Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Conspiracy Theories

 QAnon is the current conspiracy theory from the lunatic right, but the perpetual resurgence of such  indicates that this thought must provide clarity, certainty and comfort in times of anxiety, chaos, change, uncertainty and confusion. It must feel good to blame a culprit: the Jews or Freemasons, Hilary and her "epsteinian" pedophile collaborators, or Trump and the racists.

Black Lives Matter, with it simple, clear narrative of systematic white racism, is best understood as such a conspiracy theory. The suffering and oppression of the black underclass is profound, pervasive, perpetual and perplexing. The causes are dense, deep and complex. How simple and consoling to blame it on "systematic white racism." Is it that Trump and his buddies sit around wondering: "How can we keep blacks jailed, sick and aborted at high rates?" No, the theory coming from the university is more opaque and befuddling: That sub-or-un-consciously we are all of us, whites, thinking and behaving with racial prejudice and therefore perpetuating black oppression. It is really a mystique, a hidden and invisible dynamic; it operates with or without our intention or awareness; it is a powerful, independent dynamic ever at work. So, we have NFL and NBA basketball players (all millionaires) helping Oprah Winfrey (worth $2.5 billion) coach us on the invisible racism of the system in which they have (to understate) done rather well. How pleasant it identify the cause of such poverty and confront it (courageously and boldly!) by voting for Biden-Harris and positioning your BLM sign virtuously on your lawn. No need to ponder the abysmal cultural and class dynamics that keep the poor poor.

Thought experiment: Imagine that through an act of magic or a strange, scientific event everyone in the United States undergoes a change in skin color: everyone is a light green. Additionally, prominent racial features are homoginized: no more African or Jewish noses, Asian or blue eyes, kinky or blonde hair. Otherwise, everyone remains the same: biologically, culturally, morally, religiously and every which way. How much will things change? My guess: less than 5%. The class structure will remain with immense inequality. Culturally, some ethnic groups, while not visibly distinctive, will dominate the NBA; others graduate engineering programs; others are cops, fireman and bar owners; others run pizza parlors. 

Prejudice against skin color is not the key to explain our society. Nor is "progress" or class conflict or liberation from sexual  repression or evolution. But the human intellect is ever hungry to find pattern, purpose, meaning, intention, causality and finality in history and in reality itself. The ultimate question is whether there is finally purpose ("logos") or sheer chaos, meaninglessness, randomness and therefore nihilism. The choice is always Christ or Nietzche! The lesser paradigms of meaning eventually fail.

Let us return to: "Conspiracy!" It is a most beautiful word, even though it usually refers to nefarious, evil intent and collaboration. The word derives from the Latin co-spire, to breathe with. It means for us to breathe together: speak, think, plan, act together. So...here is the only valid and final conspiracy theory.

From eternity the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have been conspiring together, in an infinite expansive exuberant generous fecund hilarious Event of Love; among so much else, they conspired to create reality as a celebration of Unbounded Joy and specifically us human beings to delight with them, Three-in-One for eternity. That is Conspiracy 1.

Lucifer and his minions revolted against this plan and made their own, nefarious conspiracy: to revolt, assert their own dominion, and then bring all of creation away from heaven and into hell. Adam and Eve joined that plan. That is Conspiracy 2.

The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit then conspired for the Son to come to earth and live among us in the flesh and teach and heal us and suffer and die and rise for us and then fill us with the Holy Spirit for a lifetime and an eternity of Joy and Generosity. We will call that Conspiracy 1A since it is a development of Conspiracy 1.

And that is what your really need to know about conspiracies!

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