When friends embrace irrationality

Last Sunday I watched a program on the National Geographic channel that debunked the highest profiled 9-11 conspiracy theories. The theorists clearly were not persons of high intellect who thought through their theories. They refused to accept the results of scientific tests that essentially destroyed their theories nor did the theorists provide an overarching reason for the alleged conspiracy other than the standard reference to some vague nefarious governmental scheme to control the people.

A frequent addendum to this is the belief among many of a "one world government". This theory holds that a powerful cartel is operating behind the scenes manipulating institutions, events, and people in order to create one government that governs the world.Ron Paul and other devotees of the Austrian School of Economics, believe fervently in this puppet master theory.It fits neatly in with their conception of fear of government--which is not coincidental.

I am not going to waste my time debating the merits of this paranoid delusion because frankly, it is just the updated version of the old "Jews are running the world" theory that has bounced around for centuries.The only things that one can learn from this crackpot theory is how ignorant people are of history and human nature as well as how readily people embrace such nonsensical ideas.

Normally, I don't give much thought to these theories, but the fact that a dear friend has come to believe in them disturbs me. This is a educated, intelligent, person who is as good of a human being as you will meet. But for some reason he has decided that these asinine ideas are believable.

I know HOW he has come to believe in these ideas. It is the influence of the paranoid minds he has come into contact with in the religious group he belongs to. These aren't bad people or fanatics, but persons of faith who know very little about history or human nature.

The devout--religious and political--are particularly susceptible to be entangled in the webs of conspiracy theories due to their reliance on others to think for them with the result that they are not used to applying ideas to tests of logic and rationality. They also define themselves by the belief in the irrational--that of a untouchable, invisible, entity.

le spend much of their time praying to and pondering the message of the God and not the paying much attention to the world of the tangible outside the news clips they see, read, or hear.

Thus, they are excellent potential believers in theories cast about by persons guided by paranoid visions of the world driven by prejudices and hatreds contracted in an atmosphere that encourages the formation of such beliefs.

Such people can be found in all walks of life at all levels of education. How and why people are so willing to embrace such absurd ideas is something best left to sociologists and psychologists. But it suffices to say that this is one area of human behavior that deserves more focus from the media.

Too many people have died as a result of conspiracy theories(see Blood Libel of the Middle Ages for an excellent example) for our society not to take these people seriously.