Metameme
In the field of memetics, a metameme is defined as a meme about a meme. The very concept of memes themselves has been referred to as "the Metameme". Ideological tolerance and the rhetorical device of metaphor clearly fit this framing. Regarding the former, one may usefully expand:
A meta-meme which confers resistance to a wide variety of memes, without conferring meme-allergies. In its purest form, Tolerance allows its host to be repeatedly exposed to rival memes, even intolerant rivals, without active infection or meme-allergic reaction. Tolerance is a central co-meme in a wide variety of schemes, particularly "liberalism", and "democracy". Without it, a scheme will often become exo-toxic and confer meme-allergies on its hosts. Since schemes compete for finite belief-space, tolerance is not necessarily a virtue, but it has co-evolved in the ideosphere in much the same way as co-operation has evolved in biological ecosystems.Initial definitions of meta memes and the lingo surrounding the phenomenon have seen a recent overhaul, as a new perspective is beginning to emerge due to heightened interest from researchers and companies alike.
Measuring social evolution
Metamemes may be used to measure the evolution of a given society. It has been proposed that the degree of consciousness a society has about the very memes that form it is correlated with how evolved that society is. The difficulties associated with measuring the "metamemetic content" of a given society, however, render that proposition impractical.This can be viewed as a memetic approach to the American sociologist Gerhard Lenski's view that the more information a given society has, the more advanced it is.