Tag: instinctive

The Comfort Blanket Of Conspiracy

Hamar Williams2 Comments

Conspiracy theories are such a comfort. I was chatting with my Mum the other day and telling her how there is something about this whole Coronavirus pandemic that just makes me feel suspicious, there’s something not right and I can’t work out what it is. This unease could be attributed to numerous things but I have been putting it down to the fact that certain things just don’t make sense. I mentioned previously how we’re not looking at the whole picture in relation to statistics. The extraordinary numbers of deaths attributed to vehicles, alcohol, smoking and suicides which occur on a daily basis dwarf this virus yet they’re barely discussed with anything near the urgency we’re currently experiencing in the national dialogue. I also have a healthy distrust of my government, any government come to think of it, and the mainstream media which I have mentioned previously as well as implied regularly. With this in mind it is easy to see how I may be inclined to believe some of the ideas going around online about the real cause or nature of this pandemic. What dawned on me mid conversation though was that perhaps I couldn’t find something credible to pin this distrust upon because actually this virus has no underlying manipulator, it just exists, and it’s existence is uncontrollable.

So let me explain how that last point relates to the first. Conspiracy theories are a comfort because they make sense of events that ordinarily would bring uncontrolled confusion and danger to our lives. What I mean by that is that if we believe there are puppetmasters controlling the spread of this virus or controlling the media manipulation of a non-existent virus, we can find an entity that we know such as government, the deep state, the Chinese, et al and blame them. We may still be powerless, let’s be honest, but at the very least we know our enemy and once we know something it immediately becomes less scary. Ultimately the unknown plays an enormous part in most of if not all our fears, we are scared of what we don’t know because it could be dangerous, it is an instinctive animalistic response. If this virus is not being manipulated by someone it is uncontrollable, that makes it unknown and this version of the reality we create is far more fearful than the comforting one of deep state manipulation.

It is probably important to mention that I dislike the term conspiracy theory because it is used in a derogatory way to belittle an idea which runs contrary to the official story. I use it in this piece for the sake of understanding. It is as dangerous to dismiss all conspiracy theories as it is to accept all of them, or to accept all official theories. That should be obvious though. It should be obvious too that there are some official versions of events which are clearly untrue; think the assassination of JFK or the ludicrous attempts to pass off the hole filled story of the World Trade Centre attacks. There are also though the utterly bizarre such as that we live on a flat Earth or are ruled by a race of reptilian overlords. This last one is interesting because it is a perfect example of finding order within the disorder of existence; all these bad things that happen in this world are down to a race of evil reptiles, not because human beings are a complex irrational species capable of the unexpected and unacceptable.

This isn’t of course to say those with access to power are not going to take full advantage of this virus at any opportunity. We’ve already seen governments push through draconian security and spying legislation, rich party donors are lining their pockets all under the guise of saving lives, the wealthy traders are watching in glee as the economy crashes waiting for their opportunity pick at the carcass of once viable businesses. It is comforting to think all of this is controlled though because that is what we can understand. If it is controlled it is less likely to indiscriminately hurt us or our loved ones and it will have an end point. It is vitally important to indulge in a healthy amount of scepticism but at some point it may be worth throwing off the security blanket of conspiracies and seeing the world for the disorganised, irrational and unknown place it is. As is life.

Don’t Taste The Wasp Twice

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

We as a species have an inbuilt response to new things, we fear them. There is a practical reason for that and it is rational; new is unknown and unknown could mean danger. As a species we have managed to survive, adapt and evolve to the point we’re at in our evolutionary cycle. I don’t doubt one reason for our success so far has been down to instinctively following that practical approach mentioned above. Is it instinctive though? When we are young children we try to touch or eat anything new, it appears we sense next to no danger in anything, yet as adults we have become cautious if not neurotically fearful. That would suggest we are taught to fear new and unknown things but then puppies and adult dogs mirror human growth fear patterns too. Perhaps puppies learn new can mean danger because sometimes they experience the pain of discovering new things, like the taste of a wasp, or a dogs parenting is just not something obvious to my untrained eyes. Can we then take that further and use it to explain why we are so weary of new sources of information, or even new information that may contradict our previously held beliefs.

I suppose it is probably quite a straightforward idea, we distrust new sources because they are unknown and we haven’t built up a relationship of trust with them. We reject new information because our current beliefs are known to us and with them we have so far survived to this point in life. With them we have safety and life, potentially this unknown new information may lead to danger and the taking away of either our safety or in the extreme our life. There is also the issue of narrative to take into consideration, what doesn’t fit our narrative we are likely to dismiss but I’ll not go down that avenue this time.

