Thursday, May 15, 2014
Conspiracy Theories
Today in class we learned about something that I find incredibly interesting. That is conspiracies. The definition of a conspiracy theory is in essence accusing a person or multiple people of deliberately covering up an illegal or harmful event.This can range from assassinations to robberies and literally encompasses everything in between. From a historical stand point I find conspiracy theories incredibly fascinating because they are essentially holes in fact. Most of what we learn from history is dictated by fact. Such as what the Palmer Raids were and why the Haymarket Square Riot was fought. But if you look at 9/11 or Kennedy's assassination there causes are shrouded in mystery. I find that when I study a conspiracy theory I can never come up with what I believe would be a legit answer. Take Kennedy's case from class today. With each new piece of evidence I would pick a different side sure that logically it made sense. In my opinion, conspiracy in todays society are looked at in the wrong way. Most people rather believe in all conspiracies or believe in none of them. There really is no middle ground. Obviously people are entitled to believe whatever they want but I think it should be clear to everyone. For one, people can have other agendas and they can deliberately and secretively plan actions that though breach all forms of moral code get there objectives done, this is entirely possible. Also a man could kill a president without any connections to politics whatsoever. I am not saying either is right I am just trying to show that both are plausible. As Mr.Stewart said today in class more then likely we will never find the truth about these conspiracies. Forever more people will debate these things. What is interesting though is that people will debate conspiracies instantly but when it comes to fact or what is considered fact people don't touch it. For example, when you bring up 9/11 any comment you make will easily be retorted by others who because its a conspiracy feel what they say is relevant. However, take the presidential election every 4 years. During this time it is not common to see people crying American democracy is a fraud. Why? Because we are taught certain things to be fact. The legitimacy of our government is one of those things. I am not saying don't trust our government merely I am pointing out something that I have found fascinating. In closing I just want to say that Conspiracy theories are fascinating because they are mysteries and it is human tendency to be curious about the unknown. This is why to a great degree conspiracy theories are of significant importance in our nations history.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Nice post. I found what we were talking about in class this week really interesting. I think conspiracy theories are able to capture all of our imaginations and really give you another viewpoint of history. It is important to realize that people have different opinions of what happened in history.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, although that I did enjoy the video in class yesterday, there is a point that at which the investigation into these events evolves from simple inquiry into a what essentially becomes a witch hunt. The pursuit of finding an explanation to every piece of evidence becomes exhaustive. At what point does our search for answers end? Are there some things that should just be put to rest and accepted? Food for thought.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nick. It seems that with conspiracies, the more people look at whatever the occurrence was, the more questions arise. People start saying, "well if this happened, then this might have happened. But then if that happened, this other fact must be invalid." Conspiracies lead people to question occurrences that would normally be taken for granted. The amount to which people can almost make up evidence for a crime can get absurd, and when you look back at it, as we all look back at the Kennedy assassination, you realize that the length to which people have tried to unveil the answers no longer bears much relationship to the original roots of the crime. You can consider the drummer who listened to a record of the kennedy assassination as an example of how far flung conspiracies can be taken.
ReplyDeleteVery Interesting YUNG Ryan. I think when you said that conspiracy theories are like holes describes them best because of the very nature of the theories themselves. When we talk about conspiracy theories we typically talk about "what could have gone down" or what can be debated about the facts of the crime. However, conspiracy theories are tricky because in many ways because it cannot be solved. This is why it is a theory, and this is based of the knowledge of those whom committed the crime, such as the Kennedy assassins, benefit greatly from keeping evidence shrouded in mystery.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post Rich Homie. The idea of a conspiracy is very interesting to me. Conspiracies in general are created when not all knowledge is known about a certain event. If we do not know for sure what happened, then we tend to make up stories about what possibly could have happened, without knowing the truth. I believe that almost all conspiracies are false, and are only created to make us as Americans feel secure. For instance, in 9/11, it is much scarier to believe that terrorists were successful in killing 3,000 Americans than some of the conspiracies, such as that the government planned the attack.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post Ryan, conspiracies are always something of great interest. Especially the one you mentioned about Kennedy, that is one that is sill not entirely figured out. And as other Nick said, it basically turned into a witch hunt after no hard facts. Conspiracies in my opinion are formed when an event is such a mystery that no facts are developed, and people give a story that they imagined instead of seen.
ReplyDelete