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| Friends nowhere to be seen.... |
Conspiracy theory is, most basically, an alternative explanation. It offers a different idea from that which is most widely accepted. In some conspiracy theory, no man has ever set foot upon the moon, 9-11 was organised by Mossad, and the entire world is in thrall to the world's worst secret society: the Illuminati.
Coming into contact with conspiracy theory often elicits the question: why do people believe this stuff? A more useful question, however, would be: Why do people believe anything?
As all communication works as info -----> idea, our ideas can only ever come from information. Traditionally, human culture naturally encourages information that supports the ideas of the ruling class and attacks and often attempts to hide information that might give rise to awkward new ideas. Children are encouraged down certain communicative paths from a young age, and this happens everywhere.
When I was young, the story of Noah's Ark was presented to me as a simple tale of the wonder and magnificence of existence as produced, arranged, composed and performed by God.. Looking back, it is noticeable how the bit about Noah being 600 when the heavens opened wasn't mentioned. For that's the kind of information that could give a child ideas.
Yet such is the way that communication works that I find myself in agreement with most of the (often perfectly sensible) 11 ideas that follow.....
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The clearest view?.......or...... |
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A God-awful large affair? |
.....and of course, from the story of Noah we can also get the idea that God is a vicious psychopath; A raving maniac killing 99.999% of all life on the planet, who should be safely locked away in some kind of cosmic Arkham Asylum.*
In most of human history, our ideas were programmed directly into us by our own culture. Generally, the further back into history you go, the tighter the control of ideas. Also, it is traditional within a culture for those in charge to most often seek to maintain their status and position by controlling information to ensure control of ideas.
Compared to say, 500 years ago, the modern world allows for much more communication about everything in general and Bible stories in particular. It has thankfully become a lot rarer for people in Christian cultures to be attacked or executed for criticising the Bible. The basic reason for this is that the historical rising tide of communication has consistently pushed forth new and strange ideas that tumble on to shore, and the strongest of them survive the heat of the Sun and the pecking of the gulls. One of the strongest ideas turned out to be science itself, and that is most basically better communication.
The ideas of the scientific revolution, including such odd notions as the Earth revolving around the Sun, would take root and overcome resistance thanks to their superior explanatory power, and the late 20th century would see the greatest and most recent communicative wave bring the god-like power of the internet crashing onto the land in the greatest information revolution in history.
More and more traditional gates that have long prevented better communication are buckling, and some are now wide-open and will never be shut again. Information flows in a vast all-encompasing tsunami, and kings, priests and tyrants are all driven before it.
However, as in any storming of a Bastille, the lunatics and the deviants are freed as well, so now anyone can log on and make 2 + 11 + sun + celeb = illuminati.
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| On America's tortured brow.** |
When Abraham Zapruder+ decided to sell the rights of his film he demanded that the most graphic scene should not be published. Zapruder had had a nightmare in which he saw a sign in Times Square, New York announcing : "See the President's head explode! " One can only imagine his astonishment and disappointment at the multiple versions of his film available to all and watched by millions on YouTube.
It must be increasingly difficult to find anyone who hasn't seen the President's head explode.
With more information available to more people, new ideas inevitably follow. The ringing gunshots of 22nd November 1963 continue to call to congregation those who are interested, even 50 years later.++
Information leads to idea which is itself information which leads to idea which......
- we are built this way.
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| Asking you to focus on..... |
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| The Best Selling Show. |
A vital part of better communication is understanding that: all information depends on context. The better we understand the context, the clearer we can understand any ideas connected to any information. Quite simply, this is why education and culture have long been determined to keep Bela Lugosi in his box..
As human beings, we react very naturally to context. This is why a king wears a crown and a high priest a daft hat. Because if they didn't, people would much more easily ask awkward questions: he's no different to our Stan. Why should I listen to him?
Thus, if you really want to sell your conspiracy theory, rather than bother with boring old describing + explaining + asking + checking, the basic skills of communication, just get yourself the equivalent of an Arch-bishop's mitre - the punters will be well impressed.
In April 2014 U.S. Marine Captain Randy Cramer announced publicly that he had served 17 years on Mars as a member of the U.S. defense force, protecting Earth from hostile alien forces including Grays and Mantids.
Captain Cramer is supported in his claims by Sonia Glick, the great-granddaughter of a dock-worker.
Actually, that last part is definitely not true. For the fact of the matter is that Captain Cramer's assertions are supported by Laura Eisenhower, the great-granddaughter of President Eisenhower.
Honestly, doesn't the context of the relation of a respected President make all of this sound a little more intriguing? Regardless of whether Laura Eisenhower is or isn't just a daft hat.
Laura Eisenhower - spitting in the eyes of fools.
Anyway, as people generally find it pleasant to hang out with like-minded individuals, so the conspiracy theorists cram together in pockets of the internet where they can breathe together and enjoy what is essentially the normal oxygen of friendship.
It also helps that, among any tribe of conspiracists, everyone will muck in to keep Bela's coffin lid safely nailed down. In the following interview, British local councillor Simon Parkes, who claims his mother was a Mantid, clearly states at 59: 52 that "I can shape-shift." Does the interviewer, the rather credulous Alfred Lambremont Webre, ask Mr Parkes to demonstrate? He does not.
Personally, I'd love to see someone shape-shift. Alf is staggeringly uninterested. And the obvious idea here is that he is uninterested in his own ideas. And in order to be so uninterested, we must necessarily degrade our own communicative ability to the extent that our own ideas are cruelly buried alive, away from the light, interned alongside Bela Lugosi.
A saddening bore.
But then.....
What if there are human bases on Mars? After all, I've never been to Mars, and, unless you served with Earth hero Randy Cramer, or you are a Martian, neither have you.+++ Maybe Laura Eisenhower is right, maybe Simon Parkes mum is an 8 foot-tall insectoid alien. Maybe we should all be Nazis.
How do we decide these things?
We decide them the only way we can, through better communication.
Because communication is the only thing we ever do.
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But then, there are always other ideas......
And then, there are those conspiracies that are real.
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* Mind you, that place is one of the most insecure secure facilities there is. God would be out and causing trouble in no time.
** This picture shows the Umbrella Man. His use of an umbrella on a fine day in Dallas naturally led to people asking questions. An early favourite of conspiracy theorists, he was accused of either signaling the shooter#, or shooting the President with his special fancy umbrella dart gun. Eventually, when called before The House Select Commitee on Assassinations in 1978, the Umbrella Man a self-declared conservative, would declare that he was using the umbrella as a symbol of appeasement, wishing to heckle Kennedy for his father's support for Neville Chamberlain. ##
+ Zapruder was a 33rd degree Freemason. Conspiracy theorists, start your engines!
++ And the question not usually asked: Why is it important who killed Kennedy? Don't we have better things to think about? And from that, might the powerful not have a vested interest to keep people interested in parlour games rather than how things actually work? And might it not suit certain parties to dismiss sober analysis as conspiracy theory?
+++ Or a being from Zeta Reticuli, or Adamski, or Billy Meier or someone in Alternative 3 or......###
++++ As long as they are not too busy enjoying a pleasant chat with Rock Hudson, that is.
# Whoever he was...
## But then of course, he would say that, wouldn't he?
### And technically, Martians can only have been to Mars if they were born on another planet. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Martians are emigrating and raising their children elsewhere as their home planet is by all accounts getting a bit crowded.
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