Meme

My favorite meme -idea- from Dawkins text is that the awareness to the selfish self-replicators of thought can empower the individual to no only avoid such things, but as conscious beings we can conspire to propagate memes that encourage a counter norm; an altruistic reality.

Lots of Questions????
His explanations of their propagation and life span leads me to wonder about their genesis. Are they just part of the random thought processes, that then are well expanded through the amount of bonds they form and the resilience they acquire?
I do find myself wondering if they are not only thoughts and ideas, but as they multiply, if successful memetics expels life itself. So are we addicted to the familiarity and predictability of ideas and what they yield or is it a physical addiction to the movements? Basically are the memes inducing hormonal reactions or are the reactions just sensory intakes?
Such as a gene in conjunction with many others gives to the production of species and plant life wouldn't then (besides the accumulation of formed traditions, places, tools i.e. religion, churches, rituals, hymns) memes be the manifestations of realities? As if they were the software programs to a reality simulator that provides the parameters and base experience opening up only certain channels as inlets with in us for the reinforcement of their experiential pleasure?

The more I learn the less I know.