Dennett's views of memes

The idea of memes is a rather interesting one. I imagine this move is made so that all types of ideas that have positive or negative connotations depending upon who you talk to is neutralized. If someone were to talk about democrats v.s. republicans, many would automatically cringe and form their own preconceived notions about what these ideas represent. But if you talk about these two ideas as being two competing memes, then suddenly these concepts don't lead us to forming preconceived notions any more. Religion is another big one. One important point that dennett makes regarding memes is that you can talk about these ideas with little or no reference to darwinian evolution and how these ideas can have importance without referring to one's biological dispositions. It's about how certain ideas are important and can maintiain a life of their own without any well known benefit being given to anyone. It's similar to an idea being distributed all over the place so that no one knows who is controlling it. Interesting concept.