Regular reader HCE lays down a pretty provocative question for we denizens of the conspiracy poetic districts of cyber-country in the comments to Ghost Dog and The Way of the Conspiracy Samurai .
I’ll quote the main part here:
I wanted to ask this question of everyone, and no one in particular. Why is it that most of the ‘conspiracy set’ are the most humorless lot one could ever meet? Not all of them, but the tendency is there, and it is strong. Just go spend some time at the Rigorous Intuition forums. If a couple of afternoons there don’t make you feel like getting in the bath with a razor blade, I don’t know what will. And what’s worse is that everyone is convinced that they are all right, and it’s all true. And try injecting any real humor into these types of forums and the discussions that take place there. It’s like posting porn on a Christian forum.
There does seem to be a lot of doom and gloom and all around entrainment to negative frequencies in parts of Conspiracy Theory town. I suppose it could be something about looking into the abyss too long. There’s a lot of documented dark stuff that’s liable to blow your eyes out and break your heart or turn you cold if you’re not careful.
But it’s not wholly the case, I think. I find a good grouping of the synchromystic folks don’t seem as dreary, though I don’t know if they necessarily seem humorous all the time. (And I’d think that even if I didn’t seem to have been made an honorary member of the tribe as of late.) Adam Gorightly is definately a cat who knows how to keep levity and good humor in his work. Tim Boucher, too, though he’s pretty much moved on up from the CT district to the East Side of action, just like George and Wheezy.
But I’m interested to hear from all of you out there, readers, researchers and others in and around parapolitical research, conspiracy theory and eso-studies. Is there too much doom and victim-think in the community? Do you think there’s a discernible lack of humor and mood-balance? If no, who or what can you point to as evidence for those who don’t see it? If you do think the levity is mostly missing, why do you think that is? And do you think its a problem? Why or why not?
Phone lines are open!
Hm, never really thought about it. I suppose humor is missing to a large extent when one is talking about gloom and doom, for good reason; not something to joke about. And if you do, conspiracists do tend to take offense because it infers the subject matter is flawed, false or just ridiculous enough to be made fun of. I do think it’s important to continue to point out the alternative points of view; on the other hand, I also recommend against fear as a mindset, regardless of any potential catastrophe – so humor would be welcome at least as far as I am concerned, just not sure how one would do it without outright poking fun at the whole subject. I’ll have to think about this.
I’m inclined to agree with HCE, alas, that the good ship of humor has not sailed into the seas and oceans of conspiracism for quite some time. Part of the reason, I suspect, is the element of hysteria that permeates much of that discourse. With so many researchers focussed to the point of obsession (and beyond) on exposing grim and sometimes apocalyptic scenarioes, there is little room for humour, only a devotion to grim determination and an oppressive seriousness.
The humour in conspiracism is left to the occasional maverick who fancies himself as an entertainer or to the legions of mainstream journalists who find plenty of material with which to concoct amusing missives about the collective lunacy of the conspiracists.
I guess when you, and you alone, have found “The Truth”, it must be treated and presented with utmost seriousness lest people think it an elaborate hoax or a form of performance art…
“I guess when you, and you alone, have found “The Truth”, it must be treated and presented with utmost seriousness lest people think it an elaborate hoax or a form of performance art…”
But see, that describes the mainstream journalists as well. What ever they’re paid to cover in whatever way they’re paid to cover it, must be dealt with with utmost seriousness. That doesn’t necessarily mean they *believe* what they’re saying, though often they probably do. I think in both mainstream journalism and in some conspiracy research circles, the humor one often finds is a humor of insult or external judgement. Generally, folks aren’t poking fun of themselves or putting compassion in their assessments of the folks who they’re either *fighting against* or disagreeing with.
Who are some of the mavericks that come to mind for you, Will? Do you think consciously playing a performers role is the only way to go?
There’s probably a hell of a lack of clarity between what exactly constitutes a totalizing world-view in conspiracy theory circles (”Such and such powerful group is behind everything!!!”) and the more cautious stuff that points to specific documented stuff. Like that kid in Florida has been pinned as a “conspiracy theorist” in the week since he got tazed, yet his questions on voter suppression were based on solid research by an investigative journalist, Greg Palast, not channelled masters or space-brothers.
