I think maybe you underestimate memes. A meme is a self copying idea that propagates through “sentient” creatures, which can also include many animals. (Animals can become fearful of arbitrary non-threats through social transmission , for example, and populations of animals can develop cultural behaviors that persist generations after the stimulus for the behavior is removed)

Memes are most powerful when they are packaged in complex structures, such as ideologies, cultures, or religion.

Memetic structures can contain formal mechanisms of transmission, proof of infection / identification of in a out group, immune systems against memetic disease (disease from the perspective of the memetic system, not the organism), and even apoptositic isolation mechanisms to prevent out of control mutations. These memetic systems of ideas and ideology are subject to rapid iteration and natural selection, and ones that survive in the wild for significant periods become pseudo legitimized as primary cultural paradigms.

Memes are by far the most dynamic and influential factor in human evolution and development, and have been for quite some time. All wars are primarily memetic.