Rating: 
Summary: Take the hints...don't buy the book
Review: "Virus of the Mind" provides a very good introduction into
memetics while trying to be a self-help book. Brodie gives a
nice overview of the concept of memes, where it started, and how
memes exist in current society. He then goes over the
destructive side of memes while keeping the subject light and
somewhat humorous. Brodie's writing style makes the subject easy
to follow and a very quick read. From reading the book, one gets
a quick understanding of how others can use memes to influence
ones behavior, which serves the reader with the ability to look
how things are being presented to them; wether in news,
commercials or relationships. Brodie used the first half of the book to explain where the
existence of memes came from, and what they represent. The last
half was used to explain how to notice them in daily life. I
would like to have seen more information for the reader on how to
detect memes with concrete examples, though he does give enough
information so the reader can 'learn' this process themselves in
more detail, with abit of work. He provides enough information
for the consumer, but not enough for those trying to reach
consumers, which is interesting. In short, the book is worth reading for those trying to
understand why they buy so much useless stuff, or wondering why
a song stays stuck in their head. For more specific information
on coercive techniques employeed against individual consumers,
see Douglas Rushkoff's book 'Coercion'
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent material, poorly developed and argued
Review: As an introduction to memetics, Virus of the Mind presents the reader with a very approachable description of the basic mechanics of memes/selfish genes as originally articulated by Dawkins in The Selfish Gene. Brodie summarizes Dawkins' theory accurately, but when he attempts to come to new, perhaps 'interesting' conclusions, he falls well short of what the material deserves. Where the first half of the book demonstrates something of a mastery of the concepts, the last speaks of a serious lack of creativity. Brodie fails to question some of his own central memes, and ends up coming to dubious conclusions as a result. Read "The Selfish Gene" instead.
Rating: 
Summary: A good introduction
Review: Brodie did a supurb job in explaining the fundamentals of memetics in a way the common person can understand and relate to. He is not above his own cultural bias of course, and some of his political views are evident, but it's his right to express his opinions just as it is anyone else's. I have reccomended this book to many friends, some of whom have read it and have been changed by it as much as I have. It gave me a new way of looking at culture and media. Before I read this book, I knew what industry and media were doing to the population, but I couldn't quite explain HOW they were doing it. This book gave me new insight about how to catch these influences before they started infecting my family and myself. Virus Of The Mind is brilliant in the way it acts as a intro to a science book and a self help book at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Belief Structures & Erasing Personal History
Review: I first flicked through a copy of 'Virus of the Mind' in a secondhand bookshop in Flagstaff, Arizona. At that stage the part that caught my attention was the chapter on disinfection and particularly the piece entitled 'zen and the art of devirusing'. Here Richard Brodie states, "if you switch off your internal dialogue, you've made the first big step towards freeing yourself of the tyranny of mind viruses." The technique he suggests is a simple meditation, "thought watching". This brought to mind two other, seemingly unrelated, schools of thought. One is 'speed reading'; the Evelyn Wood Reading dynamics system suggests the only way to increase your speed significantly is to stop repeating the words in your head. The second is Carlos Castaneda, who talks of 'stopping the world' - more on the technique is given in Victor Sanchez's book 'The Teachings of Don Carlos' where techniques for 'Stopping Inner Dialogue' are given. More recently, I was reminded of this book when I began a course of study in Psychosynthesis. One of the key concepts our tutor talked about was "Belief Structures." Belief structures and memes are for all intents and purposes the same thing. Our course involved looking at where we gained many of our beliefs, including a project entitled 'Family of Origin' where the main aim is to trace beliefs (memes) and traits through our parents and grand-parents, along with our siblings. Psychosynthesis itself (as a "psychotherapy") works heavily on breaking down belief structures, and allowing an individual to recreate new beliefs which are more appropriate for their needs. For those interested in following up this line of thought, check out the works of Roberto Assagioli and Piero Ferrucci. An important concept in Psychosynthesis is the sub-personality. Each sub-personality has a core belief (meme). Therefore, work with sub-personalities is work with memes, although not always directly. It can however lead to discovery of the core belief (meme), when and how it came about, which parent it was programmed by (as often our main beliefs come from parent's and parent figures in early childhood). So it is with this background in mind I discovered a copy of 'Virus of the Mind' in the Public Library and decided to read it. I consider it well worth a read for anyone interested in the subject of memes, as well as anyone interested in fields such as Psychosynthesis (or Psychotherapy in general), psychology, or self-development. This book is a thought-provoking read, which may indeed lead to a decision to be less 'thought-provoked' by the mind viruses spread by marketing companies, the mass media, and politicians. So, read this book, turn off that inner dialogue, and tune in to your intuition!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating! A great introduction to Memetics
