For Plato, ideas were the only true reality - famously, he compared the material objects we interact with on a day to day basis to shadows of "true objects" projected onto the wall of a cave. We've spent the past 2,400 years (give or take) either simply disbelieving him or arguing one direction or another over what his Theory of Forms actually meant.
The development of memetics - the study of ideas as life forms - explains a little more about what Plato may have been thinking, and the evolution of the Internet provides a visible ground that can show us in very concrete terms how ideas mate, evolve, and die off - and how we give ourselves to them, how we are controlled by them, and how they compete for our attention. A really fabulous article by James Gleick on the Smithsonian site pulls all of the major threads of this new discipline together in an entertaining and readable four pages. Put aside the ten minutes to read it and make yourself a cup of tea, because this is important stuff.
When you say that someone "died for his principles," you are describing the concrete result of a powerful intangible. The concept of nationality is a meme, as is religion, as are the tenets of every culture, and as is the viral spread of our individual emotional reactions to any event. When the Greeks described their gods, they were personifying memetic currents that they very clearly sensed flowing throughout their society. Just like the Greek gods, memes have no inherent morality. They play by their own rules, and the strong ones may easily crush any mere mortals that stand in their way. For centuries we have lived blindly enslaved by them - but at last we are developing both the technology and the awareness to study and understand them - and perhaps, with hope, to tame the worst of them.
Read more here: What Defines a Meme? via Smithsonianmag.com
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