The Denial of Death and Cartesian Statements
Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” is as much about the anxiety of the existential crisis he went through (I am) as it is about the action that he proclaims alleviates his anxiety (I think). What if each era has its own Cartesian statement: I consume, post, meme, own; therefore, I am?
I find myself puzzled by the widespread of memecoins in the current era that we seem to be entering and I wonder if it is simply the continuation of a lineage of hive-wide actions that we collectively resort to in order to alleviate the culture-wide anxiety of our times.
I came across Ernest Becker’s “The Denial of Death” in a formative period of my life and much of what I’m suggesting in this post is shaped the book. Becker’s work led to Terror Management Theory which hinges around the idea that actions are spurred by anxiety and mother of all anxiety is the fear of mortality — not existing.
The Posts
The first time that I recall being puzzled by a new hive-wide mode of self-expression was in the 2008-20012 period. Facebook, Twitter and later Instagram were becoming a thing and we were all aimlessly posting on them. I’m sure most of us posted because we had profound things to share. Or perhaps we had the anxiety of not existing in the new medium that the Internet had provided. I post, therefore I am.
Unlike message boards, the social graphs of early Facebook and Instagram weren’t initially formed around shared interests. They were formed around one’s IRL community. This caused a problem. Turns out our IRL social graph wasn’t as passionate about the quirky side of us that we wanted to put on the internet. There was a lot of posting going on in this era, but the posts just weren’t hitting it.
The endless posts into the void of these early social media itself caused yet another source of anxiety — not existing in the culture. Facebook Groups, niche algo-curated communities on Twitter and Instagram were a return to the message board style online communities gathered around a shared interest.
The Memes
There was one element that really made this interest-centric pivot of social media work. The memes. The same way posting on social media came about to counter the anxiety of not existing on the internet, memes came about to alleviate the anxiety we felt by not being able to connect with people on the internet. I meme, therefore I am.
I find Dawkins’ theory limited in explaining the widespread phenomenon of memes. The social media era memes aren’t always postmodern viral spread of ‘ideas’. Our era’s memes represent a metamodern convergence of our shared experience around a specific cultural artifact. Memes are more similar to inside jokes than viruses; not only meaningless to those who lack the context but, utterly unable to convey an idea if the shared experience doesn’t yet exist.
Memes are perhaps the most concise method of converging a group around existing shared experiences or ideas.
But entropy is inevitable and with change there comes new anxieties.
The Coins
The post-COVID era has marked a sort of a popularization of anxietiesthat were previously contained within the crypto circles. It has marked new highs in distrust of authority, the officials and the big tech. It has painfully answered a question every child asks: “Why can’t we just print more money?” If conspiracy theories are a passive means to explain away the source of the current anxiety, memecoins are the proactive approach of embracing agency via a brand new Cartesian statement. I own, therefore I am?
Memecoins are appealing to the current set of anxieties for every reason that crypto idealists wanted crypto to be appealing. Though, they represent the crypto ideals in the most cartoonishly non-idealistic way possible. As the memelord himself says, “the most ironic outcome is the most likely”.
Memecoins are not controlled by the fed or the big tech. They can be fully owned in a digitally native way. They are accessible around the globe to those with little access to financial services or to those frustrated by the limits of financial regulators in the developed world. Memecoins aren’t a holistic solution to these issues but an act of rebellion to prove one’s agency by putting skin in the game.
Ironically, just like the very first memecoin, dogecoin, all memecoins even poke fun at the crypto idealists, reminding us that money is nothing but a meme. After all, there’s no substantial inherent difference between dogecoin and bitcoin.
However, similar to the verb of every other Cartesian statement, this too does not treat the anxiety and only allows us to cope with it.
