I LIKE Dawkin's Meme concept when speaking of popular culture. I
   believe it works VERY WELL when talking about etymological
   changes for examples, or the way fads and fashions pass down
   from one generation to the next, resurface in slightly altered
   forms and such.

   I'll even give Dawkin's his due with regards to progress in
   technology post WWII as having an evolutionary appearance to it,
   so far, thanks to economic growth and such.*

   If he's arguing that "people don't start from scratch and are
   raised within a culture with certain sets of assumptions about
   things", well that's plainly obvious. Of course they are.

   Then children grow up. Some accept received wisdom. Some
   question it. Some get greedy with power and want to change it.
   Some struggle to maintain a status quo. [which is an uneasy
   peace between religious groups regarding the Holy Sepulchre if I
   remember right - it's a technical term].

   His view of how children learn is oversimplified excessively and
   has no basis in actual reality.

   Dawkins is spinning a nice, plausible fantasy. His very good
   idea simply was taken a few steps further than necessary.