Thank you Daniel. It is harder than ever to tread this middle ground of complexity and ambiguity; the construction of narratives which seem to offer to explain the deep wrongness in the world, and the truths we are told about it, finds itself at every corner of the political and spiritual field. These are some thoughts on the psychology …
Thank you Daniel. It is harder than ever to tread this middle ground of complexity and ambiguity; the construction of narratives which seem to offer to explain the deep wrongness in the world, and the truths we are told about it, finds itself at every corner of the political and spiritual field. These are some thoughts on the psychology of conspiracy theories in general.
I absolutely agree that the ways our conditioning lends almost all its weight to the objective and the proven, and orients us to look for causes rather than effects, can be a very big problem.
So diffuse, complex, system-wide, emergent qualities are hard to deal with. We are not trained to look for them - it is far simpler to create a basic causal explanation. Imagining a small group of distant people, and concentrating all the power of the whole system in their hands, and all its badness in their evil intention, creates a sense of relief. As knowledge=control/power=safety. Even more so, when the narrative includes the idea that they don't want you to know... It is also, of course, a relief to have the problem taken out of one's own hands. These people are so powerful that despite my knowledge, it's not my fault if...
This is also the same pattern of projection of shadow fear and uncertainty onto another, that can result in Holocaust, slavery, nationalism, hatred of every sort. If this process helps assuage that pain, it is only illusory or temporary. Indeed, it can create a feedback loop whereby ever more fuel is needed, to draw ever more oxygen into the fire, ever more fervour to project outwards.
Satan, in the original Hebrew, meant adversary. In a way, the ultimate projection of our own deepest shadow...
One big problem I see is that this process of literalisation can distract from some harder to grasp aspects of the situation, which are more hidden, harder to express, and more vulnerable to manipulation. Most widely, I believe, is that we are all to some extent implicated in the complex web of the system, in one way or another we are all party to imbalance and abuse, as well as its victims. Perhaps simply by neglect. Perhaps we have been duped into giving our consent for this, without ever realising. Some deep part of us probably does though!
That these subtler, perhaps more subjective things are harder to express - that our culture, conditioning, and language give so much more validity to the objective - can lead to a massive devaluation of our own sense of truth and reality. Validation, of truth and of ourselves, can only really happen with authority (is the tendency towards seeking and imagining intention a reflection of a conditioned need for powerful parent figures/god controlling the universe?). Many people feel this, in many ways. Yet without the culture or language to see it, let alone express it, the disturbed and threatened emotion finds the only way out that has any weight - fact, objective truth, causal narratives. These don't actually track fully to the inner motivation, which I believe contributes to even more anger expressing itself. And of course, as 'facts' can be found to support anything, we are often left with opposing sides throwing opposing facts at each other, not just stuck in a binary system but perpetuating it. All the stress, itself highly addictive, helps keep all this energy in this level of reality, in which we are trained to constantly project everything uncomfortable outwards, so never have the resources we need to go inwards when it's necessary.
(I wonder whether on some level, choosing to engage in these head-on, stiff, brittle conflicts, might involve the unconscious desire that they stay unresolved?)
When binary truth is the basis for an alternative view, it can be a distraction. Simply illustrated - Chem-trails: whether anybody is deliberately intending to do this or not, does it matter? When all the pollution of our constant normalized travel is something we ourselves are responsible for, yet have done such a good job of hiding from ourselves. Likewise constantly plugging in to all these mediated modes of brain-control. 5G: some studies show it's physically harmful, others the opposite. Because we never kicked up a stink about any of the previous G's, and we're all fairly ok with 4G really, we feel we're not allowed to simply draw a line and say in fact, we don't want or need more connectivity. That is what is harmful, mentally, psychologically, spiritually. Also, that we have no say in the disposition of the space we share, that the vibrations of the air itself belong to the highest bidder.
I often feel the one issue underlying all these theories is the absolute necessity of reclaiming reality from the monopoly those in power have developed over the millenia. This is vital on the individual, communal, and planetary level; yet in order to do it, we have to go outside the reality we've been brought up with, and find tools not based in that reality.
And of course, none of this is to say that there aren't also, simultaneously, people deliberately conspiring to do these things, obscured by both the murkiness and complexity of the system, and possibly also by overly-simplistic conspiracy narratives. Or that some of the narratives are also right. The skill of discernment, as you say, between thinking, feeling, desiring, and denying, is sorely lacking in our world. We could all do with a bit more systems thinking too...
