From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Sat Jan 17 1998 - 07:51:54 MST
At 09:10 AM 1/17/98 -0500, James Daugherty <daugh@home.msen.com> wrote:
>Spreading conspiracy memes about government is the
>most efficient way to decrease the power of governement
>overall....hiding and ducking is all we can do personally.
There is a problem with conspiracy theories. On the whole, they
are wrong. Surely, people do conspire, but it is not as successful
as conspiracy theorists think.
Also, as for its utility, it has a way of backfiring. Those deeply
mired in conspiracy theories, from my experience, are either
apathetic -- because they believe they are impotent while any
group of conspirers are omnipotent -- or pro-government --
because they think government as a institution is great, if
it weren't for those evil conspiracies. In other words, eliminate
the conspiracies and we can have a welfare state or a total
democracy that really works. Thus, they are utopians.
These are the risks you run if you spread this meme. Another
risk is that those who have no affinity for the simplistic
explanations of conspiracy theorists tend to think you are a
kook. Thus, you gain influence amongst simpletons only to
lose it amongst those who would be better to have as allies.
I wouldn't bring this up if the average person, rightly or
wrongly -- and this applies to the average smart person
too -- thinks our ideas are weird or even insane. Now,
couple transhumanism/Extropianism with conspiracy
theories and see if you are taken more seriously.
Cheers!
Daniel Ust
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