| |
|
Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
|
|
Conspiracies, secrecy, and radical honesty
|
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
March 6, 2008
I see political life as existing on a spectrum, one extreme of which
is total transparency, and total secrecy the other. Conspiracy is
simply the natural outcome of secrecy combined with opportunism.
Toward the secrecy end of the continuum, where we now largely operate
as a society, the deceptions and misdirections marshaled to conserve
and grow secrecy serve to generate a kind of surreal, Alice in
Wonderland kind of perceptual space where accepting things at face
value can induce a trance state |
where irrational belief becomes a
refuge. To deny that various conspiracies rule our everyday lives is
to seek solace in the trance and the suspension of disbelief.
This
is much like when one chooses to be entertained by a stage magician
rather than ruin the mood by remaining skeptical. If, on leaving the
theater, one is still functioning in this way in relation to
political events the trance rules one's life and one is not disposed
to conjecture about conspiracies. If one is not able to suspend
disbelief during the performance then one is equally stuck in a
monolithic way of thinking and wasted the ticket price to boot.
|
|
In today's world, the rational person is forced to fly blind most of the time, and can have very little
confidence in their per-
ceptions of the day as they will likely be shown to be in error in light of future revelations.
Consequently I believe with certainty very little of what I see, and not very much of what I think.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To assert that one knows for sure what the magician is up to is to
seek solace in a false sense of mastery, which, in its way, is just
as irrational and immature a position as that assumed by the
conspiracy deniers. All the rational, mature person has to go on
ever is evidence. The dark produces very little reliable evidence, and
those seeking to move around in it are likely to stumble. What
reliable evidence does surface tends to do so as part of the
historical narrative well past when this information would be useful
to affect events.
My grandma said that the first time someone lied to me it was their
fault. Once we are able to know that a person or an institution has
lied to us we have only ourselves to blame if we then accept
subsequent "information" from that source.
Unfortunately, in today's
world, the rational person is forced to fly blind most of the time,
and can have very little confidence in their perceptions of the day
as they will likely be shown to be in error in light of future
revelations. Consequently I believe with certainty very little of
what I see, and not very much of what I think. This is what R. D.
Lang was talking about when he said, "Insanity is the only sane
response to an insane world."
So, to my point of view, conspiracy is just a symptom of a deficient
level of transparency in human relations. Those seeking to act in
secrecy, to use that secrecy to advance their ambitions, are the
enemies of all human kind. To rid ourselves of this infestation we
need to continually press for openness and truthfulness wherever and
whenever we can. Sunlight, as they say, is the best disinfectant.
If we allow our
lives to be ruled by the dark we will* succumb to evil. To the extent
that we are able to construct an environment where honesty, sincerity
and openness has the upper hand we will enjoy happy, fulfilled and
abundant lives. Honesty, as my grandma always said, is the best
policy. It is also the only sane approach to living.
For people attracted to this way of thinking I recommend the book
Radical Honesty by Brad Blanton.
© by the author.
| | We're usually unable to forward readers'
emails, but both readers and authors are
invited to visit our 'dialogue' page
for two-way communication: |
| |
This is an archived Unknown News page. For newest material, visit our main page.
|
|
|
|
