As much as I love Dawkins.......

[Mudhammam]

I don't think he sells meme theory like he did in the 70s. But the way this wiki article reads, his detractors didn't seem to like it much.

Metaphor sure, if he is calling that now, but reading the history of it doesn't sound like it was sold as such at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme Read his detractor's part of the article.

In The Selfish Gene he repeatedly stresses its analogous purpose and explicitly denies any attempt at a grand theory of human culture. Now, it's debatable whether it's a helpful analogy or not, and I'm sure others have overemphasized its utility---Dawkins perhaps encouraging them as it is the thing he's largely known for---but I don't think he ever advocated it as something other than a suggestion for how one can imagine Darwinian principles as having greater scope than the work they perform on genes.