Conspiracy Theories, and The People Who Love Them.
I confess I am a Reddit voyeur. The Conspiracy sub-reddit is one of my favorites. Conspiracy fans express existential dread about many matters, claim to be experts on many things, and propose that there will be some grand awakening / revolution / civil war coming to save those that prepared adequately.
I’ve been guilty pleasuring myself on Reddit for several years, but I’ve had dear conspiracy theory friends (conspiracy “facts,” per them) for decades. I have no problem with the conspiracy crowd. No one can be faulted for their fear. Human sickness is evident around us, demonstrated by greed, corruption, perversion, violence, etc. There is no end to the symptoms.
The conspiracy movement is the perfect venue through which to observe the power of fear, and the human response. It has taught me a lot.
In watching my conspiracy-minded friends and their sources, I realized how they, I, and most of us can't fully think for ourselves. We're influenced by other people’s ideas, opinions, and beliefs. I saw my reactivity to those who disagreed with me, and my lack of self-control over these reactions. I saw how I spent money on products/services, and spent time on pundits and preachers, and it had been a waste in my search for happiness. I saw how I wasn't searching for happiness, I was searching for fearlessness.
I saw how fear managed them, me, and most of us. I realized the importance of removing fear from any equation or decision. I determined to take no action based on fear, and practiced trying.
I realized that the worst conspiracy is that which we commit against ourselves and our well-being when we subjugate our wisdom to the influence of others.
Everything we need to know for satisfying, meaningful, and courageous lives is within us. We cannot develop fully by looking outside, for outside doesn’t know us. Outside is confused in its orientation because of human sickness, as mentioned above. Outside is the cult of the culture, and fear is the driving force of the cult.
Fear can and does manage us if we don’t manage it. And it doesn’t matter if we spend our time researching conspiracies, or staring at mainstream media programming, or engaged in interpersonal drama, or any of the other distractions life has to offer. Fear is ready and waiting.
If we want self-control, autonomy, authenticity, ease, and liberation, we must develop our self-awareness. We must go inside. We must study our negativity, reactivity, anxiety, resistance, and all the other ways that fear controls us and manifests itself.
To move beyond fear, we must go through it.
When fear is managed, then we can fully receive the blessings of our wisdom. Wisdom is ready and waiting, too. The grand awakening can only come from inside.
"If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation." Lao Tzu
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