The Conspiracy of Clarity
26 2016-12-30 by polkadotgirl
Celebrities are honored and worshipped like Gods. When one dies, many mourn deeply.
Yet, thousands of innocent lives are taken away daily, many of which are lives of children - for unjust wars and greedy and power-hungry leaders (and sick and evil agendas).
"Oh, but you just take things too seriously don't you? Celebrities are artists, right?"
"What did you say about people dying? But, but it was Carrie Fischer!"
"You're so serious! Just let people enjoy what they like and do what they want!"
I believe that one of the greatest conspiracies today is information overload, as well as people being entertained to death. Let's not forget the constant distractions, misinformation, and disinformation. Let's not forget that people have time for everything but thinking.
I post about this a lot, and it gets ignored a lot. Perhaps this is not a political post, but consider this. Every week or so, I see people create a thread on /r/conspiracy along the lines of, "What are we going to do about it?"
What can be done when people have no empathy for others who suffer? Empathy is dying:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-me-care/
What can be done when people are too distracted by the Kardashians or cats or celebrity culture or... you get the point. People are "amusing themselves to death."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
What can be done when people would rather read an entertaining article than an informational article?
https://www.princeton.edu/~mprior/Prior2005.News%20v%20Entertainment.AJPS.pdf
(This is a pdf, but good!)
Wait, do people even read anymore? There are thousands of articles about the decline of reading.
What can be done if people are too comfortable, apathetic, or complacent? The most dangerous thing in the world is apathy.
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/03/the-most-dangerous-thing-in-the-world-is-apathy/
What can be done when people are overworked and consumed with stress?
https://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/
What can be done when people are consumed with materialism, but nothing of inner value?
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4425982
What can be done when people are literally addicted to technology? When's the last time you spent a day without your phone? Does that thought make you uncomfortable?
This list goes on.
We want to believe that we are powerless, but I don't think so. I believe we have power within to change things, but 'they' know exactly how to make us feel as if we do not, and they do this with the means listed above, and many more.
The ultimate conspiracy is that if we are not careful, we may truly lose the ability to think for ourselves. Or is that already happening?
Or maybe I'm just being too serious. Maybe I should go back to that hilarious video I was watching on YouTube and forget I even mentioned this.
What happens when our minds are clear?
I'm not anti-entertainment. I'm not anti-techmology. I'm not anti-fun. However, it is clear that our lives are full of imbalance, and it might just be too difficult to think about it.
28 comments
10 CommanderBC 2016-12-30
Definitely the truth. Well put.
6 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
Thanks. It sounds simple. I feel like this is what I always post about. But people continue to avoid, downvote, and move on.
1 G0llWithADun 2016-12-30
Probably because they stop after the first line. Does somebody need to be starving for you to have to care about them? As a matter of fact, who are you to tell me who and who not to care about? If someone that brought me laughter and happiness in a time where I was feeling down died should I, rather than feel sad, tell myself "well some people are starving and dying everyday"?
1 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
No. I don't think that.
The problem is celebrity culture in general - not necessarily people's reaction towards it.
It's set up to create that type of love and reaction, when they're are probably more important things to worry about.
That's the theme of my post. Everything in moderation, of course. Even moderation.
To summarize, these are distractions created on purpose. That's the conspiracy.
2 G0llWithADun 2016-12-30
First of all nothing is "set up". These are, for the most part, charismatic/controversial people that get a lot of attention from the media and everyday people.
Yes moderation is great I agree. For certain things. But I certainly shouldn't be told to moderate my affection for people or things.
Yeah there are other things to worry about but just because, for example you see someone tweet about how they miss carrie fisher does that mean carrie fisher was everything they stood for? Does it mean its the only thing they care for?
1 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
No you're missing my point. I'm not judging people for being upset if a celebrity dies. We all have people we look up, too.
I'm arguing that Hollywood culture is set up. I think there's a lot of proof of that. For one, corporations constantly promote the obsession and exploitation of celebrities. That's just one tiny example.
Again, there's nothing wrong with feeling sadness for when a person dies. There is something wrong when we only feel sadness when certain people die.
2 G0llWithADun 2016-12-30
Ok We could go tit for tat on the whole hollywood bit but my response to the bottom one is this:
Do you get an alert or are you somehow informed of the death of every person on the planet? And if so, 1. tell me the source, and 2. tell me how am I, without this source, supposed to feel sadness for the death of someone I dont even know exists?
1 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
No, I don't get an alert.
But I care for every single person on the planet. Every single moment. Every single day.
2 G0llWithADun 2016-12-30
Ok sure. Now tell me why you dont express sadness for every one of those people you die? (its because you dont know them and you dont know they died) or lets say you do. Lets up the ridiculous in this discussion and say you do. How are you still alive? How have you not ended your life from the constant sadness and depression?
