Conspiracy of Theories
Can a small group of people be disciplined and organized enough to make fictions into truth and make history blind to events as they occurred? Conspiracy theorists need the answer to this question to be yes. From the perspective of those of us unable to shape the destiny of world events it would seem reasonable that the answer could be yes. High levels of power and influence are always working without our knowledge and understanding. To imagine that these forces have more control over the events of the world than the rest of us is not unreasonable.
Not only is it plausible that you don’t know how much influence government and industry have over your life, it’s down right likely. Could you tell me how much of your money local representatives have spent lately? Can you tell me what new marketing strategies are being used against your kids to influence what they value and desire? For most of us the answer to these questions is a resounding, no. These are secrets hid in the open. Congressional actions, matters of public record are kept secret by our lack of interest. Corporate maneuvering and marketing become invisible to eyes that have grown to desire shiny packages for low, low prices.
It’s understandable that deeper conspiracies are so quickly recognized as truth by so many. These stories feed our fantasies of how we believe the world works. It fills the gaps of chance and chaos with someone out there, for good or evil, in control of the outcome. We console ourselves by believing that we know the hidden truth. By believing in many of these stories we find comfort in the idea that we are inside the loop. We know what really happened to JFK. We know why he was killed and by whom. How much more reassuring it is to believe that his death was part of some organized plan rather than the random act of some nut on the top floor of a library. The randomness of history can be terrifying.
To believe that someone is manipulating history is more tolerable than the idea that everyone is reacting to history only as it happens. So many of these stories put the evil or selfish in charge. With insecurity comes fear. By being secure with knowing who the enemy is we diminish our own fear. We feel better believing that dark forces are steering events rather than random ones. How else can we find focus for our rage if the hidden machine does not exist. How else can we know what side we are on without believing in the forces of lies and deception.
There have been plenty of conspiracies forced into the light. Watergate, Iran-Contra, Big Tobacco, Monica Lewinsky and WMD claims, all existed in the shadows for a time. Even bigger projects like the Normandy invasion during WWII and the Manhattan Project where well organized secrets known to large numbers of people and still were effectively hidden from view. Some use these examples to bolster the credibility of unsubstantiated narratives. If the government could hide the creation of a nuclear bomb surely they could orchestrate a fake moon landing. Most of us don’t make judgments about what we believe is true by critical analyses. We have an interest to believe one thing or another and will gather just enough data to be secure in our view. What value is speculation into the unknown without taking the time to evaluate the facts of the world that we are given? For many of us filling in the gaps of our knowledge is more important that knowing the truth.
Exposed conspiracies of the past have shown secret keepers and detail controllers very bad at doing either. The Tuskegee syphilis experiments were exposed despite impossible odds. Iran-Contra fell apart at the height of the cold war when secret spy operations were common place. Even a conspiracy between one man and one woman, closed in a private room together could not be hidden forever or for long. The truth is that the complications and chaos that is prevalent in our lives runs to the highest levels of power. They, like us, struggle every day to manage what they can and hope it will all work out in the end.
There is no controlling every detail of this large and complicated world. I’m sorry if this causes anxiety for some. If we all work a little harder to identify what problems we can solve perhaps we can worry a little less about the things out of everyone’s control. We can take control of the future by rejecting simple unsubstantiated conspiracies meant to occupy us while real secrets are being kept right there in front of us.
Not only is it plausible that you don’t know how much influence government and industry have over your life, it’s down right likely. Could you tell me how much of your money local representatives have spent lately? Can you tell me what new marketing strategies are being used against your kids to influence what they value and desire? For most of us the answer to these questions is a resounding, no. These are secrets hid in the open. Congressional actions, matters of public record are kept secret by our lack of interest. Corporate maneuvering and marketing become invisible to eyes that have grown to desire shiny packages for low, low prices.
It’s understandable that deeper conspiracies are so quickly recognized as truth by so many. These stories feed our fantasies of how we believe the world works. It fills the gaps of chance and chaos with someone out there, for good or evil, in control of the outcome. We console ourselves by believing that we know the hidden truth. By believing in many of these stories we find comfort in the idea that we are inside the loop. We know what really happened to JFK. We know why he was killed and by whom. How much more reassuring it is to believe that his death was part of some organized plan rather than the random act of some nut on the top floor of a library. The randomness of history can be terrifying.
To believe that someone is manipulating history is more tolerable than the idea that everyone is reacting to history only as it happens. So many of these stories put the evil or selfish in charge. With insecurity comes fear. By being secure with knowing who the enemy is we diminish our own fear. We feel better believing that dark forces are steering events rather than random ones. How else can we find focus for our rage if the hidden machine does not exist. How else can we know what side we are on without believing in the forces of lies and deception.
There have been plenty of conspiracies forced into the light. Watergate, Iran-Contra, Big Tobacco, Monica Lewinsky and WMD claims, all existed in the shadows for a time. Even bigger projects like the Normandy invasion during WWII and the Manhattan Project where well organized secrets known to large numbers of people and still were effectively hidden from view. Some use these examples to bolster the credibility of unsubstantiated narratives. If the government could hide the creation of a nuclear bomb surely they could orchestrate a fake moon landing. Most of us don’t make judgments about what we believe is true by critical analyses. We have an interest to believe one thing or another and will gather just enough data to be secure in our view. What value is speculation into the unknown without taking the time to evaluate the facts of the world that we are given? For many of us filling in the gaps of our knowledge is more important that knowing the truth.
Exposed conspiracies of the past have shown secret keepers and detail controllers very bad at doing either. The Tuskegee syphilis experiments were exposed despite impossible odds. Iran-Contra fell apart at the height of the cold war when secret spy operations were common place. Even a conspiracy between one man and one woman, closed in a private room together could not be hidden forever or for long. The truth is that the complications and chaos that is prevalent in our lives runs to the highest levels of power. They, like us, struggle every day to manage what they can and hope it will all work out in the end.
There is no controlling every detail of this large and complicated world. I’m sorry if this causes anxiety for some. If we all work a little harder to identify what problems we can solve perhaps we can worry a little less about the things out of everyone’s control. We can take control of the future by rejecting simple unsubstantiated conspiracies meant to occupy us while real secrets are being kept right there in front of us.
posted by kamuizot at 9:22 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home