conspiracy theories – Cubilone's Dimension

SHARY-CARY TAB RELEASE: CONSPIRACY THEORY IN AMERICA

This here thingie had been sitting inert in my browser’s tabs for months, reloading, closing, waiting. Waiting for what? Waiting for now.

CONSPIRACY THEORY IN AMERICA

This excellent article (don’t let the title fool you—it’s not just about America) came back to mind while I was talking to some people in Samothraki just as the coup in Turkey was hitting social media and the Web. By the way, being in the army sitting on a frontier island when a neighboring country does such a thing is not a fun place to be at all.

While discussing with those guys, I mentioned that some people had been tweeting that the coup might have been an inside job orchestrated by Erdogan to eradicate his opposition. My conversation partners dismissed the possibility out of hand as a “conspiracy theory” and that was that. No more had to be said or discussed. The mere utterance of this magic couple of words is enough to settle any argument that challenges the motives and means of powerful people.

Colour me skeptical. Waaay skeptical.

See also my review of Conspiracy Theories: The Pocket Essential Guide.

While I was writing the above sentence, I couldn’t help but smirk at myself and the accidental Liakopoulos vibe it does exude.

REVIEW: THE UFO PHENOMENON: FACT, FANTASY AND DISINFORMATION

The UFO Phenomenon: Fact, Fantasy and Disinformation by John Michael Greer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Discovered this while eBrowsing for John Michael Greer eBooks.

It never ceases to amaze me how wide Mr. Greer’s education is. Not only can he write books like The Ecotechnic Future, The Long Descent and Not The Future We Ordered, all about what the future of humanity in the mid-collapse and post-collapse world will probably at least resemble: he can juggle between rationally arguing pro and against science, “conspiracy theory”, apparitions, aliens… He’s remarkably open-minded but somehow managing to avoid the negative traits the New Age or or other spiritual movements are associated with, e.g. naivety, or confusion of science and “pseudoscience”, a term I despise but which can be used to describe a lot of what New Agers say to portray their beliefs as valid and/or worthy of so-called mainstream scientific investigation.

To cut a long story short, Mr. Greer doesn’t believe that UFOs are actual spaceships piloted by alien intelligent life; his main argument is that most UFO sightings (Unidentified Flying Objects, remember?) have been the result of a shifting public consciousness: in over 70 years, people have learned to interpret mysterious lights in the sky in very specific ways, mostly because of science fiction and popular culture that goes back to the first half of the 20th century, in turn a particularly American cultural phenomenon that for geopolitical and social reasons went global.

“I want to believe” goes part and parcel with the clumsy moves involved in the change from a world dominated by religion to one were religion has been replaced by overwhelming materialism: when there’s nothing to believe in any more, something to believe in has to be invented.

In a recurring theme for Mr. Greer, he makes the point that it’s not just the “believers” that are looking for something to latch onto: scientism, materialism and positivism are the skeptics’ pacifier, and both believers and skeptics use flawed reasoning to win over the other side. The former states that UFOs exist but fails to imagine that there can be other answers to “what is that thing flying over there?” apart from “aliens, of course!”; the skeptics, on the other hand, fail because they restrict themselves to debunking the believers: either the believers are right or they are not, which somehow gets warped to “UFOs are alien or they do not exist”, which is a false dichotomy. They of course proceed to give all the reasons why any sighting must either be a hoax, or a hallucination, or “swamp gas”; Mr. Greer is right to ask “what if a UFO sighting is legit, that is to say, not a hallucination or a hoax, there really was a strange light in the sky, but it simply was not alien?”

Before listing his own attempts at explaining UFOs, he goes over how a hypothesis has to be disprovable in order to be scientific—in fact, that’s the very basis of the scientific method. He mostly leans towards American or Soviet secret/black budget projects, as of yet unexplained natural phenomena and aethereal/immaterial encounters, reports of which have been appearing in cultures all over the world for millennia.

For me the most interesting was the chapter on the black budget projects (think Area 51) and the secret aircraft: it would actually make sense that the US government through its denial and refusal of disclosure would fuel the fires of suspicion that what its Cold War secret military projects really were were alien spacecraft and in this way muddy the waters. Get your population as well as the Ruskies to believe that UFOs are a thing and you can fly any superweapon around and draw little suspicion as to what you’re actually doing.

Mr. Greer discusses these conspiracy theories with so much data and references to draw from and paints such an easy-to-follow picture, always within context, it’s just insulting to claim the material discussed is merely conspiracies at this point. Of course, each case is unique and some are still shrouded in true mystery, but that’s precisely what Mysterious Universe is for!

Great book, amazing and inspiring man. Couldn’t stop flicking my phone’s screen running PDF Reader.

