Monday, June 22, 2015

Issue 617 Conspiracy Theory Origins June 22, 2015

Conspiracy theories are just that, theories.  They are hypothetical ideas of what happened during an event.  But why do we have these theories?  Especially as these theories generally fly in the face of what actually occurred.  Let us discuss.

It’s about psychology:  Conspiracy theories developed because of people thinking that there is no way something so big can happen from something so simple.  Look at 9/11.  People doubted that the World Trade Center could have collapsed the way it did because of how similar it was to how we demolish buildings with explosives.  As such, radical ideas of our own government causing the horrible incident came about with people not believing that some terrorist organization could accomplish something of that scale.  

Let us look at it another way.  Can you have James Bond go against a small time villain?  No, you need Dr. No, and other supervillains.  People apparently want equivalency in the storytelling which results in these theories that do not have evidence to back them up.  We want the good guys to take down bad guys of equal stature.  As such the psychology of equivalency generates these fanciful, and foolish theories.


Conclusion:  People like to tell stories.  For most of the history of mankind, history was not recounted with the written word but verbal storytelling.  As such, it is ingrained in our very culture to tell stories which may be embellished from time to time to provide a source of entertainment to ourselves and others.  Conspiracy theories are the same thing, just using our desires to keep the story interesting and entertaining when the truth is so dismal, or sad.

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