03-05-2014, 11:07 AM
quote:
Originally posted by punafish
Just read an interesting book called The Storytelling Animal because of my fascination with cultures and their storytelling traditions, particularly the psychology behind the human need to tell stories. This discussion prompted me to revisit a quote I highlighted in the book. The only connection to Puna is that so many folks here seem to embrace so many conspiracy theories. Draw your own conclusions, just some food for thought:
"It seems that the difference between the delusions of psychotics and the fantasies of conspiracy theorists are of degree, not kind...Conspiracy theories are not...the province of a googly-eyed lunatic fringe. Conspiratorial thinking is not limited to the stupid, the ignorant, or the crazy. It is a reflection of the storytelling mind's compulsive need for meaningful experience. Conspiracy theories offer ultimate answers to a great mystery of the human condition: why are things so bad in the world? They provide nothing less than a solution to the problem of evil. In the imaginative world of the conspiracy theorist, there is no accidental badness. To the conspiratorial mind, sh!t never just happens. History is not just one damned thing after another, and only dopes and sheeple believe in coincidences. For this reason, conspiracy theories—no matter how many devils they invoke—are always consoling in their simplicity. Bad things do not happen because of a wildly complex swirl of abstract historical and societal variables. They happen because bad men live to stalk our happiness. And you can fight, and possibly even defeat, bad men. If you can read the hidden story."
“The individual is handicapped by coming face to face #8232;with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.” J. Edgar Hoover on COINTELPRO
I don't want to go to far afield with this , merely point out that J. Edgar Hoover , obviously knew about " conspiracy theory's", and that they are a "fact of life", and not as you suggest above, just, "in the imaginative world of the conspiracy theorist, there is no accidental badness", of course their is accidental badness, just as their are genuine "conspiracy's
At this link above you will find the below article
FEBRUARY 26, 2014
The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations