Conspiracy theories have been around since before the Illuminati’s mothers decided to wean them. And forebodings of government control are nothing new either. Rather than being a quaint jolly era, Elizabethan England was as closely controlled a state as was possible for that time in history. So not much is new except for the technology.
Despite all the cameras on street corners, facial recognition, and other tech-based goodies, the most reliable ways of checking out flawed characters remain the old favorites: stupidity, greed, and vanity. To these, I am sure, can be added others from the seven cardinal sins. Who’s counting?
Do you want proof? Look no further than the social media posts of those indicted for the January 6, 2021 mayhem in Washington: photos, videos, and rants. While all these revelations were tech-assisted via Facebook and the internet, the basics were still our old friend’s stupidity and vanity.
Bamboozling people is also with us despite over a hundred years of free primary and secondary education that always seems to shout that critical thinking skills are a primary concern. If so, why are the educated so gullible and easily preyed upon by misspelled illogical memes on social media? And by educated, I mean those that have gone through our K-12 system of education.
I suppose you could argue that education’s goal was to dissipate the darkness of ignorance. But what of willful ignorance? Laurence J. Peter said, “Against logic, there is no armor like ignorance.” So I guess I have to let education off, in part, because you can educate people, but if they choose not to utilize that education is it the teachers’ fault?
Good questions which I cannot even begin to respond to – my head is spinning from it all.
Well said, Lou. I almost started on a tangent here but decided you had done such a good job, I’d keep it to myself.