Just one thing: for all that’s good in this world, do try and find a better cover artist!

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Steam, we’ve got to talk

And if you didn't catch today's deals, don't worry! — And if you didn’t catch today’s deals, don’t worry!

Steam’s Autumn Sale 2013. Here we go again. Daily deals. Yesterday’s deals. Flash deals. Community picks.

There are 86 games in my account: most of them I’ve bought in different Humble Bundles or other sales, such as the ridiculous Holiday Sale of 2011. I’ve played less than half of them and even less than half of those have I “completed” – quotes because the games that I prefer nowadays are generally speaking impossible to complete. A relatively small fraction of those 86 games I got through Game 2.0 for reviewing. I don’t receive physical copies anymore, but I’ve long got over the need of owning real copies of games, especially after getting stuck with boxed copies of games that are tied to Steam keys and which I therefore can’t sell – I’m looking at you, stack of Total Wars!

This time around, you threw in our faces Skyrim Legendary Edition for 13€, Bioshock Infinite for 7.5€, Spelunky for 3€ and Civilization V Gold and the expansion Brave New World for 10€ each. Of all of the above I only resisted to buying Skyrim (it sounded very enticing but I doubt I can give it the time it probably deserves at this point), and still believe I will buy more games before the deals are over (eyeing Super Hexagon and Anno 2070). Only a fool would skip on those prices… And then you’re going to have the Holiday Sale, of course you will. I hope we’ll at least have enough time to enjoy Civilization V online with Garret and Daphne who both got the game the day before during the sale – actually, I got it for Daphne because she seems to love it so much; who would have thought that the hot seat would have grown this hot?

I feel as if I’m being manipulated to no end. It’s confusing to my Fi (ethical system/inner values to you MBTI beginners!) – which dictates that I should at least be trying to avoid being exactly like women going crazy in the shopping mall – as well as it is destructive to my wallet and my time management. You’re tearing me apart, Steama!

But seriously. What gives? How can this even work? How can you have 1532 sales every year without cheating all of the producers and developers? How is this system viable at all? I mean, with these sales and the existence and dominance of Humble Bundle, combined with the ridiculous prices games have at launch only for them to be reduced in a matter of months through these offers (and given the extreme oversaturation of the market), it’s no wonder top AAA games are slowly becoming obsolete. Given of course that people just don’t have enough money to spend on consoles (most of the people I know don’t want to buy a new console, either because of lack of interest, money or both), it’s really no wonder that you, with your cheap, flexible and robust system (and your upcoming Steam Machines) and iOS with its innovation and low prices are looking like you will together dominate the industry even further. And really, what would happen if everybody eventually stopped buying games on day one or – god forbid – stopped preordering like tiny little consumeristic muppets? I’ll tell you what would happen: the entire industry would collapse. Again.

You know something? As cool and comfy as it is, deep down it makes me feel uncomfortable having all of my games in this digital vault made out of thin air. Now you look healthier than ever, but will that be the case in 10 years? 20? You had your DRM creep on us and had us get used to it, and now we bash everyone who tries to steal some of your limelight (yes, I know it’s fun to hate EA and forbidden to even slightly criticise mama Valve). Even if you have allowed offline play, you have made reselling games impossible. Why? How can I trust you, Steam? These cheap games are like a trojan horse: you’re becoming the Google of gaming – people put up with your shitty monopoly because you’re just so damn useful. What if tomorrow I have to buy your SteamMachine to play? What if I suddenly have to, say, pay a fee to access my games – even just a small one? I’d probably pay up just in order to still be able to play 90% of the games I own or play on a regular basis (most of which I certainly won’t have played even by then). Oh, maybe you’re like the other great benefactor, Facebook, which promises that it’s free and always will be. Isn’t that a role model of a company.

Maybe I’m expecting too much – or I’m too sceptical/paranoid. Maybe my thinking is a relic from a different era, when physical mattered more – was more tangible – than digital. Maybe in this Brave New World there really will be no difference between offline and online, the physical and its digital counterpart. As far as I can see, the counterpart in many ways has already replaced the original or is indistinguishable from it (or they really are the same thing). The strictly private has become public, a single thought or utterance shared with the world is immortalised and pinned to its creator forever (or at least for what the word ‘forever’ means in the beginning of the 21st century). The social as well as the commercial sphere is changing too quickly for us to figure out, and, well, honestly we’re just not that smart to understand in what ways we’re being manipulated, controlled and generally taken advantage of at this time by “free” or seemingly harmless services. I hope you can understand, though: all these huge companies who are operating as monopolies (mostly in the digital plane) at the same time working with the secret services of the world or using us in other mostly unknown nefarious ways are just scaring me. No corporation can inspire my trust. That’s all.

