False Belief and Mass Psychosis Considered
The other day, I was at Starbucks and I was talking to couple of gals about what kind of work I was doing as I was reading some research papers.
I indicated to the two ladies that I ran a think tank, and I was busy trying to solve the world's problems, while presenting a great big smile.
One of the ladies said to me that something that would be very important for us to work on at the think tank was the "end of the world" due to the Mayan calendar.
Now then, let's talk about this for second if we might.
You see, the world is not coming to an end in 2012, and like many other conspiracy theories of the past, the end of the world has not occurred, and everyone in the past who has predicted the end of the world, well, they were wrong.
And I suppose people will be wrong from now until the end of the world actually occurs, when one person, or a group of people at that point, will be correct.
All of this reminded me of a discourse and discussion I was having with John Altmann the philosopher.
John had asked me not long ago; "If a majority vocalizes the non existence of something does that constitute merit?" In other words, if everyone says there is no life on Mars, does that mean they are correct? And if millions of people believe there is no life on an asteroid, does that mean there is no life? And what do they mean by life, how do they define it, and how could they possibly know anyway? What about a God, or gods, or even Santa Claus for that matter? It is quite possible through repetition, mass media, or the educational process that a society or civilization, and all the people in it, or most of the people anyway could be led to believe something existed, or that it didn't exist.
In fact more than one person in past periods has stated "it is amazing what people can be led to believe.
" So to John's question my answer would be; I don't know, it might cement a false memory through mass psychosis, but even if 10,000 children age 3 1/2 believe in Santa Clause that does not bring him to life or put real toys down the chimney right? If those same children grow up and believe in a god, does that make him so? If they feel deceived by religion and trade it for a human leader or nationalism, does that mean they are correct? If the mass mob believes the ruling class has did them wrong and blames them does that make it so, and thus, they can violate their own inner code of ethics and have off with their heads? False belief, false memory, false reason, false idols, false knowledge, false assumptions - well that's just human after all - therefore, trust no human, especially in groups.
Further, if we look at politics, and everyone votes to jump off a bridge in the next election, does that mean you should too? Indeed, I hope you will give more thought and consideration to these questions, as they are quite serious in our present period.
Think on it.
I indicated to the two ladies that I ran a think tank, and I was busy trying to solve the world's problems, while presenting a great big smile.
One of the ladies said to me that something that would be very important for us to work on at the think tank was the "end of the world" due to the Mayan calendar.
Now then, let's talk about this for second if we might.
You see, the world is not coming to an end in 2012, and like many other conspiracy theories of the past, the end of the world has not occurred, and everyone in the past who has predicted the end of the world, well, they were wrong.
And I suppose people will be wrong from now until the end of the world actually occurs, when one person, or a group of people at that point, will be correct.
All of this reminded me of a discourse and discussion I was having with John Altmann the philosopher.
John had asked me not long ago; "If a majority vocalizes the non existence of something does that constitute merit?" In other words, if everyone says there is no life on Mars, does that mean they are correct? And if millions of people believe there is no life on an asteroid, does that mean there is no life? And what do they mean by life, how do they define it, and how could they possibly know anyway? What about a God, or gods, or even Santa Claus for that matter? It is quite possible through repetition, mass media, or the educational process that a society or civilization, and all the people in it, or most of the people anyway could be led to believe something existed, or that it didn't exist.
In fact more than one person in past periods has stated "it is amazing what people can be led to believe.
" So to John's question my answer would be; I don't know, it might cement a false memory through mass psychosis, but even if 10,000 children age 3 1/2 believe in Santa Clause that does not bring him to life or put real toys down the chimney right? If those same children grow up and believe in a god, does that make him so? If they feel deceived by religion and trade it for a human leader or nationalism, does that mean they are correct? If the mass mob believes the ruling class has did them wrong and blames them does that make it so, and thus, they can violate their own inner code of ethics and have off with their heads? False belief, false memory, false reason, false idols, false knowledge, false assumptions - well that's just human after all - therefore, trust no human, especially in groups.
Further, if we look at politics, and everyone votes to jump off a bridge in the next election, does that mean you should too? Indeed, I hope you will give more thought and consideration to these questions, as they are quite serious in our present period.
Think on it.
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