Review: I read this book after reading Brodie's "Getting Past Ok", which I enjoyed tremendously. "Virus" was fascinating! Not knowing a thing about memes or memetics when I started this book, I had no idea what to expect. What I read was an insightful, interesting and understandable introduction to this science. Oprah liked "Virus" too - in fact, she mentioned it several times on one of her shows this past May. Brodie uses examples and anecdotes to explain how and why memes exist in our society, and why it is beneficial to understand them. He even speaks to designing your own mind viruses, and how we can use memetics to positively influence future generations. This book is an excellent introduction to Memetics. You can bet I'll be checking out some of the books on the recommended reading list at the back of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: a good first step
Review: i recommend following this book with Ian McFadyen's Mind Wars which places memes in a more complete context of 'tenetics'.
Rating:
Summary: Good Intro to the Subject
Review: Just finished reading Virus of the Mind. It is a fairly good book. I like it because it introduces well a new subject area and is easy to understand. However I wish that it had been worked on more before it was published. For example, several sentences were not clear. They would have been more understandable if spoken rather then read. I suspect that the author dictated the book into a word processor.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-meaning mistake.
Review: No doubt this book is written with the best intent, but it is truly sad to see that Richard Brodie has misunderstood memetics on a rather fundamental level. Going on about memes as some kind of battle between good and evil, with examples like "unwed mother" (bad meme) and "the traditional american family" (good meme), he just proves that the idea of memetics has not passed the filter of his own his cultural bias. Memetics is not a question of ethics or vague self-improvment mumbo-jumbo, but a serious attempt to understand consciousness.If you are truly interested about memetics, read Dawkins and Dennet critically, and make up your own mind. This book with its Readers Digest-attitude is only recommended to those that want to learn a few empty phrases for social occasions, or want a pseudo-intellectual coffe-table-adornment.
Rating:
Summary: Genetic intelligence and thoughts
Review: Richard Brodie stressed and explained in an very poweful way two main assets of human life from the "insight": Nature and culture, genes and memes, pulsions and thoughts.
Who will be the winner? A good auto-programmer, a man who is capable to free himself and to create more choices for his life, of course.
Enjoy it.
LG
www.anticipa.it - www.pnl-campus.it
Rating:
Summary: A Consciousness Raising Book
Review: Richard Brodie's, Virus of the Mind, presents what has proven to me the most practical use of the idea of memes. He presents plenty of good scientific background to set up the concept for those still unfamiliar with the meme meme. Although he does not actually inaugurate a true scientific field of memetics, he uses the concept of memes very skillfully to raise our consciousness and look at everyday things in our culture in a whole new light. In this respect I think he accomplishes far more than many of the unsatisfying attempts to make memetics a full fledged science. It is a bit early to expect such grand successful collective science, but it is not too early to raise our consciousness as individuals about some of these ideas, and Richard Brodie does a fantastic job in that undertaking. Unlike some in the self-development field, Richard Brodie does not insult the intelligence of more educated readers. He doesn't hide the ball, act mysterious in his presentation, cop out to supernaturalism, or try to claim false or highly questionable scientific support. I have found it easy to disagree with him on some points and still get a lot out of his work. He has certainly given a lot of serious thought to the nuances, pitfalls, and strongpoints of our modern culture and that shows through in this book. He is a guy trying to figure things out just like all of us, and he shares his thoughts in a non-offensive highly accessible way. I think you will find his book a joy to read, and find many useful insights as we individually try to navigate the quickly evolving cultural environment we find ourselves in today.
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