Roger Varley has been in the news business almost 40 years with The Canadian Press/Broadcast News, Uxbnridge Times-Journal, Richmond Hill Liberal and Uxbridge Cosmos. Co-winner with two others of CCNA national feature writing award. In Scout movement over 30 years, almost 25 as a leader. Took Uxbridge youths to World Jamboree in Holland. Involved in community theatre for 20 years as actor, director, playwright, stage manager etc. Born in England, came to Canada at 16, lived most of life north and east of Toronto with a five-year period in B.C.
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Have I joined the conspiracy?
Yesterday, I marked my 69th birthday.
You would think that, at this stage of my life, one of the last things I would do is change my thinking about how the world is run, about how governments rule us and about my role as a supposedly free citizen in a supposedly free country. After all, I've had all my life to look around me, to use my eyes and ears and brain to detect things that weren't right.
But, suddenly and quite by chance, I've found myself examining all kinds of conspiracy theories to the point that I fear that maybe I'm becoming obsessed. And just as suddenly, I find myself questioning my own sanity, my ability to think clearly and draw reasoned and reasonable conclusions.
At some point during this column, you might decide that, yes, I have become a “conspiracy nut” and move on to some other article. But if you read the entire column, you will find that it's just that kind of instant dismissal that concerns me.
Allow me to explain.
Last week, I quarantined myself in my flat because I believed I had the flu, although not likely the H1N1 strain. During that time, I spent a good deal of time surfing the net to relieve boredom. I came across a video on YouTube titled Wake Up Call. I clicked on the video, believing I would be watching some funny clip of somebody being rudely awakened. Instead, I ended up watching a 2 1/2-hour documentary on the New World Order conspiracy.
That led me to other related videos, all concerning conspiracy theories that eventually became intertwined. Indeed, many of the videos contained much of the same material. Being aware of Goebbels' statement that if you tell a big enough lie often enough people will come to believe it, I started surfing the Net to find places where these conspiracy theories were debunked to obtain some kind of balance. What I found was that the debunkers very often relied on derision and name-calling in an attempt to undermine the conspiracy “nuts”. I also found that, although I questioned a lot of what the conspiracy “nuts” were saying, much of what they were saying was true.
An example: One such video claimed the British government was putting closed-circuit television into thousands of private homes to monitor parents to see if they were feeding the children properly, putting them to bed at a reasonable hour and helping them with their homework. Nonsense, I thought. The government of my homeland would never do such a thing. So I did some cross-referencing and, lo and behold, it is true. The government does have such a program, designed, they say, to protect children at risk. And the government is intending to expand it.
I imagine many people would applaud such a move because it was for “the good of the children”. But then I started to find out there are many government programs instituted around the world “for the general good”. They are designed to get the masses on side, even though it will further curtail the rights of the masses. Take the massive infringement of civil rights in the U.S. following 9-11. Americans willingly gave up some of their Constitutional rights because they were told it was necessary for the general good. It was, indeed, their patriotic duty to give up these rights so the government could fight terrorism.
Just last week, the state of Massachusetts passed a law that gives the state government and its agencies the power to force everyone in the state to receive the H1N1 vaccine if the governor declares a health emergency. No one would be allowed to refuse the vaccine for any reason. Of course, it is for the general good.
And so it continued. Yes, I continually questioned the conspiracy nuts' facts and claims, but I found it difficult in the end to dismiss all of their claims outright.
All these conspiracy claims began to bother me, not necessarily because I agreed with them, but because I was unable to dismiss them out of hand as I have so often done in the past. And that has led me to question my own sanity, my own reasoning ability. Obviously, if I'm buying these conspiracies, in whole or in part, then I, too, must be a “nut”.
But it seems to me that, if we are to be a fully informed people, if we are to be able to make considered decisions about our future, we need to do more than just listen to our political and financial leaders' 10-second sound bites before switching over to American Idol. We need to delve into all aspects of those crucial issues that affect our lives. We need to listen to and read right-wing and left-wing commentators to obtain some balance and we also need to give the nuts an ear, too. Maybe that way we can come up with something resembling the truth.
Tell me, am I wrong?
