When we were young, the nether end of Charing Cross Road and the little courts and alleys off it always held a certain type of bookshop. Smells of joss-sticks, batik and tie dyed fittings, odd posters of karmic universes ,everywhere. And crowded shelves reflecting the more outre pre-occupations of the human mind-Bigfoot, UFOs, shamans, tantric meditations……and a vast array of books on all kinds of alternative therapies, herbs, lifestyles, cookery and diet plans. Chaotic, disorganised and essentially harmless-a far cry from our real worries of the time, such as Communism and the rise of the National Front. A hippy and a stormtrooper seemed to be a very long way apart. Or are they?
According to James Ball of the Guardian, there’s now a rather well established production line taking new age therapy fans and turning them into fascists [1].Jjames documents a few well known cases, like the hooligans who stormed the US Congress in 2020. But he also delves into the psychological roots of the conspiracists, and tries to answer the question we’re always posing here, Why do they do it? Why do so many people give up the critical faculties of their minds, which after all, is our chief evolutionary adaptation? According to James
Academic researchers of conspiracy theories have speculated about whether their rise in the 20th century is related to the decline of religion. In a strange way, the idea that a malign cabal is running the world – while far more worrying than a benevolent God – is less scary than the idea that no one is in charge and everything is chaos. People who have a reason to mistrust the mainstream pillars of society – government, doctors, the media, teachers – are more likely to turn to conspiracy theories for explanations as to why the world is like it is.
As we speculated yesterday, most people crave certainty. Given the utter chaos of the real world, from the quantum level up, that’s understandable if wrong. For a long time, waht might be termed the rational community, that tiny segment of the population which educates, manages and teaches- were able to reassure them both with our discoveries in science and the cornucopia of bright shiny toys to play with which were such an easy by product of that science. Things like the Iraq war and the crash of 2007-2008 broke much of their trust (who can blame them? to quote WH Auden
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good. (from Poets.org)
The lights of science and reason are now flickering dangerously low, just as they were in September 1939 Will they soon vanish forever?
we thank Mr Peter Seymour for this story
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/aug/02/everything-youve-been-told-is-a-lie-inside-the-wellness-to-facism-pipeline?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-5
[2]https://poets.org/poem/september-1-1939
#alternative medicine #conspiracy #fascist #irrationality
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