1 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
I actually get sad a lot. I mourn the loss of my favorite idol as much as I do as a child killed unjustly in war.
The point is I don't place one value of life over another life.
Of course, there may different degrees of emotional intensity, but the point is most people don't care at all about the life of somebody unless they know them in some way. That's ridiculous.
I'm not expecting somebody to sit there and cry after reading a news article, but they can feel empathy. Empathy and sympathy are not the same, though they cross paths.
You also say this is ridiculous, but this very concept of compassion is a main tenet of Buddhism.
Compassion doesn't necessarily mean mourning or crying. It means sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
6 williamsates 2016-12-30
Thanks for an insightful post. I agree with everything you say here. Especially about our lives being full of imbalance. I spend more and more time thinking about Plato's critique of poetics...I used to think it was crazy, now I grow more sympathetic.
Cheers!
3 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
Thanks. This is the first time I have seen the link your provided. I'm reading through it now. Do you mind sharing some of your insights?
4 williamsates 2016-12-30
One of the central ideas Plato wrestles with is mimesis - roughly imitation. Characters in entertainment imitate the views of their creators but conceal it at the same time. We, that is the entertained, imitate the characters. Our affinity to poetics stems from the irrational part of the psyche. Our ability to think clearly, to form justified beliefs about politics, ethics, epistemology and spirituality; in short, our ability to be critical thinkers is impaired by the dominance of the entertainment complex. We should heed Aristotle's call towards moderation!
3 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
Great summary. Thank you!
5 g3374r2d2 2016-12-30
Waves of energy. Everything is based on waves of oscillating energy. We spend our entire lives learning about different systems of energy only to realize they are all connected. Chakras, music, the weather, earthquakes, love and fear. We are to spend our life figuring out how to undo the negative reactive conditioning of the world and change all of our encounters into positive ones no matter what.
Our mood is measure by wave forms and we are to get our frequency as high as we can before we die because I believe we manifest back to our base frequency when we inevitably get recreated.
Once we reach that infinite point of love when the wave collapses we are with God. If we go the opposite direction there is chaos. ELF is shown to cause heart trauma and earthquakes.
We have to learn to think of our emotions independently of the causes for them and focus on getting rid of negative energy that sets us back.
Every religion points to this and has their own rules for attainment, but only an individual can undo the years of trauma and "knowingitall" that has set them back from getting there.
Truth feels like love and always captures interest because it is the process of two consciousness harmonizing together. I believe that these interactions aren't just trivial, but create links that come back to find you again. We must find love in each other in order to retain and perpetuate the truth. We can't keep forgetting.
4 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
Very beautifully written. In an age of endless internet connections, we are more disconnected than ever.
3 annieareyouokayannie 2016-12-30
Spot on, thanks.
3 DrDougExeter 2016-12-30
In life most people are just along for the ride, and that's the way they like it. Let the pieces fall as they may. Most of us just fall into one lifestyle or another including this one. We probably are amusing ourselves to death.. I'm a fan of novelty theory and McKenna in general. It's funny because as hunter gatherers people would sit and do nothing for long amounts of time, like other animals do. But now we call that meditation and it's some mystical experience. Lol..
Best thing we can do is try to be better people and show compassion for our fellow human beings, that's the only way for compassion to spread and make the world a better place. But that's not easy at the end of the day after dealing with all the bullshit. Life's short, and very strange. Have some fun and don't take anything too seriously.
2 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
I agree that compassion is key. Life seems to be simultaneously completely serious and meaningless in some sort of strange paradox.
However, I've chosen to find meaning in this lifetime even if others have not.
3 PsychedelicPhlegm 2016-12-30
It already happened in the pre-internet days, but now it's in a rapid decline as they struggle to control narratives.
3 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
Yes, I want to think there is some hope but I don't know anymore.
3 PsychedelicPhlegm 2016-12-30
I know the feeling and it's difficult not to feel like that, but that's exactly what they want - people to lose all hope. Don't give them it.
2 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
I won't. Thanks
2 rippleffect81 2016-12-30
This should be stickied at the top. Thank you for writing this
2 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
Thanks for reading :)
1 g3374r2d2 2016-12-30
Beautiful and my sentiments exactly. You didn't even go into all the coding that is in all of said entertainment that further confirms conspiracy style thinking. They put their calling card on everything.
2 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
Oh yes, it's all definitely programming, with constant subconscious messages. Didn't mention in my original post because people are still in very much denial about it.
1 serruriers 2016-12-30
More like a conspiracy of limited American experience ... thankfully, unlike their opinions, Americans only account for around 5% of the population. Unfortunately, their self-important opinions represent a far larger fraction of the noise people are bombarded with than that.
4 polkadotgirl 2016-12-30
Very beautifully written. In an age of endless internet connections, we are more disconnected than ever.
3 annieareyouokayannie 2016-12-30
Spot on, thanks.