I was sent a link to a video on YouTube by a friend who has a differing set of ideals and beliefs about how best we should approach the world than I do. I rarely bother engaging him in discussion anymore because neither of us come close to seeing the others perspective and I always end it feeling exhausted and frustrated that I’ve wasted an evening arguing with a brick wall. When I received this video I assumed immediately it would relate to one of his points previously made, which it did, and in my mind I had already rejected it before even contemplating watching it. My initial response was to see it was a YouTube video and dismiss it as worthless. There are many useful videos on YouTube and I have taught myself how to do all sorts of things through them, but videos of a political or social nature are quite often just a pile of tosh. I had already rejected the point because of the source platform. I decided to watch it a little, not the full one hour because I have better things to do, and did some research on the speaker and his organisation. Seemingly they are of a different persuasion to me but I still watched and tried to listen to the message. After ten disagreeable minutes I gave up because I found him frustrating, it appears you can’t argue with a pre-recorded person. I do understand why angry people comment now but I still refuse to get involved in that game. Ultimately my point is that I like to think I gave the speaker the opportunity and I listened with a clear mind but it’s not easy when you already think the platform the information is on and the source of the information are unreliable and bullshit.

Absorbing new information is clearly an incredibly challenging task. We struggle to absorb anything that is new because it is unknown and potentially dangerous, and we struggle to accept anything contradictory to our present set of beliefs as it challenges what has so far kept us safe. The YouTube example above is an easy one to dismiss because the contents and the platform are like the Daily Star of video journalism but sometimes we get contradictory information from credible sources and this can be hard to accept and equally dismiss.

The more I delve into these things the more I’m starting to realise just how hard, if not impossible, it is being some kind of discerning, moral and decent person. Here I am, just like yesterday back to the fallible human. Is failure what makes us human, or perhaps the ability to recognise and improve on our past failures. It is okay to be fallible. It is unavoidable clearly, but is it only acceptable if and when we try and avoid repeat failure. Being conscious of our previous failures, accepting that they are inevitable and pushing on in the search of perfection, or at the very least an acceptable success. Don’t try and taste the wasp twice, it’s all so simple now, if only I had realised that earlier.

Angry Football Fanaticism

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I’ve just been to the pub. My team lost in the football. I’m feeling a varying raft of emotions. I find this sport absorbing for many reasons and at the same time still find it to be some kind of a dirty pleasure. Watching people at the peak of their abilities is incredible to see. If we could we would watch and be amazed by anybody at the top of their game who can do incredible things. Listen to a genius poet reciting their best poem, the greatest circus acrobat flying though the air catching and balancing people, someone who has mastered parkour bouncing their way across a city skyline, surfers, musicians, intellectuals…it doesn’t matter what it is, watching anyone who has mastered anything is a joy to behold.

At which point we embrace the tribalism involved which is simply fascinating. I would comfortably say I have met many people in my life and I have got on with everyone to a varying level. I can comfortably say that there is nobody out there that I actually genuinely hate, I even find the concept questionable until rival my football teams enter my mind. Being Scottish, or this is my excuse at least, I support two teams. My father supports Manchester United so from about six years old I supported them, it coincided with them winning their first title in twenty six years and then another twelve subsequently, so it was until recently a pleasure to experience their games. In Scotland I support Celtic who also have been winning everything recently but when I started supporting them their biggest rivals where in the middle of winning nine titles in a row, they were an underdog of sorts, socially as well as in sport. As I said I don’t think I hate anybody but without a doubt I hate their rivals, Liverpool for Man Utd and Rangers for Celtic. For me it feels rational, there is something vile and disgusting about these clubs and their supporters, I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire as the old saying goes. I really angrily hate them but I don’t feel that in any other realm of my life, and genuinely don’t think I could for any real extended length of time. I also know that there is too much emotion involved for it to ever be an actual rational issue but if I don’t try to think otherwise it feels completely justified.

Why is that though, how does this angry rivalry evolve in people who are not necessarily angry emotive people the rest of the time. There is talk of it being a primitive tribalistic thing, but we have evolved beyond that and I don’t really feel we’re still controlled by our tribal past in quite that way. If it’s going to be argued that it’s a male thing, that would be highly contentious but I certainly see more angry male football fans than female ones, whether that is because they are male as opposed to women that makes them angry and tribalistic is contentious and highly questionable though. So it rests upon whether it’s simply a release and the most socially acceptable version that men have been conditioned to embrace. The vast majority of people have something in their life that makes them unhappy and that is for various reasons but theres nothing quite like spending ninety minutes once a week screaming and shouting for and against a team, it is cathartic and it’s healing qualities cannot be overlooked. Still I suspect theres more, and it’s this knowledge that I lack the answer that keeps bringing the fascinated child back. What football has become is ridiculous but it has still managed to maintain it’s tribal element and people may try to make everyone play fair, nullify the aggression and play it for the sake of the sport but were that to happen I’m of no doubt the game would lose a huge part of it’s appeal. I for one hope that never happens. Come on, lets get excited, swear, scream, get angry, release and get on with it because until anything else comes along, this is all that the vast majority have that keeps them feeling grounded and human.