Phone lines still open!
Have I been busted? Sandbagged? Do I care care? No.
So, geez, where do I begin? Well, first of all, I tried to make it clear that not all of those who study conspiracy and covert manipulations are dour, dark and humorless. As I said, there is a strong tendency towards this. I mean, I know enough to recognize the fallacy of generalizing about and entire group or class of people. And unlike Angela, I do not think doom\gloom and humor are mutually exclusive (No offense Angela). An excellent example is the Illuminatus Trilogy by Shea and Wilson. Wilson even said that he and Robert Shea laughed their asses off while working on the book. It was meant to funny, at least in part. But the point isn’t whether one can keep both balls in the air simultaneously, but whether or not one can see the dark underbelly of human behavior and not lose their sense of humor, assuming one has a sense of humor to begin with. If you don’t, I’d think you might want to find another interest.
Here’s what it boils down to for me: I’ve been down the road of hoplessness and despair this line of inquiry can lead to. And as someone else once pointed out, I can choose to be afraid and hopeless or I can choose to be optimistic and happy. Both are pulling the wool over our own eyes, but given the choice I’d just as soon feel good. And there is a bigger issue here that I believe goes completely unacknowledged. That is, that once you’ve fallen into the abyss “They” have neutralized you. Now I know some would read that as a deliberately hatched plan against some people. I don’t mean it that way, it’s just an unintentional by-product of the nature of the beast. But once in that place of despair, a person is then unable to take any real action. For me that means being unable to be helpful, or of service to my fellow beings. And this is something I am always on the look out for. It can be anything from a simple act of kindness to being able to lend a hand to someone who cannot help themselves. I spoke with a fellow last night who was terribly upset because he has been screwed by the local police because they lied about somethings involving this man. I wouldn’t have had even a single word of hope for this guy if I was still living in that dark place. All I would have been able to do would be to commiserate in anger, resentment and blame. Once I spent my time posting the “bad news” on web-sites. What did that accomplish? Nothing. “They” continued on their merry way. The Finders still found, the current regime in the White(wash)House kept on doing what it has done. Men and women everywhere hatched and implemented their sundry nefarious plans.
My point here is not how great I am, because I’m not. I’m a foolish schlep of a human being. Honest. But I refuse to give up to dispair. And I think all of us who know some of the truth about MK-Ultra, JFK’s murder etc, deserve better, and owe each other and our communities more. It’s not enough to write about 9/11 or whatever on blog X and wring our hands. If you’re that frightened, then take some action. If a person won’t take action, then they need to at least accept things they way they are, no matter how seemingly awful.
Yes there are in fact conspiracies in our world (”Et tu, Brute?”) but does this mean I can’t laugh or smile. Does it mean I’m not supposed to? Sometimes that’s the impression I get. What good is all of this looking into the darkness if we can no longer laugh, and we can no longer try to do something about it?
Hmmm?
HCE
How about this? Mr. Joe Against the Empire becomes educated about the Finders. In addition to anger and fear, he decides to try something, anything, rather than feeling helpless and powerless. He makes up fliers giving a brief synopsis of these sick f*ckers. He lists credible links and news sources. He suggests that all of those that have children, grandchildren, or siblings look into for the sake of the safety of their loved ones. He makes a large number of copies and goes through parking lots at busy grocery stores, malls etc and places them under windshield wipers. Now many will dismiss them and\or throw them away. But what of those who actually take the time to find out about this? Those who otherwise might not have ever known? even one single individual could turn into hundreds. Hundreds become thousands. And so on, and so on.
Post this idea and watch how many say “Well, why don’t you do it?” or even funnier, “No, it won’t do any good. Why bother?” I heard both of these predictable rsponses again and again.
HCE
You’ve got it, HCE. You gotta be able to take action. And if you’re too frightened and full of despair to even smile at your neighbors, much less smile at yourself, then you’ve been beaten. You’re lost to us.
I couldn’t agree more.
Sandbagged by who? I hope we don’t have our own cops in CT land, but I suppose there are those who’d love to play the part!
