So I was wading through the usual pile of stuff that arrives in my email every day, and it never ceases to amaze me how many people I know insist on forwarding me links to these assorted and sundry "conspiracy theories."
Conspiracy? WHAT conspiracy? Do you even know what that word means? No, wait... don't answer that!"
As always, I try to read between the lines, and I can't help but think that a lot of those stories (and websites) were created by people who encountered something that was counter to their belief system, but rather than simply stating "I don't like that," they tried to come up with some way to declare it "a conspiracy" to suppress those opinions.
Which makes me think about people in general, and the way remarkably few folks just stand up and say "you know what? I just don't like that and I don't think it's a good idea," and in doing so assume personal accountability for their opinions... rather than using somebody else's words as a mouthpiece for what they don't like so that nobody gets to point fingers at them — and question them — directly.
Upon further reflection, sometimes it seems like one of the hallmarks of our day and age is precisely the fact that fewer and fewer people are truly accountable for their opinions, and for their actions, and always want to attribute whatever happens to something outside themselves.
I'm not blind to the fact that it can become uncomfortable to come face to face with some of our own biases and prejudices. In many cases, we formed these with good reason, perhaps likely based on negative experiences we had.
That said, those negative experiences often occurred at a very different time in our lives when we were subjected to a very different set of circumstances and they don't really apply to where we are in the current moment... yet they have become so cemented into our consciousness that we are completely unwilling to consider the possibility that maybe what we once thought was the greatest thing on earth is simply not valid anymore.
Perhaps what bugs me a bit is the fact that so few people — or so it seems — are willing to look at the deeper underlying causes of their accusatory declarations, words, actions and opinions. We tend to regurgitate things we have heard or read that momentarily sounded great, almost as if they have subsequently become scripture and we are their "radically religious" disciples.
The old saying goes that "the only constant in life is change," and yet so many people don't want to change.
I even look at the current U.S. presidential election circus, and regardless of which side you may be favouring, the bottom line seems to me to be that we are looking at two candidates who are both at a stage in their lives where they would be highly resistant to change. That has nothing to do with political views and everything to do with psychology and how our minds work at different stages of life.
There are lots of things in life we don't like, and we tend to have no shortage of individual cognitive biases. Why people need to label criticism of their as "conspiracies" while blaming their reasoning outwards... well, that remains a bit of a mystery to me!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of the week!
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Created at 2024-07-04 00:40 PDT
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