Grey matters
As I was looking out the skylight to a grey sky contemplating life after a spectacularly splendidly result obtained by Joe Biden that indeed gives us hope that the Western civilization has hope of surviving. Content for another post entirely. A thought occurred to me, whilst I was musing away. One about religion and evolution, brains and conspiracy theories.
Evolution
It is said you cannot witness evolution as the processes are too slow. Too drawn out of a process to see it. However I think one such process we might be witnessing right now.
It seems that evolutionary speaking our brain has evolved into making sure that the world outside is just, fair and most of all safe and that no random events can occur at any time to make it so we die.
This makes sense. Otherwise you spend too much energy on thinking you will die making you die instead of getting food. So in this light religion makes a lot of sense. Some other force is responsible for all and everything and nothing is therefore random and if you follow the rules the world will be safe and just. Sounds like it caters to our brain perfectly.
Another way of saying it is religion seems to be a product of evolution too.
Brains
The new way of thinking regarding this, is saying there is no god or denouncing religion in its entirety and therefore accepting the fact that the world is random seems a relatively new and amazing evolutionary step, or mutation. Acceptance is the first step in making progress after all.
I consider myself one of the lucky frontier mutations, also thanking my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who I knew and seemingly are the ones who started it all. At least as far as I can tell. It might be further upstream.
This insight was given to me by the author of The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head is Really Up To, Dean Burnett. In that book it is explained that the brain is wanting for an ordered reasonable world in which it can thrive.
Anything upsetting that view is met with fierce resistance. For example, someone that got something done to them horribly. Some crime was committed that is random, so the perpetrator did not have a motive other than the victim happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Most of us would think we would be empathic to that victim but in actuality it turns out that people act like the victim had it coming, must have done something else to deserve it. This because otherwise it could happen to us at any time and that cannot be, so better to invent a sort of revenge/justification for the victim being a victim.
Conspiracy theories
So how does this all relate to conspiracy theories? Well they are a new kind of religion. It places all responsibility outside the people, where they cannot touch it. Think shadow governments, real power that is hidden in big nameless companies or even whole macro processes that are somehow geared towards making people rich. Within it is a dab of easy to get behind statements that everyone is against, seems pedophilia is chosen for this. A lot of these people in power all run pedophile networks it seems and therefore as a new potential initiate your brain goes well we are against that so we are against the rest too. Kind of the foot in the door principle where you are more likely to agree with the rest of the statements.
They are also based in quasi factual sounding phrases, semi scientifically reasoning and philosophically straw-man positions that make it hard to counter with effective rhetoric. It is also difficult for the scientifically illiterates to distinguish these “theories” from actual science.
I am unsure of the defense to this, I think asking questions and making them think on this is the most logical course. I am unsure of the effectiveness of this as it seems they can do faulty reasoning and conclude things on false premises. Two questions I would have is why and how? Basically for their whole reasoning. I think Occam's razor is lost on them. Maybe it is also a form of identity creation, like religious groups can give as well. An identity that makes you belong somewhere is a powerful tool.
Education
I sincerely believe our educational process needs some huge reforms. In order to make our new generation better equipped to deal with subtle mind altering techniques we need to teach them critical thinking, what used to be called rationalism. Critical thinking and the power of your individual identity, not eschewing the responsibilities you have as an individual in the society. Accepting the fact that the person next to you is an individual that has needs, wants, desires, fears, hopes and dreams like you but ultimately all use their talent to uplift and make the society better as a whole. The simple act of trying to leave the place around you slightly better than you arrived in, means the cumulative improvements will have a net difference of positive gain.
New normal
Hopefully it will become the new normal that our brains accept randomness and keep on evolving. With us moving more and more towards a unified model of the whole universe, space exploration being affordable, AI tech coming into it's own right and hopefully will not be used for just commercial purposes, it seems we can elevate our species to the next level.