Could conspiracies be our strength?

Some conspiracy theories are harmless but others, such as climate change deniers and those who do not vaccinate their children because of mistrust of pharmaceutical companies, do real harm to society, wrote M Hogenboom. Prof K Douglas found that narcissistic people believe that they possess exclusive information while others suffer from anxiety because they feel they are losing control. It is easier to blame other communities for particularly brutal crimes because guilt is hard to bear. Conspiracy theories maybe irrational but there is always some truth behind them. The thalidomide tragedy did happen and, if it wasn't for one FDA inspector, the US would have suffered as well. A deep mistrust of government was born during the Vietnam war when photos from the front line contradicted the government's narrative. More recently NATO misused a UN Security Council resolution to protect civilians in Benghazi in Libya to attack and subsequently kill Gaddafi. President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma openly accused NATO of duplicity. When journalists are embedded with an invading army we are naturally suspicious of the veracity of their reporting. Chelsea Manning, who used to be Bradley Manning, disclosed 750,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks but was pardoned by Obama, most likely because of political correctness. But Julian Assange who merely published them is still holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and Edward Snowden is still having to hide in Moscow. Because politicians and the main stream media were proved to be lying about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq they are unrelenting in their persecution of the two. There is a huge outcry in the US about Russian hacking of US elections with the Congress setting up committees to look into allegations. But what about the US hacking into the global banking system? It would not take a nutcase to believe that the US is responsible for any money that he loses through hacking. Trying to convince him that the US, an $18 trillion economy, will not waste time stealing a few hundred bucks would be impossible. After all, an ocean is made up of drops of water. As for denying climate change, a study by NASA suggests that there maybe a massive increase in rainfall. Which sounds logical because the surface of the earth being 75% water there is bound to be an enormous increase in evaporation if the temperature goes up. Belief in religion proves that human beings are prone to believing in myths. Myths unite people into groups and has enabled humans conquer the world. There is no doubt that politicians and business people lie to us constantly. Camels using Botox have been banned from a beauty contest in Saudi Arabia. Now, that is a real conspiracy.