Conspiracy Theories
I grew up on conspiracy theories. I was born in the time of The Manchurian Candidate, when theories about the Kennedy assassinations flowed freely, and shortly before Watergate would give rise to another set of theories.
I like a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone else. I love the The Matrix franchise. There are three big problems with most conspiracy theories, though.
1. Conspiracy theories are only interesting when they are theories, and they lose their mystique as soon as the truth comes out. I need only cite one case to support my point. Last year, when fear of Covid gripped the world, the US Government announced very clearly and bluntly that it had lied in the past about not having secret UFO info. What’s more, it had kept a massive backlog of unresolved UFO encounters secret, but it would be secret no more. The result? Nobody cared, not the Far Right, not the Far Left, not the Far Out. The fact that there seemed to be much more to worry about at the time should not matter, if the conspiracy were as dark and dastardly as conspiracists had painted it to be for decades. It turns out it just didn’t matter much to folks, and still doesn’t.
2. Conspiracy theories rely on lack of information about them as proof they exist, as a matter of necessity. But a false theory would have a lack of info too, whether anyone has yet thought of it or not. So the logic behind “there’s no info only because it’s been covered up” is flawed.
3. You and I simply aren’t important or threatening enough to conspire against. The world is run by a few very rich, very powerful people, it’s true. It’s been true since ancient times. But unless you’re Julius Caesar or someone of similar stature in the known world, your existence (our existence) as consumers and human statistics doesn’t threaten the fabric of the system. We are the system: cops, criminals, soldiers, dissidents, the whistle blowers and the blissfully unaware all eat food and drink water and go online and use highways and generate waste and all of that. Yes, somewhere on servers there is likely every single fact about you…but nobody in power cares enough about you to use it individually. The only people interested in you are common thieves. That may be disappointing news for some, but to me it’s comforting. I am still on guard against thieves, but not against my government. That remains true for me whether the President is named Clinton or Trump or West or anything else.
Here endeth the lesson on conspiracy theories.
Bike Newbie 