Terry Sarten: Good conspiracies are everywhere

Moon landing ... fake or real?

Behind every story there lies a conspiracy of some sort just waiting to trap the unwary into believing in unbelievable stuff.

Whether it be psychics claiming they can talk to the dead, the space hoax that man did not land on the moon, that vaccinations/ fluoride harms children, the Illuminati are secretly running the world or that the Earth is flat - take your pick and there are plenty more to choose from.

Most conspiracies sneak out of the little cracks in reality where crazy ideas are hiding, waiting for some passing sucker.

Conspiracy theories tend to be geared towards the dark and dangerous. Fear scares away all reason and allows all kinds of ideas to take hold so fiercely that no amount of evidence will shift them.

Perhaps we can begin to reverse this by creating a few positive conspiracies based in theories of benevolence. A few good conspiracies can go a long way.

Take the song called What's so Funny about Peace, Love and Understanding. According to Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello this is worth considering as one of life's great conspiracies.

Love is everywhere. Nobody really knows where it comes from or where it goes. It has tremendous power. It seems to exist beyond barriers. It can go through walls and is not diminished by oceans, distance or politics. Like all conspiracies it defies simple explanation, creating a mysterious force for good.

Peace breaking out is a great conspiracy. It can restore a sense of ease across entire populations, especially in countries where war as been the default setting for years.

People are not always aware of the peace effect as it secretly infiltrates their lives. Mind meddling and brain washing people with the attractive allure of peace is a good conspiracy.

If enough opt into the peace plot then it will become a real thing instead of just a widely whispered rumour.

A little bit of understanding can go a long way if it is spread about like fake news. When it's hard to know what to believe, the application of listening and tolerance hardware can infiltrate the mainframe of conspiracies and boost the algorithm to bring understanding to the top of the search.

As for the funny part of the song title, humour is a great way to undermine even the most dangerous of conspiracies.

Laughing at nasty and ridiculous ideas can disarm some of the menace. It can dismantle the cycle of wild notions that would make us fearful and set us to search for something or someone to blame for the same fears.

Why invite crazy dangerous conspiracy theories into our lives that make us afraid when we can generate good conspiracies that represent the best of what it is to be human such as peace, love and understanding?

Terry Sarten (aka Tel) is a writer, satirista, musician, social worker. Feedback always welcome: tgs@inspire.net.nz