Richard Dawkins. Richard Dawkins, the author of The Selfish Gene and one of the founders of memetics, suggested when interviewed for an article (7 August 2002) in the Guardian that Mr Bush was just as much of a danger to world peace as Saddam Hussein, adding: “It would be a tragedy if Tony Blair were to be brought down through playing poodle to this unelected and deeply stupid little oil-spiv.” Whoa. Do we see a meme developing here?