A meme (pronounced “meam”) is an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. It is also one of those things where you use the definition everyday without really paying too much attention to the actual word that you’re defining. The expressions “Fail” or “Winning” are all memes. Which is why when Ross approached me with the idea of taking the traditional Gadsden snake and Don’t Tread On Me logo, and turning it into “Don’t Tread On Meme” I thought he was out of his mind. “Nobody’s going to know what the hell a meme is.” I told him. Ross usually has an uncanny ability to think people are as intelligent as himself and are aware of obscure references to Richard Dawkins.
It turned out we were both right. Nobody we’ve come in contact with is really sure what a meme is. They usually even pronounce it as if it were two me’s stuck together: me me. But Ross was right where it mattered most in that it would get people’s attention.
The spirit of this shirt idea was born in an attempt to market the darling project that a few of us local Phoenix activist care the most about, which is the Silver Dime Cards. They’re nothing more than a piece of pre-1965 silver lamented to a credit card sized image. Some of the images are of Ron Paul or Austrian Economics, or just other liberty messages in general. They are all equipped with a QR Code on the back, that once scanned with your smart phone will take you to a website that tells you the value of that coin at that given moment. But the message they carry is limitless, which is that if we get creative and put enough effort into, we really can live in a voluntary society. The banks will falter, there is no question about this. They will collapse and leave a wake of dust taking their fiat currency with them. But if you believe in markets and you believe in free trade, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but just more of a speed bump on the way to recovery. But in the mean time, people will still need a way to exchange goods and services, and we believe the best catalyst for that is silver. A Mercury Dime is 90% silver, which roughly equates to, depending on the spot price of silver, to a little under $3.00. One ounce silver rounds are great, but they’re impractical for small purchases. $3.00 is the perfect denomination to buy a sandwich or a cup of coffee.
At festivals such as PorcFest or Libertopia we put our Dime Cards out for sale in the hopes that the people will use them to purchase other things at that giving event. Then once the event is over they will take them back home to wherever they are from and tell their friends and family about them. This really is the simplest way to get people used to the idea of trading in a silver or precious metals economy; by giving them silver to trade with. It’s also important to mention that we are not coining new money, but instead transferring precious metal within an already federally minted coin to a mainstream use. This is extremely important in that we are not doing anything illegal. Even though we assume that terms “legal” and “illegal” blur together at the state’s discretion.
The Meme Shirt idea generated from an urgency to get the ball rolling on this silver economy concept. Ross likes to refer to it as a race, which it probably is. These shirts are all branded with a QR code that takes you to our website, like our Dime Cards have; so if you’re standing in line and someone behind you wants to know what you mean by “Boycott Empire” and doesn’t feel like asking you, he can just scan your shirt and find out for himself. Or if that person is feeling inquisitive they can ask you what a me me is.
Then that’s where we have to do our part as liberty minded people to spread the word. Our meme concept doesn’t work because everyone knows what it is, it works because people WANT to know what it is. Of course we’ve created other designs in this ever growing venture. We’ve printed the famed Joseph Ducreux image urging you to “Disregard the Fed, Acquire Silver.” As well as a “Hipster Kitty” telling you that he’s been “Trading with these silver dime card you’ve probably never heard of.”
So even though I was right that no one would know what a “meme” is, I type this on a desk that is littered with laminate and miscellaneous dimes, sitting next to a few piles of meme themed shirts that if combined could stack as a high as a person. Can a shirt of a cat wearing horn rimmed glasses and hoodie save the world? Probably not, but at least it’s a start to saving people around you. We want our Dime Cards to become memes of their own, where they are transferred from person to person within a given culture. But in order for this to happen we need the people who care about the liberty movement to help us out. You don’t have to buy dime cards from us, you can make your own. Take them to an Occupy group and tell them that if they are truly upset with corporations the best way to make a difference is by removing themselves from the game. And the only way to do that is by no longer taking part in their monetary system.
Of course this effort doesn’t sit on mine and Ross’s shoulders alone. We’ve had great support from Drew Phillips and Nick Saorsa, who helped us launch our website and took part in the actual dime card process long before Ross and I arrived on the scene. Ernie Hancock has let us spend countless hours at his workshop using his equipment to create and mold our project. And many other people who have dime cards in their pockets (which includes Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Rand Paul, Vince Vaughn, Charles Goyette) do their role by telling others about this project. We might be naive in thinking we can reach everyone, but at the very least when the dust settles, we won’t have any uneasy feelings inside of us about not trying to our fullest capacity. Can you say the same?
James Scott
www.donttreadonmeme.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dont-Tread-On-Meme/302791783082498
