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A friend wanted me to post this for him…and this is the closest category I could find for this particular subject. (Moderators, feel free to move it if it’s in the wrong place):
The Thrill of Being Decieved
Eva Scrye
-( c ) 2005
The Thrill of Being Decieved
Code:
Our society has a funny way of appreciating a good conspiracy. There's something downright exciting about that feeling that you are uncovering layer upon layer of deceit in some faceless and governmental plot. This is nothing new, of course, western society has always had that inherent hint of paranoia, that feeling that they are being wronged on some subtle and basic level. Naturally, the Cold War didn't help this in the slightest, providing a breeding ground for neighbour-watching terror and panic-inducing television propoganda.
But what is most troubling about this is not that people are fooled into believing it, but that they actually enjoy hearing about such conspiracies, and adding their own story of intrigue to them. Normally this is all just a bit of fun and a good exercise at logically constructing and destructing theories about nameless organizations that probably never existed, but nowadays things are becoming much more personal.
I take, as a start, the book The Davinci Code by Dan Brown. This fictional book is about the Catholic Church covering up the 'fact' that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married, and had children that are currently still in Europe, their identities protected by the Church. Now, here's the thing, I should not even have to refute any of these points, because there simply is no evidence to back up these suggestions.
You might ask why it matters if the book is only fiction. The thing is, people don't care that it is fiction. Because of our attraction to stories of deception, people go around thinking “Hmm, I bet it could be true,”. At this point, they might as well simply admit to believing it because it's far too time-consuming to stop long enough to realize how ridiculous the claims of this book are.
The thing is, by believing the conspiracies we hear about, we undermine average people's beliefs for no reason other than to make ourselves feel special for 'figuring out the big conspiracy'. So put some faith in the people around you (and above you) instead of always looking for ways they just might be deceiving you.-( c ) 2005