Monday 4 February 2008

Conspiracy Theory

Conspiracy Theory- a form of hypothesis involving humans consciously conspiring to cause events such as wars, assassinations, terrorist attacks, as opposed to explaining said events by means of the Accident Theory, its close relation- the It Just Happened Theory, or the Natural Elements Theory/ Random Fluctuation of Matter Theory. Somewhat strangely, conspiracy theories seem to have a bad reputation as being naive and shameful to the intellect when used to explain events arising from human conspiring.
For example, the conspiracy theorist would explain the Iraq War as having occured directly as a result of certain individuals acting in unison to cause this war. The alternative non-conspiracy theory is a strange beast involving the war happening by some form of accident, or the it just happened hypothesis.
Similarly the events of 911 are explained by the various conspiracy theories as directly involving humans conspiring, this being the nature of acts of terrorism and war. Again, the apparently wise anti-conspiracy theory presumably involves the events of that day as being a coincidental series of accidents. Though if pushed most will accept that, yes, most likely the events of 911 did involve people conspiring to cause those events.

The common car accident is more natural territory to the anti-conspiracy theory, where humans are directly responsible, though not intentionally. A fight between two men on the spur of the moment after imbibing large quantities of alcohol occupies something of a theoretical middle-ground between the conspiracy and accident theories. The fight is not an accident, but is not the product of careful pre-planning and organisation. Though humans are directly responsible and it is no accident, it falls broadly within the It Just Happened bracket, though we shouldn't be too rigid with what is meant by "it just happened".

Contrarily a professional boxing fight would be explained by the conspiracy theorist as being no accident and not having just happened, but having been organised by persons known or unknown specifically with the intent of the fight occuring. This is an instance of the pure conspiracy theory in action.
Finally, the Natural Causes theory relates fairly self-evidently to events arising from natural causes, though even this field has been rendered more mysteriously complex with the development and refinement of technology such as HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) by the US military.

Ideally of course, the specifics of the Conspiracy, It Just Happened, Accident or Natural Causes Theory should consistently fit the events they are used to explain, as opposed to simply being convenient for some ulterior purpose such as the theorist's personal agenda or worldview, but inconsistent with the evidence at hand. A clear example of this being the hopelessly inadequate 911 Commission Report- official conspiracy theory- peddled by the authorities, to explain those events. As shown by David Ray Griffin in the following presentation, 911 Commission Report- Ommissions and Distortions.
As Griffin says "people might wonder is there anything in the 911 Commission Report that is untrue. Now that I've finished the book, my big question is can I find a true sentence in the book. This might sound extreme, but if you don't take this too seriously, and realise that a sentence is part of a paragraph which is part of an argument then it is very hard to find any truth there."

The believers of the conspiracy theory that is peddled by the authorities and their lackey media are examples of the much derided loony conspiracy theorists who ride roughshod over all evidence and use of reason, and in fact have no intention of looking at and thinking about the evidence. Their worldview is sacrosanct, and cannot by holy law be imperilled. In contrast, Aldous Huxley wrote that "Intellectuals are people who demand evidence and are appalled by logical inconsistencies." One will commiserate with Diogenes and his lamplit search for an honest man if one starts to search for too many examples of such honest intellectuals in the world of the mainstream press and politics.

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