Why am I interested in conspiracy theories?

It’s a fair question, of course. For the unsuspecting, they might question my psychological aspect and look at me bizarrely. For others, however, it’s understandable. Those others are perfectly aware of being surrounded by a fog of propaganda, as well as the – to us at least – indisputable fact that the so-called leaders of men are liars and psychopaths. Dystopians, as I have come to call them.

Well, first of all one can legitimately say that there would be no conspiracy theories if there were no conspiracies. Not that I should, as it happens, need to somehow justify this interest. The fact that one has to justify it, indeed, is another measure of the dystopian state of play. In a utopia, conspiracies simply don’t happen. Those people who are in positions of social decision-making always think of the welfare of the people for whom they have a responsibility. The mere idea of conspiring for their own purposes, as against the people, doesn’t even occur to them. It would be illogical and cognitively dissonant. It simply wouldn’t make sense.

Clearly, this is not the case in this world. Quite the opposite, in fact.

And yet ‘the people’ seem blissfully (or not blissfully, as the case may be) unaware of this state of affairs. There are multifarious (and nefarious) reasons for this, which I do not intend to go into in this little musing (I’ll probably do that another time).

Certainly, however, I should not have to argue the case that conspiracies happen. I find it utterly incredible that so many people can’t see that, and blithely assume that the people in positions of social-decision making are, at best, well-meaning but just sometimes a little incompetent or corrupt. Interestingly, however, and with regards to propaganda, these credulous types are perfectly happy to believe that ‘the other side’ does conspiracies, but ‘oh no, not us!’. The assumption behind this being that ‘democracy precludes conspiracies’. Psychologically, they need to believe that. It simply wouldn’t be psychologically tolerable for them to believe otherwise. To even hear someone else voicing questions is a threat to their worldview, which, of course, has come to determine their personal identity itself. Their personal identity, after all, having long since been effectively pulverised into nothingness, leaving behind an empty receptacle to be filled by whatever official cultural identity the dystopians decide for their subjects. Cultural, or social group, identity is a significant part of personal identity for a social animal. That’s what leaves it open to abuse and manipulation. The cultural identity being in large part a product of the cultural narrative or mythology, the stories it tells itself to form its character. You can tell a lot about a people by the stories they tell about themselves.

Most of them, in this post-truth dystopia, are false memories at best, lies at worst. Only with an honest view of the past can a people themselves, a cultural identity, be likewise honest.

But there are conspiracies, as I say, and conspiracies mean dishonesty.

So, to return to the original question, why am I interested in this kind of stuff? Naturally I’ve already answered this to a certain extent – it’s psychohistory, after all. And the existence of conspiracies are the marker of a dystopia. If you want to understand the way a dystopia works, as with the one you have today, alongside how it got this way, then be interested in conspiracy theories. You will find it revealing. Likewise, if you employ a little critical thinking, you’ll be able to keep abreast of what’s really going on, and what is likely to happen soon. And if you want to know what to think about, look at the dogma and the taboo and what they really, really don’t want you to think about. That’s a psychological question, in the end.

And I am an exopsychologist.

In terms of my archetype, I would say I am a ‘collector’. That’s to say, in this context, a ‘recorder’ – some might say a historian, although I am recording the present as much as the past. I am an observer. Naturally, given that I do, indeed, have emotions, and a burning sense of right and wrong and a hatred of injustice and the idea of evil succeeding in its pretence of being good, deceiving enough of the people enough of the time to survive without sufficient resistance. Lying, and having the people believe those lies. Getting away with it, in other words. I find that deeply, deeply offensive. And so there are times when I think I should be influential, that I should get involved. I do, as it happens, know exactly what’s wrong with this world and how to fix it, but motivating human beings, or enough of them, at least, to do that fixing, well, that’s another matter. I doubt even Heracles would succeed in that task. Prometheus neither. And there’s no point in fighting losing battles.

And so the coming catastrophe will happen.

Still, as an observer and recorder of events, there may be those in the future who need to understand these things, how they happened, how it got this way, and what is to be done. And so I observe, and come to understand.

From a psychohistorian’s perspective, one who does such observations (from the inside, in this instance), one has to learn and record all this in order to make the appropriate decisions, or recommendations for decisions, rather, since I myself would hardly lay claim to being a member of any Council. Councillors in our local galactic sector, however, would take these observations into consideration. I have personal experience, after all. My collections have value.

And lastly, from a curiosity point of view, it is a rare, if not unique, opportunity to experience a life on a forbidden planet, in a dystopia. There aren’t many of them around these days. Most of them don’t last very long, given that the interventions usually work quickly. But there are exceptions. In this world, if we wish to mention Atlantis (I’ve been musing on it more lately), we would say that humanity already created a utopia, but then something happened. This is not the place to talk about that in detail (my own opinions on it, rather), but I think I shall at a later date. There are clear reasons for it, after all – and no, it was not what they tell you – that it somehow sunk into decadence. Oh no, that wasn’t it at all.

The intervention had a simple formula – help guide a group of humans to achieve and understand a beautiful, holistic civilisation and then, when the time comes, leave them to it and hope that they, in turn, pass on that knowledge to others and themselves become the guides. This relates, for example, to the arrival in Egypt of Osiris and his retinue (Atlantean colonists) in 10,462 BCE. This kind of thing was inevitable, given the end of the ice age, when colonists were dispatched in all directions. The people they met, of course, had no experience of civilisation, so, well, it would take some time and be met with varying degrees of success.

Alas, although this was successful for some time, as the centuries progressed I guess that people forgot to eat the apple, guard themselves against evil whilst that evil, that minority of aberrations, adapted, learned how to mimic normality and disguise itself, until it finally took over the hierarchy around 5000 years ago (when archaeology shows the first evidence of what one might recognisably call ‘war’ – oe of the most important dates/facts in history). It has been this way ever since. It has progressed, culminating in the dystopia you have today.

It’s important to study and understand dystopias, so as to prevent them. To prevent the Ancient War from ever happening again.

Sometimes I think I remember it. Sometimes, it’s more, perhaps, remembering learning about it.

But what I can say, from my own intuition, is that this horrendous post-truth dystopia you have today is tame, by comparison.

But if left to its own devices, it will metastasise into something far, far worse.

But it’s not my place to stop it. Only to observe, and record. Not to get involved.

So yes, that’s it. Perhaps I am only here to spy on you.

Humanity, too, will one day be subjected to immigration control…