Broken link yesterday
Published: Sat, 03/31/18
Sorry, the link to the HDC event in yesterday's post is wrong, don't know what happened there, anyway it should be http://hdc.stavcamp.org/
Quick one this morning as I am having breakfast before leaving to go to York for the first of two days HEMA training hosted by the York School of defence. Not quite sure what to expect but it will be fun and a chance to catch up with friends I have not seen for a while.
Yesterday's message brought up the issue of Conspiracy theories as a reaction to cognitive dissonance. That is another big subject but four brief points:
The term conspiracy theory has an honorable origin. Certain people who knew something about firearms and the science of ballistics questioned the official version of Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas in 1963. They questioned the official story on the grounds that one shooter from a high place could not have carried out what actually happened. The first time I was introduced to the story in a lecture when I was 17 I put my hand up and said. 'Sorry, but what you just told us happened is impossible.' I was in fact anticipating what the lecturer was going to say, but that much was obvious and I had not heard the term conspiracy theory at that time. All it meant at the time was, was it one shooter, which seems improbable or more than one shooter conspiring together to carry out the assassination?
Three rules for engaging with Conspiracy theories.
1. Allow for cock-up before concluding conspiracy. EG was the 2008 ecconomic crash a conspiracy to destroy the world economy or are bankers just greedy and stupid?
2. Just because it is clear that the official version does not make sense that does not mean your alternative theory is automatically the truth. Did Lee Harvey Oswald kill Kennedy alone? Very good reasons make this doubtful I believe, but I don't know who did and perhaps we will never know for sure.
3. Real power is not just the power to do bad stuff, it is the power to suppress discussion of that same stuff in the media and amongst politicians and the 'so called' intelligentsia. This is the real value of the Internet and alternative media sites. A lot of what you will find on alternative news sites is people not keeping to rules one and two above. But you will also find stories which are simply not being reported in our media and you will develop a broader and more nuanced understanding of the world, so long as you remain critical and remember rules one and two.
Got got get on my way.
regards
Graham