Not me, though.
Anytime someone hops out of the prevailing reality tunnels, they’ve got a glorious opportunity to loosen themselves and the people around them up a bit, and for the better. But once you can’t laugh at yourself or have compassion for the nutjobs in charge of the nuthouse (and let that compassion seep into your humor towards them, too)…you begin to tighten up again, in my opinion.
Good stuff, HCE.
By the way, something’s funky with my hushmail right now, HCE. In case you were tryin’ to e-mail me off-site and conversate and haven’t been able to get through.
“left to the occasional maverick who fancies himself as an entertainer”
Yes, exactly! Few “hardcore” conspiracy people will dare stoop to admit that they find it entertaining – titillating even.
“a form of performance art…”
*Everything* is a form of performance art. It’s nothing to be scared of, so much as it is a call to all of us to learn better how to perform so as to draw attention away from the trash which clouds our minds to the sources of joy which clarify our lives!
(In my best Bill O’Reilly meets Skip Sievert voice):
Tim, YOU SIR, are an occultist!
Performance is just another name for conscious action, yes?
And since it aims to change perception, it’s magick. And often, if we’re taking action, we’re in the “act” of changing how we view ourselves or how others view us…with more or less awareness of why and what and how we’re attempting it. Damn. Performance, magick…action: we’re where we’ve always been, only different.
New technologies only describe reality in a new way.
Action requires acting!
Cadeveo,
No, I wasn’t trying to get through via e-mail. Were you expecting me to? Do you think I see you as the Cad to my HCE?
This ain’t Phoenix Park son.
Deliberately obscure,
HCE
When I think of conspiracists who entertain a few come to mind, but mainly in their public speaking. Mike Ruppert, for instance, was a first-rate performer, who would have the audience in the palm of his hand carefully balancing moments of intense seriousness, calculated to generate awestruck “ooohs” and “aaahs” from the audience, with moments of humour.
And though he seems to reject the label of conspiracist, I’ve always found Greg Palast’s writings very entertaining.
However, I mostly encounter seriousness piled upon a wild-eyed intensity that unintentionally provides humour to others.
‘Few “hardcore” conspiracy people will dare stoop to admit that they find it entertaining – titillating even.’
We should also be aware that almost as many consumers of conspiracism out there are seeking an entertaining alternative to the humdrum world they must deal with everyday, as they are seeking the genuine discovery of serious misdeeds by the powers that be.
Another thought is that a goodly part of conspiracism is a political project — not merely a revisionist historical frolic — and thus filled with the intent to change things. Politics is generally a serious business with humour added from time to time to win people over, to lessen tension and to keep people engaged. The apathetic masses are wary of fanatics…
Will.
Hangonhangonhangon…
If I might throw a random linguistic spanner in the works…
about the meaning of the word ‘act’.
What happens when we blend the meaning ‘act = pretend’ with ‘act = cause change’?
I mean, do people who take things too seriously act ineffectually? Does change come through pretending? What if we pretend with deadly seriousness? I’ve worked for people like that. They create their own false realities.
Help! What does it mean, ‘to act’? What the blue blazes does it mean?
This is where the light meets the dark.
Will, you mention politics, and I think it is worthwhile to remember Frank Zappa’s definition of politics here: “Politics are the entertainment branch of industry.” Damn, I wish I’d said that (you will HCE, you will…)
So if politics are entertainment, then they should easily be able to contain humor.
I agree with you that conspiracy is generally a form of entertainment. So much so that I recently dubbed it conspiro-tainment. I haven’t hear that term used before, but it may have been. I used it in a response over at Rigored Intuition. I’m sure it will go over like a lead blimp.
HCE
Great question, speedbird. My sense is that to act means to do something, to take an action. Pretending is a subset of that. But what if we thought of it like this: if you are acting with consciousness and deliberation (regardless of the intent), then there is a quality of performance or presentation therein; this isn’t necessarily the same thing as simply “pretending”, but you can get to this sort of action via pretending, though “pretending” is not a guarantee on that. (Perhaps here’s where intention plays its part.)
Just something to throw out there. I’m by no means an authority.
