Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Tearing Ourselves Down

As we all wrestle with the issues surrounding Syria we raise the theories of conspiracy to new heights. Dilbert creator Scott Adams’ conspiracy theory regarding Syria is just the latest to float past my eyes, cloyingly calling to the fears of those on the political left. Those on the left mock Tea Partiers and others who argue “Isn’t it OK to ask the question?” about evolution, climate change, Obama’s birth certificate and other foolish issues. Simultaneously, many on the left support a different set of conspiracy theories which align with issues which are similarly dear to their own hearts and interests.

It is critical to have clear and conscious discussion supporting our decisions on any important issue. Our repeated cultural fascination with theories of conspiracy driving local, national and global events clouds any effort to attain such clarity.

This tendency to slip off the slope of concern into the pits of conspiracy theories is an indication of our loss of faith in our fellow human. It speaks to our failure to contain our fears, to take the small risks which lead to the tight bonds of social cohesion. It is itself the largest threat we face.

We do not need the conspiracies we theorize bring us to our knees. Through our eagerness to fear our neighbor we are tearing ourselves down.

For the same basic reasoning Mr. Adams uses to justify his conspiracy theory I call BS on everything that smells like a conspiracy theory.

You can invert a few paragraphs of his piece to demonstrate how well the logic works to support my argument:

One entirely plausible explanation for the administration’s position on Syria is that the defense industry, the news industry, and the market manipulators are, once again, moving in lock-step to gin up a war, generate weapons sales, improve news industry profits, and create huge profits for market manipulators. Maybe the whole thing is an excuse to poke Putin in the eye and make his people scurry for cover because we’re still tweaked about the Snowden thing.

Any of that is possible.

The problem with believing any of those scenarios is that an equally good explanation for what we observe is that it has information we citizens don’t have, and shouldn’t have, and the government is acting in our best interest. Or maybe they really want to send the world a message that chemical warfare is a red line that can’t be crossed.

There is not dot-one difference in the kind of conspiracy theories supported by FOX News and the most extreme bunker-dwellers of the right and some of those on the Santa-Cruz-hipster left.

Supporting conspiracy theory mentality does more damage to our cultures than actual conspiracies. We erode individual and group morale, bring down our ability to trust one another, blur the lines between what is actually wrong (like gassing civilians) and what isn’t (like standing up against folks who gas civilians).

If global corporate leaders are so freaking smart and crafty that they can maintain a perfectly hidden coordinated conspiracy, then good on them and the rest of us should probably just follow their lead. But they are not.

The reality is that we as individuals make the choice to fear everyone around us and question their motives until we create self-fulfilling prophesies and latch onto those to support our further retreat from reality.

We do not need others to conspire against us, we conspire against ourselves just fine.


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/ 12 Comments

12 comments

  3. jlms qkw

    clever people who are famous for one thing should be listened to.  

    i don’t have room in my head for CT.  and i conspire against myself just fine.  

  4. louisprandtl

    But i still haven’t seen a reason why US have to go war on Syria. Assad is a horrible guy and might be gassing his own people. But does that mean we launch missiles and kill more people? Why don’t we instead develop an international mechanism that is supposed to more effectively deal with such situations instead of ineffective UN. However from all of the available reports suggest there’s no smoking gun linking Assad directly to the gas attacks.

    http://www.reuters.com/article…

    Is that good enough reason for us to get involved into another civil war? What is our strategy for post Assad development of Syria? Do we have the capability of supporting another war and rebuilding efforts when our Govt. failed to pay its own employees and had to furlough them.

    I’m sorry but currently i don’t know why we need to get involved into another civil war without adequate international support. Britain, France, Turkey and couple of silent Arab state partners isn’t good enough.

  5. janicket

    by Jim Wright at Stonekettle Station on the Syria clusterfuck:

    http://www.stonekettle.com/201…

    Read the whole thing, every word, because they all matter; but from the addendum, responding to readers’ initial reactions, I offer this:

    The above essay raises more questions than it answers.

    I used words that are not clearly defined in the context, morals, right. I begin the essay with concepts that would seem to indicate America should stay out of Syria, that there’s nothing we can do except to make it worse unless we’re willing to commit to full scale war … and then managed to work my way around to a conclusion that most of you took to mean that I think we should charge into with Syria guns blazing anyway.

    Most of you skimmed over the essay’s lead-in, but that wasn’t fluff. It was there on purpose. The simple truth of the matter is that many of us don’t know enough about the situation, about Syria itself, about its history and people, about the hideously complex nature of the region, to even have an informed opinion. Not really. Not beyond the topical information presented by our news feeds.

    The fact is, there are more questions than answers.

    ***************

    You wanted a clear opinion, you didn’t get one.

    That was on purpose.

    I don’t have a clear opinion.

    Folks, there are no easy answers. I certainly don’t have one. It’s apparent that neither the President nor the US Congress have a clear and unambiguous answer. Nor does the International Community.  The Middle Eastern powers have no easy answers, nor does China, nor Russia.

    There is no right answer, only wrong ones.

  6. creamer

    reviewing intel, see pictures and reading reports of dead innocents, bloated corpes. Doing this on a very regular basis. He/they find it repelling and vile, and they know they might be the one person who can effect some measure of justice. They hear arguments of vital national security, quagmires, always being the world cop etc. Then they look at some more pictures of gassed and dead kids.

      I think after all the conspiracies, it might come down to a human with a heart. And if I looked at all the intel and the pictures of dead and dying, would I expect myself to react any differently?

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