CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND PERPETRATORS

Once again the opportunity to appear as all knowing, smarter than the average, and in on the real scoop is handed to the conspiracy theorists. Those who feed upon the process of imagination to create their realities will use the Boston bombing as another log on the fire.  The really sad part is that resembling a physical illness being passed on to infect others, those theories generally create intellectual illness in others too weak or too lazy to understand the importance of the truth.  

In today’s age of lightning fast information, sharing it is far too easy for innuendo and rumor to establish false conclusions as the truth.  What may or may not have really occurred becomes what probably did in the minds of those receptive to the altered information.  Those theories are similar to the sprouting of weeds. They will take root in a wide variety of soils and can be widely spread through the ingestion of seed and dispersed through indiscriminate dropping of scat.

There is no doubt that a good portion of information is packed with some form of “propagandic” seasoning.  The reality of any given event is almost impossible for us to know, and finding receptive minds to spread any story one might dream up is far too easy.  We are forced to deal in the realm of possibility, probability and actuality, never knowing for sure if what or how much of what we are led to believe is the truth.  It appears that for every story there are numerous contradictory counterparts from which we pick and choose depending upon our individual beliefs.  
Therein lies the problem.  Conspiracy theories are dependent on some form of prejudice in order to survive.  Without some seed of pre-agreement there could be no continuance into the stage of probability.  It is impossible for belief and doubt to exist at the same time in the same mind but there is the self-knowledge that one is still in the info collection stage.  The problem is beliefs in prior probabilities are inserted into the equation.  
The “Boston Marathon bombing” is a good example of how one theory is able to gain agreement over that of another.  Within minutes of the bombing, theorists were hard at work finding various possibilities of what took place.  The possibility that supported their previous positions, in similar circumstances, is the one they promoted into the realm of probability and then promoted as the truth.  The actual truth is obscured by denial of evidence and the story is supported by stacking theory on top of theory rather than fact upon fact.  It gains the appearance of truth through repetition.  The old adage that if you tell them often enough people will come to believe anything, is not a theory, it is part of human nature.

There are far too many of those theories that have taken place in recent history, and to that purpose I have let others make their lists. I have listed some web sites that have interesting information and listings.

http://listverse.com/2013/04/10/10-more-fairly-recent-conspiracy-theories/ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/fall/patriot-paranoia#.UXv3vqKceD4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories

Wikepedia is one of the more extensive listings and gives some of the why these theories exist and meanings behind the particular theory.  The original purpose behind each of them will have a similarity of type.  Most are self-serving, pseudo altruistic ideas that are designed to elevate the importance of the person promoting the theory.  

A friend of mine suggested a blog site that really opened my eyes on the matter of conspiracy promotion.  In today’s world of what can be deemed as news in social media becomes tomorrows “truth”.  In actuality this site was filled with so many of the author's personal deductions and denial of any facts or ideas that didn’t support his theories.  This article supports my own theory that conspiracy theories are seldom factual.  The age old practice of a falsehood containing just enough truthful elements to add the appearance of truth is a major tool in the conspiracy world as much as it is in the world of cover ups.

The following pertains to that article: http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2013/04/american-terror-manufactured-fbi

“American Terror: Manufactured by the FBI

by grtv

The Boston Marathon bombing has provoked shock, grief and outrage from around the world. After decades of conditioning, the public automatically equates such terrorism with Muslim radicals. But the evidence shows that every major terror plot on American soil in the past 10 years has been fostered, funded and equipped by one organization: the FBI.”

 In this one statement the Bovine excrement warning bells start ringing.  The word “every” is as much of a miss-speak as saying “all” of a race are.  Over active imagination and the need to support the exciting aspect of everyone else being uninformed and ignorant compared to “ME” helps create the theory.  The belief of others fuels the spread and the growth of the conspiracies possibility.  The above article made so many leaps into false credibility that listing them all in my article would be a waste of time.  The article in question is still up on the site listed above if you want to check it out.

Conspiracy theories are called theories for a reason.  They cannot be substantiated into the realm of factual truths.  When they are put along side of the other views of an event certain things happen to promote the theories existence and spread. Some of the components required are:

1.       The event must be important enough to capture the imagination of the originator

2.       The event must have repercussions affecting society as a whole

3.       The theory must have a villain with some degree of notoriety or importance to the society

4.       The theory must have an audience with agreement as to the probability and possibilities proposed in the theory

5.       The theory must be able to be expanded upon

6.       The theory must be able to be connected to previous theories and proposed guilty parties

7.       Gullibility and the desire of the followers to be part of an elite group of intelligentia

8.       A good enough story to gain the strength of growth equal to a life of its own.

It must contain the same components of any good work of fictional “who dunnits”.  Intrigue, multiple possibilities, miss-direction, miss-interpretation of fact and the reliance upon involving the audience in the process of discovery.

Each of us could be susceptible to those theories if they are in agreement with our own individual belief systems.  It would be important to us to be aware of what we believe, questioning ourselves as much as we question others.