I don’t think there’s necessarily any contradiction between taking action seriously and humorously. You can take serious humorous action and it can be effective. You can take serious serious action and it can be effective. the seriousness, for me, comes from committing 100 percent, going “whole hog, plus the postage.” I’m the first to admit I quite frequently fall short of that mark, so the times I’ve really acted seriously in this sense are probably fewer than my ego would like to think.
I think the danger of committing whole hog to humorless action is that it can warp you, it can trap you in suffering and eventually sap your energy.
But again, I’m no authority on anything. Check it out for yourself in your own experience.
I don’t think conspiracy theory *has* to simply be a subset of entertainment, nor does activism. But it’s very difficult for it to NOT be, given the Spectacular societal structure we’ve built up around everything.
Then again, The Spectacle’s just another framework for understanding. It ain’t the picture.
Well I certainly don’t think anything *has* to anything,
except that death *has* to be the point when I don’t have to do my laundry anymore.
So you see…
HCE
Humour is very powerful weapon to get your point across to people – get ‘em laughing and they’re on your ’side’ pretty quickly. That suspension of tension by laughter is the niche in the character armour that can be exploited.
‘This guy (or gal) can’t be a ‘Conspiracy Theorist’, he’s making me laugh too much, putting me in touch with my gut & heart reactions, the ones I had before the MSMedia & the Reality Police airbrushed them away with doubts and scorn’.
Just think of the power of Bill Hicks at his most provocative & most fucking hilarious!….you felt it and knew it was fucking true.
Yeah, too many doom’n'gloomers, ‘abyssers’ who wouldn’t know what to replace the ‘Illuminati’/NWO with, if 911 Troof & all the rest of it was exposed, universally accepted & acted upon. Try imagining it’s happened already – we won!
Can’t we all enjoy a regular Cosmic Giggle at our controlled (demolition) follies? Isn’t everything just the way it should be after all, going according to schedule, what we’ve brought into existence? I mean, this is the universe we’ve all chosen this time round, isn’t it? Why shouldn’t it all turn out nicely in the end? With positive thought, how can we fail?
Nah, I don’t think I’ll be inviting Alan Watt to my next party somehow…..
“Try imagining it’s happened already- we won!”
That’s great advice. If it can work with the little things (and I know from experience), why not with The Big Bad Stuff (copyright pending)?
Cosmic Giggle…I’m gonna steal that for the title of my book. Not as sexy as a Trigger, but so much less messy!
So…how come Alan Watt isn’t getting invited to your next party? Did he make a fool of himself at the last one?
I just think that Alan Watt is a wee bit too ‘negative’ for my tastes – all the doom ‘n’ gloom and none of the solutions or optimism….and anyway, he always sulks when he doesn’t win the hide-and-seek.
I can understand sulking about Monopoly (I mean, having to play it is bad enough, but not winning’s even worse), but hide-and-seek? Damn, Alan Watt, loosen up!
Once upon a time there were pirates and they were very shrewd and cunning. They set up their own political kings and word magicians all throughout the land for the purpose of distracting the attention of the people away from their activities. The political kings and word magicians were skilled at the fine art of propaganda, they used words like “Terrorism” to generate the kinds of passions and or emotions that were needed for the people to take up arms and go to war for the pirates. Now, we might ask ourselves why the pirates wanted the people to go to war for them? The answer is simple, so the pirates could easily loot the treasury of ALL the people.
Take back your power that you willingly give away to the pirates and realize that REAL SOLUTIONS to our most complex problems are already here, but first we MUST move beyond the MYTH of money and politics as we gracefully enter the realm of REALITY for the benefit of ALL.
READ THE TECHNOCRACY STUDY COURSE for the ONLY viable alternative to the INSANITY of ANY belief based political-economic system.
Something about all caps makes this read like this to me, Melvin:
ALL REAL SOLUTIONS MYTH REALITY: ALL
READ THE TECHNOCRACY STUDY COURSE
ONLY INSANITY
ANY?
Thanks for adding your two cents. Some things I agree with in re: to the utopian technocratic ideology. But not ALL of it.
Making technocrats the rulers just means getting a new set of pirates, in my book. I appreciate that you’ll disagree.