Do We Need to Believe in Conspiracies?

reply to post by LususNaturae


Please tell me you are joking?

Originally posted by kevinunknown

Not really to sure what mathematics and marketing have to do with religion perhaps if i had read about it as much as you have i might understand what your saying, then again maybe you are crazy....

Just wondering if your saying that you agree with us or if you are disagreeing?

Not mathematics, Memetics

In his book The Selfish Gene (1976), the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins used the term meme to describe a unit of human cultural transmission analogous to the gene, arguing that replication also happens in culture, albeit in a different sense. In his book, Dawkins contended that the meme is a unit of information residing in the brain and is the mutating replicator in human cultural evolution. It is a pattern that can influence its surroundings – that is, it has causal agency – and can propagate.

en.wikipedia.org...

SO yes, i am agreeing with you, The need to believe in conspiracies is, for some people, like a religion, or an obsession, addiction etc.

Then i used the model of Tribal marketing to explain how these differing theories are propagated from a core group of believers, or "inner" group to the outer world to slowly bring them in towards the more and more esoteric belief structure of that "inner" group. Or as the video referred to it , the tribe.

The tribal model follows the same form and function as cult programming, esoteric/mystical initiations, Religious practice etc.

As people are more inter-linked socially based on some meme, be it a product, idea etc, they then can start to explore other connected memes, and gradually they could become drawn into the sphere of influence of a tribe or indeed even seek out a tribe to desire to be part of. Proselytism of the meme by any one that find it appealing will allow it to act as a virus and spread horizontally across many different people faster than if it is a strict inter generational sort of teaching.

Our era can therefore be understood as a period of severe social dissolution and extreme individualism. But, attempts at social re-composition are also visible; people who have finally manged to liberate themselves from social constraints are embarking on a reverse movement to recompose their social universe. They are increasingly gathering together in multiple and ephemeral groups, and such social, proximate groupings have more influence on people's behaviour than either modern institutions or other formal cultural authorities. Our era then, does not crown the triumph of individualism, but rather heralds the beginning of its end. We can speak of the emergence of a reverse movement: a search for maintaining or (re)-creating the social link (Maffesoli. 1996a). In fact, it is sometimes claimed that the social dynamics characteristic of our postmodern era, are made up of a multitude of experiences, representations and emotions that very often are not properly understood. Although most of the time such dynamics are explained by individualism, we can readily observe the emerging of "Tribalism" (Bauman, 1990; Maffesoli, 1996a)

Source

Does that make any more sense now?

reply to post by kevinunknown

If you bothered to read further down the page were you got that very limited definition you would also have found this:

The definition is the same whether or not you can see the print!

You do understand what you said doesn't negate my post one bit.

Why did you start this thread is your going to bash people.

What a waste of ATS space.

EVERYTHING HUMANITY DOES IS A CONSPIRACY THEORY.

It isn't hard to read the definition.



[edit on 26-6-2010 by theability]

reply to post by theability


If you believe that everything humanity dose constitutes a conspiracy theory then all you are doing is further proving my point that you have to believe. And it’s a really bad point, I can safely say that nothing that I do constitutes as a conspiracy, that is a really stupid idea, which you have based on one internet definition. It has no logic to it.

This thread was started just so i could make my point. I really do believe in conspiracy theories, my point does mostly apply to the more extreme conspiracies. Although i do think that it applies to everyone as i have outlined in the OP.

Originally posted by kevinunknown
reply to post by LususNaturae

 

Please tell me you are joking?

It's a sad fact that many people on ATS probably wouldn't have been joking while typing that.

Yeah, I was joking. I thought the kangaroo comment would have set off even my cats sarcasm alarm.

reply to post by LususNaturae


Hey like you said it wouldn’t be the first time someone has been accused as something as carzy as that on ATS!

First, let me say that I agree with you OP and want to have your babies.

However, I think it's funny that I could say the same thing about you that you said about the prophecy people. Why post? What are you getting out of it but an inflated sense of self worth. With every post of people who agree with you, you feel a little more validated.

For that matter, why am I posting? Do I hope to raise my own self worth, by bringing yours down? Am I a jerk? Do I enjoy making waves? Is it all of the above and more?

(For the record, it's because I'm a jerk )

Originally posted by OldDragger
reply to post by kevinunknown

 

What to be burned at the stake as a Heritic?
Go to the UFO or 9/11 threads and.....disagree!! They will go absolutly nuts, it will become personal right away. You will be treated as an inferior person with outright contempt on the 9/11 boards!
There is a lot of BS thats dogmaticly accepted in "New Age" crap, modern mythology explains 99% of conspiracy theory.
Here is one of my threads that might interest you.

Why Must We Believe?

People aren;'t interested in "truth", they are interested in drama and dramatizing their ordinary lives with delusions of transcendence.
Just like religion.

