Bruce Bisset: Faith and fear defeat fact

Bruce Bisset

Arguably the greatest conspiracy theory is the one that has mainstream education deliberately becoming so inept as to produce a mass of ordinary folk so ignorant they'll allow the continued full-scale destruction of the planet for the sake of an inherently-worthless fiction – money.

Given the anti-science reactionary stance of an enormous and increasingly vocal swathe of voters, it's a theory which is rapidly attracting adherents.

Certainly it's the sort of uncomfortable reasoning that leaves one sadly shaking one's head over the decadent state of the human race and its suicidal tendencies.

Let's face it, at a time when mankind is close to discovering and manipulating the basic building blocks of the universe, the retreat into fundamentalist religion and delusional "choice" of fact is nothing short of a denial of our ability to think in the abstract and endeavour to make sense of our existence.

On the other hand worship of nature and the Earth as our mother is at least based on the indisputable fact that without the planet we wouldn't exist. And if we destroy the planet's ability to provide a suitable environment for us, we will cease to exist.

That a growing percentage of mankind should choose to believe otherwise is, frankly, a terminal madness.

Yet that madness is now taught as part of mainstream learning within the education systems of dozens of countries, not least that of the United States.

Sadly the technology that should be the greatest boon to our times – the internet - is proving to be one of the greatest drawbacks.

By enabling anyone with the ability to use a phone to be in contact with everyone else worldwide, the net's potential as a force of reason, a conduit for friendship, and a catalyst for change is enormous.

Instead it is almost-overwhelmingly being used to spread lies, incite hatred and coerce folk into conforming with corporatised nationalistic values.

The ratio of uninformed bigotry to informed comment is startling. And where once a vacuous conspiracy theory might be held in check by the inability of the believer to reach others of like mind, now any dangerous or ludicrous assertion can find a million adherents at the touch of a button.

That does not give it any claim to authenticity or legitimacy; it only proves that a tiny fraction (yes, a million is only 0.013 per cent of humanity) are similarly-damaged souls.

Moreover, being able to delete comments and block opponents to shut down rational debate online means these theories can exist in their own self-laudatory bubbles without fear of effective contradiction.

In short, people are choosing to ignore the truth simply because they arbitrarily disagree with it.

And since the vast majority of mankind are under-educated and becoming more dulled and confused with every passing day, instead of uplifting them the internet is reinforcing prejudice and driving them to idiocy.

What a perfect weapon for those who would rule.

And just as there are old-school capitalists out there who would do anything to maintain that system no matter the general cost, there are old-school Bolsheviks and Maoists who would promote any dog-eared catechism to bring it down.

As Russia's President Putin recently said of the Trump election-interference scandal, "They interfere in our elections; why are we the bad guys?"

Deliberate or accidental or some of both, just as climate change has already reached a tipping point beyond which it cannot be stopped, so the descent into disparate communities of fear driven by denial of fact is rendering us incapable of reason.

Here is a truth that may prove a case in point.