"Photograms: Negative and Positive" by Ivette Diaz is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
It is far easier to highlight negative examples than positive ones. For one thing, dead organizations leave behind skeletons once their closets overflow. Memetic archaeology may as well be synonymous with history. The victors who write it tend to have low opinions of the organizations they managed to conquer. Sadly, those dead organizations have the best lessons to teach.
Most positive examples simply haven’t failed yet. These organizational organisms that we ride along within may outlive us, but that is no guarantee that they will live forever. Free markets trend towards oligopoly and monopoly. Fading faiths trend towards extremism. Failing countries trend towards war. Failing games trend towards oblivion. Failing currencies trend towards zero. Silence is the destination, not the objective, and we must strive against the chaos that denies its peace in order to enjoy the ride - Peaks and valleys, not spikes and troughs.
There are always bigger fish when it comes to industry. Once upon a time, horses were the primary means of transportation. They were eventually replaced with railways and automobiles. When it came to long distance personal travel, railways were eventually replaced with airplanes. Ships suffered a similar fate, with the exception of mass transportation of goods. As folks realize the limitations of those more expensive vectors, perhaps we’ll see bikes get more personality as those out in the sticks remember horses can help with feelings of loneliness on the road.
At present we seem on the precipice between old fuel sources and new ones. Having a society built around the destruction of dead and ancient living matter has a poetic quality to it. Burning fossils can’t last forever. Instead of transitioning, the organizational momentum of the oil and gas industries would rather burn through their stock for as long as humanly possible. Competition drives them. The mammoths are racing to see which will go over the cliff first. What they should be doing is swerving away from the herd before they’re driven to extinction… assuming humanity isn’t erased first. The Fermi Paradox is not encouraging on this point.
But what about successful companies? Those might best be described as the companies that carved niches for themselves without needing to grow or die. Only cancers grow forever. Mom and Pop shops that survive the changing of the seasons or slip past the big box stores might best represent this. Ancient pubs with foundations well ensconced up to and beyond the prohibition era serve as a rueful yet cheerful set of examples. Any small to mid range business that managed to promote a healthy competition while preserving its own niche qualifies.
The God Collusion
Religions are powerful because of their use of memetic sustainment methods. Cults are powerful for their ability to mobilize and abuse religious thought. Spiritual practices that degenerate into suicide pacts may safely be called unhealthy. Pick your poison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cults
Successful cults exercise the will of their leaders while swelling their ranks. Some can transition to more benign religions once their leadership is diffused through the death of the founding mythmakers. Scientology and Mormonism have this sort of successful background. The doctrines that nurture both BITE control, and BITE resistance seem most capable of surviving periods where faith is called for and when need for faith wanes. Take the benign sects of christianity for example.
On the one hand are the prosperity gospel, proselytizing from Matthew, evangelical sects. On the other are those similar to the faith espoused by C. S. “Lionheart” Lewis, or from Matthew 6:5-8, or speak softly and walk with God type sects. At one pole stands the “Trump is messiah” types. At the other stand Spinozan atheist types. Both (debatably) have justification within the same foundational bit of Jewish fanfiction. Both are Christian, if only by heritage. Both have potential positives and negatives to offer the world, and may be considered successful as far as religions go, if only because they are unlikely to go the way of other mythologies anytime soon.
Gubment
Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes require outside feeding to be sustained. Without support, they’re a bit like pyramid schemes that grow too tall, topple, and begin anew. In keeping with Godwin’s Law, the easiest example of a failed state would be Nazi Germany. Despite the crowing, comfortable countries do not require “lebensraum”. Behaviors that showed allegiance, a strict adherence to propaganda points, the required belief that Atheists, hom*osexuals, and Jews were the internal infernal enemy, and the emotional plight of their dear leader are each examples of BITE style controls. Such nations grow hungry, bite off more of the world than they can chew and choke, as a result.
