

Steve Jobs said you can only connect the dots looking backwards. Salvation feels like that, except stronger. You suddenly remember dots previously long forgotten. Then you realize those dots were placed there on purpose.

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love... Ephesians 1:4

Christ is the anti-antimeme because He does the one thing the system cannot tolerate. He voluntarily becomes the victim: innocent, condemned, killed, risen. And then He gives the strangest instruction imaginable in a world dependent on forgetting:

Do this in remembrance of me. Luke 22:19