Any time any disaster occurs, there will always be those gifted souls
who automatically see sinister forces at work in the background. Its
human nature to try and assign some sort of guiding force to
disasters to make the horrors less random. The most overwhelming
tragedy that has occurred to the US to date, 911, sparked dozens of
different conspiracies that are still running rampant even today. So
it is only...natural that the Co-vid 19 outbreak has spawned many of
its own plots.
(OK, quick side note here. Calling something a conspiracy is not necessarily the same thing as saying its wrong. A conspiracy can be very real. Not all plots are like the shaggy dude in his bathrobe on a street corner, waving his "Bigfoot stole my wife" sign. Having said that, most of the conspiracies running around right now are pretty close to that level.)
Anyhow, onward, and downward!
So why do people cling to outrageous and often impossible "Conspiracy Theories?" Like people who still swear to high heaven that jets did NOT crash into the trade centers even though hundreds of people watched it in person and 1000s more through videos, both professional and amateur. (Note that I am not attacking the "Gubbermint blew em up" or the "jets were not flown by terrorists" crowds, just the "jets didn't fly into the buildings" nutters because ample evidence proves they are full of crap.) Why do seemingly intelligent people desperately cling to these ideas?
I think part of it is that the human-animal likes order. We invented the concept of weeks and months and hours just to make our days and years seem a little tidier. We even went further and created clocks and calendars to help us keep track of those made-up ideas. We went even FURTHER and invented the Leap Year when the first inventions weren't quite orderly enough. We love to assign meaning to the most minute aspects of our lives.
When things like Co-vid 19 or 911 occur that we weren't anticipating, our nice illusion of order and symmetry totally vanishes. Our order deprived minds desperately lash out and latch on to anything that might help us restore some sense of order. Terrorists infiltrate the "Mightiest nation in the world and kill 1000s?" Had to be some grand secret attack by shadow forces in the government. It's just the way we are wired.
The human animal hates randomness. All of the organizations we have developed over the eras like Religions and Governments and Television Series have all been to instill order into the chaos. The problem is that the world doesn't give a flying fig about our need for order or at least our idea of order. We will keep trying to assign blame, and the universe will just soldier on until the next disaster happens.
(OK, quick side note here. Calling something a conspiracy is not necessarily the same thing as saying its wrong. A conspiracy can be very real. Not all plots are like the shaggy dude in his bathrobe on a street corner, waving his "Bigfoot stole my wife" sign. Having said that, most of the conspiracies running around right now are pretty close to that level.)
Anyhow, onward, and downward!
So why do people cling to outrageous and often impossible "Conspiracy Theories?" Like people who still swear to high heaven that jets did NOT crash into the trade centers even though hundreds of people watched it in person and 1000s more through videos, both professional and amateur. (Note that I am not attacking the "Gubbermint blew em up" or the "jets were not flown by terrorists" crowds, just the "jets didn't fly into the buildings" nutters because ample evidence proves they are full of crap.) Why do seemingly intelligent people desperately cling to these ideas?
I think part of it is that the human-animal likes order. We invented the concept of weeks and months and hours just to make our days and years seem a little tidier. We even went further and created clocks and calendars to help us keep track of those made-up ideas. We went even FURTHER and invented the Leap Year when the first inventions weren't quite orderly enough. We love to assign meaning to the most minute aspects of our lives.
When things like Co-vid 19 or 911 occur that we weren't anticipating, our nice illusion of order and symmetry totally vanishes. Our order deprived minds desperately lash out and latch on to anything that might help us restore some sense of order. Terrorists infiltrate the "Mightiest nation in the world and kill 1000s?" Had to be some grand secret attack by shadow forces in the government. It's just the way we are wired.
The human animal hates randomness. All of the organizations we have developed over the eras like Religions and Governments and Television Series have all been to instill order into the chaos. The problem is that the world doesn't give a flying fig about our need for order or at least our idea of order. We will keep trying to assign blame, and the universe will just soldier on until the next disaster happens.
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