Well, I must agree with this post before I continue reading...Over the years I've come to realize a lot of people are only trying to dramatize their lives to "spruce up" their everyday living...I've seen houses that are filled to the brim and then some with UFO stories or 9/11 crap, Saying "The end of the world is upon us!" Okay first off let's get one thing straight about the whole 2012 thing....The Aztec's said and I QUOTE "The world as we know it will end" the key words being "AS WE KNOW IT" meaning everything we know will end, For all we know it could mean that we might actually experience a year of WORLD PEACE, where nobody is trying to ACTIVELY kill someone else, But there are a very wide range of possibilities for "as we know it", Nextly, As stated above by OldDragger, People aren't trying to find 'the truth' there trying to find something to 'spruce up' their lives and add drama to their lives to make it not so boring, I may be out of line for saying this and may get flamed for it...But I would say about 62% of all conspirators are either bored and trying to find something to fill their lives with, or idiots with no idea of what it means to actually...BELIEVE...Like said in another thread Titled

The Carl Farlow A338 UFO case In the UFO conspiracy thread, Though I'm not sure where or by whom, Someone stated that you can go anywhere on the net now-a-days and research all kinds of UFO bs and whatnot and instantly become 'an expert' UFO conspiracies and even conspiracies in general have been so watered down by false conspirators that we have absolutely no idea what is 'truth', what is 'fact' and what is a total blown out of proportion lie!

And my personal opinion on the original topic "Do we need to believe in conspiracies?" I would say this is a yes and no answer....While we DON'T need to believe in them, A lot of people tend to feel like they do, and this is because of what I said before, Their either idiots and don't actually knwo what it means to believe, or their bored and trying to find some way of entertaining themselves

[edit on 28-6-2010 by TheConspiracy]

Believing something and believing *in* something are two different things. I see that politicians in debates on TV are not aware of the difference, but now that you are, take that into account.

reply to post by Mayson


Ok i don’t know if i want to have your babies however thank you for the proposition. And i do agree with you that we are all doing this including my self however we are all doing it to a greater and lesser extent.

Not everything on ATS is related to "conspiracy." ATS is also a source of "alternative" news and viewpoints, and well as vaious forms of "speculation." In other words, it is a venue for exploring things from all sorts of angles.

You don't need to beieve that some group of guys in suits sitting around a bunker boardroom table are calling all the shots, or that they are guided by brain-beams from Annubus-headed beings on Zeta Retuculae. All you have to do is look around and see how disturbing the news is, how much stuff doesn't make sense, how often the mainstream media glosses over things, ignores extreme negatives, and fosters views designed to please large corporate advertisers rather than to inform the audience objectively. All sorts of people are operating with hidden agendas and ATS is a great way to at least attempt to roll back the curtain.

I think ATS for the most part has worked in the opposite way for me. I found ATS many years ago and would read for hours (still do though), then one day I seen a thread I had to get involved in so I joined. At this time I believed in a great deal of conspiracies and followed many threads from beginning to end.

Progressively though things started to change. I started seeing just how out there some ideas are. Not saying that everything is as the story we are given, just that they are also not as some on ATS would have you believe either.

I am sure someone looking at my very first posts to my most recent ones could see a change in my mindset. I am not sure if it is related to age, seeing the number of end of the world predictions fail, or if it is that I have grown as a person in many ways. I can say though that there is a difference in my overall thinking. Again, I am not saying I trust my government or any other for that matter. I do not think that they are anything other than corrupt people though.

Raist

reply to post by kevinunknown


Maybe we should just ignore them and hope they go away?

(Second line = Second Line)

-Edrick

Okay do you all know what an Executive order is? If not look it up, Have you heard about FEMA camps? If not look those up, Because what I've actually found out is actually related to this topic...Especially with the last few posts about how the media never tells the truth(In a manner of speaking).

On youtube there is an account called Invisible Empire, He has several documentaries and is ranked in the top 5...He has a video that lists executive orders stating that..in a nut shell, Takes away everything we as American citizens have rights too. There is one thing in there where in congress the judge asks the lawyer about a secret government, The lawyer states that it is a matter of national security and states he'd prefer if he drops it, the judge then states that he'd read in the Miami herald and several other news papers about talk of a secret government, The lawyer states again what he said only this time he also states that if he wishes to discuss it further then he was sure things can be arranged to talk about it "IN PRIVATE" now tell me, Why is it that this matter would need to be discussed in private?

Have you heard of the super highway? Supposedly going straight through the USA from Mexico to Canada, Bush signed a treaty that went passed everyone, got no votes on, Wasn't even known to congress or the senate let alone the people stating there was no longer any boarders between Canada, The USA and Mexico. Now look up Invisible Empire on youtube, Watch some of his video's, I can guarantee you it'll change your view against the government if it isn't there already, And if it is, Then it'll only further convince you

And in the video with the executive orders stating, It shows a map of the USA separated into five colors, Effectively separating us into the 5 major FEMA camps

[edit on 20-7-2010 by TheConspiracy]

Don't we have to question what government tell us? Do we believe they play around with the truth...conspire in fact...

There is a grey line between fact and fiction, we somehow have to make black and white of it all.