Thank you Daniel. It is harder than ever to tread this middle ground of complexity and ambiguity; the construction of narratives which seem to offer to explain the deep wrongness in the world, and the truths we are told about it, finds itself at every corner of the political and spiritual field. These are some thoughts on the psychology of conspiracy theories in general.
I absolutely agree that the ways our conditioning lends almost all its weight to the objective and the proven, and orients us to look for causes rather than effects, can be a very big problem.
So diffuse, complex, system-wide, emergent qualities are hard to deal with. We are not trained to look for them - it is far simpler to create a basic causal explanation. Imagining a small group of distant people, and concentrating all the power of the whole system in their hands, and all its badness in their evil intention, creates a sense of relief. As knowledge=control/power=safety. Even more so, when the narrative includes the idea that they don't want you to know... It is also, of course, a relief to have the problem taken out of one's own hands. These people are so powerful that despite my knowledge, it's not my fault if...
This is also the same pattern of projection of shadow fear and uncertainty onto another, that can result in Holocaust, slavery, nationalism, hatred of every sort. If this process helps assuage that pain, it is only illusory or temporary. Indeed, it can create a feedback loop whereby ever more fuel is needed, to draw ever more oxygen into the fire, ever more fervour to project outwards.
Satan, in the original Hebrew, meant adversary. In a way, the ultimate projection of our own deepest shadow...
One big problem I see is that this process of literalisation can distract from some harder to grasp aspects of the situation, which are more hidden, harder to express, and more vulnerable to manipulation. Most widely, I believe, is that we are all to some extent implicated in the complex web of the system, in one way or another we are all party to imbalance and abuse, as well as its victims. Perhaps simply by neglect. Perhaps we have been duped into giving our consent for this, without ever realising. Some deep part of us probably does though!
That these subtler, perhaps more subjective things are harder to express - that our culture, conditioning, and language give so much more validity to the objective - can lead to a massive devaluation of our own sense of truth and reality. Validation, of truth and of ourselves, can only really happen with authority (is the tendency towards seeking and imagining intention a reflection of a conditioned need for powerful parent figures/god controlling the universe?). Many people feel this, in many ways. Yet without the culture or language to see it, let alone express it, the disturbed and threatened emotion finds the only way out that has any weight - fact, objective truth, causal narratives. These don't actually track fully to the inner motivation, which I believe contributes to even more anger expressing itself. And of course, as 'facts' can be found to support anything, we are often left with opposing sides throwing opposing facts at each other, not just stuck in a binary system but perpetuating it. All the stress, itself highly addictive, helps keep all this energy in this level of reality, in which we are trained to constantly project everything uncomfortable outwards, so never have the resources we need to go inwards when it's necessary.
(I wonder whether on some level, choosing to engage in these head-on, stiff, brittle conflicts, might involve the unconscious desire that they stay unresolved?)
When binary truth is the basis for an alternative view, it can be a distraction. Simply illustrated - Chem-trails: whether anybody is deliberately intending to do this or not, does it matter? When all the pollution of our constant normalized travel is something we ourselves are responsible for, yet have done such a good job of hiding from ourselves. Likewise constantly plugging in to all these mediated modes of brain-control. 5G: some studies show it's physically harmful, others the opposite. Because we never kicked up a stink about any of the previous G's, and we're all fairly ok with 4G really, we feel we're not allowed to simply draw a line and say in fact, we don't want or need more connectivity. That is what is harmful, mentally, psychologically, spiritually. Also, that we have no say in the disposition of the space we share, that the vibrations of the air itself belong to the highest bidder.
I often feel the one issue underlying all these theories is the absolute necessity of reclaiming reality from the monopoly those in power have developed over the millenia. This is vital on the individual, communal, and planetary level; yet in order to do it, we have to go outside the reality we've been brought up with, and find tools not based in that reality.
And of course, none of this is to say that there aren't also, simultaneously, people deliberately conspiring to do these things, obscured by both the murkiness and complexity of the system, and possibly also by overly-simplistic conspiracy narratives. Or that some of the narratives are also right. The skill of discernment, as you say, between thinking, feeling, desiring, and denying, is sorely lacking in our world. We could all do with a bit more systems thinking too...
Parsifal