Feb 21, 2018 07:11 PM
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...lites-sane
EXCERPT: If the Illuminati is real, it’s got to be the least secret secret society in the universe. It’s so bad at keeping itself hidden that its existence is proclaimed all over the internet by people whose investigative toolkit consists entirely of Google and a lively imagination. The most recent would-be whistleblower [...] Paul Hellyer, a former Canadian minister of defence, has blamed the Illuminati for suppressing technology brought to Earth by aliens that could end our reliance on fossil fuels.
[...] Mockery is easy, but it’s also reassuring. It’s good to know that we’re much more sensible and rational than these clearly deluded conspiracy theorists. The problem is that they differ from the rest of us only in degree, not kind.
The reasons why people believe in secret, controlling elites are rooted in basic human nature. We are constantly on the lookout for both patterns and agency. Pattern-seeking is essential for our survival, and the penalties for seeing patterns where none exist are lighter than those for missing patterns that really are there. If our ancestors had failed to notice that crops left to dry tended to die, they too would have expired through starvation. But if they thought they had noticed that sacrificing a goat increased the likelihood of rain, then at worst they wasted the odd bit of meat.
[...] Rather than just dismissing Hellyer and his ilk, we would do better to see how much of our thinking displays the same weaknesses. [...] that is, as the cabal is the global financial elite, the military–industrial complex, big pharma or agribusiness. I’m not saying that these ideas are on the same level of nuttiness as the Illuminati. [...But...] we should see the Hellyers of this world as the price we pay for being willing to question the manifest order and to expose the secretive interest groups [...] When we dig for the truth, we flirt with madness. But in a world where hidden power is all too real, it’s the only sane thing to do....
MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...lites-sane
EXCERPT: If the Illuminati is real, it’s got to be the least secret secret society in the universe. It’s so bad at keeping itself hidden that its existence is proclaimed all over the internet by people whose investigative toolkit consists entirely of Google and a lively imagination. The most recent would-be whistleblower [...] Paul Hellyer, a former Canadian minister of defence, has blamed the Illuminati for suppressing technology brought to Earth by aliens that could end our reliance on fossil fuels.
[...] Mockery is easy, but it’s also reassuring. It’s good to know that we’re much more sensible and rational than these clearly deluded conspiracy theorists. The problem is that they differ from the rest of us only in degree, not kind.
The reasons why people believe in secret, controlling elites are rooted in basic human nature. We are constantly on the lookout for both patterns and agency. Pattern-seeking is essential for our survival, and the penalties for seeing patterns where none exist are lighter than those for missing patterns that really are there. If our ancestors had failed to notice that crops left to dry tended to die, they too would have expired through starvation. But if they thought they had noticed that sacrificing a goat increased the likelihood of rain, then at worst they wasted the odd bit of meat.
[...] Rather than just dismissing Hellyer and his ilk, we would do better to see how much of our thinking displays the same weaknesses. [...] that is, as the cabal is the global financial elite, the military–industrial complex, big pharma or agribusiness. I’m not saying that these ideas are on the same level of nuttiness as the Illuminati. [...But...] we should see the Hellyers of this world as the price we pay for being willing to question the manifest order and to expose the secretive interest groups [...] When we dig for the truth, we flirt with madness. But in a world where hidden power is all too real, it’s the only sane thing to do....
MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...lites-sane