I hope you can understand and won’t block me from playing Civilization V because I told you these things. You know I still love you. Right?

Review: Apocalypsopolis by Ran Prieur

Apocalypsopolis by Ran Prieur

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve asked the question before, but can we really consider this a book? If the writer says it’s one, it is one; we’re taking it from there.

I’ve been reading the blog of this crazy person Ran Prieur for the past few weeks and every day I love him more and more. His writing, his style, his way of life is another inspiration for me. He’s quickly finding his way to this exclusive mental resort where all my top favourite people (Douglas Adams, Dan Carlin, Maria Efthimiou, Kyle Cease, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Raymond Smullyan, Steven Wilson, Alan Watts, Edgar Wright and the list goes on) are having the longest cocktail party/cozy discussion in altered states of their (after)lives.

Apocalypsopolis is a post-apocalyptic novela – or should I say while-apocalyptic? It shows what would happen during the apocalypse. Ran Prieur’s version of it isn’t any old end of the world, however. Through his work he clearly shows all of the things that mattered to him 9 years ago and still, to a certain extent, do today: man’s alienation from nature, his interest in “conspiracy theories” and metaphysics, the simplicity, complexity and -at the same time- trivialty of existence, the future of humanity.

You like post-apocalyptic fantasy? Read it. You like (political) philosophy? Read it. You like hippie fiction? Read it. Intrigued by the deconstruction of metaphysics? Read it. Survivalism strike your fancy? You know the drill.

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Review: Dale Carnegie’s Lifetime Plan for Success: How to Win Friends and Influence People & How to stop worrying and start living

Dale Carnegie’s Lifetime Plan for Success: How to Win Friends and Influence People & How to stop worrying and start living by Dale Carnegie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book’s title is so very easily misunderstandable. It’s sort of like all the conspiracy theory videos out there. People will catch a wiff of “global elite” or “federal reserve” and will turn their noses straight up in a matter of seconds. Conspiracy “sceptics” have poisoned so many wells, its a miracle that remote villages the world over haven’t yet been completely wiped out.

The reason its title is so misunderstandable is because, similarly to the alleged conspiracy theorists, it alludes to techniques and practices used in picking up women or something; devious hypocrisies of socially challenged, sad little people that practice their speech in front of mirrors and reduce human contact to rules and habits; strategists of human contact that know about as much of real bonding between people as a typical child knows about chickens from its early rearing on McNuggets.

In a nutshell:

Six Ways To Make People Like You

Become genuinely interested in other people.
Smile.
Remember that a man’s name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in the English language.
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Talk in terms of the other man’s interest.
Make people feel important, and do it sincerely.

Twelve Ways Of Winning People To Your Way Of Thinking

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Show respect for the other man’s opinions. Never tell a man he is wrong.
If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
Begin in a friendly way.
Get people saying “yes, yes” immediately.
Let other people do a great deal of talking.
Let other people feel that the idea is theirs.
Try honestly to see things from the other man’s point of view.
Be sympathetic with other people’s ideas and desires.
Appeal to the nobler motives.
Dramatize your ideas.
Throw down a challenge.

Nine Ways To Change People Without Giving Offense Or Arousing Resentment

Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other man.
Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
Let the other man save face.
Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.
Give people a fine reputation to live up to.
Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
Make other people happy about doing the thing you suggest.

Mr. Dale Carnegie in his book that gave birth to the self-help genre is suggesting, simply put, that we care about others. That’s about it. A little active interest can go a long way, whether its for other people’s sense of pride, problems, aspirations or interests. If “How to Win Friends and Influence People” does something excellently in its quaint, ’30s American way of dealing with things, is to show how in our self-centredness we forget how much we like other people treating us since we so often refrain from doing it ourselves.

The awesome thing about the list above is that the book doesn’t suggest you do these things just to win others over and be likeable, it doesn’t tell you: “OK you loser, this is what people like so you better do it. Of COURSE I know you hate being kind and interested in others, you’re a self-obsessed bastard like all of us, time to quit acting like a loser and be a champion”. No. That’s the end, or course: improving the quality of your social life; but the means is being a better person in all honesty, someone who others would like to be with and share things with because, damn, it’d be worth it! What can ever be wrong with that? In fact, we see so little of the above these days that suspicion is immediately raised when people seem to be genuinely interested in others. What can I say? Let’s stick to being nice for a change and see what happens!

After reading this book I didn’t come out thinking that I knew how to better “make people like me”, “win people to my way of thinking” or “change people without giving offense”. I don’t even want to make people like me or win people over; I just want to be kind to others for the pure joy of it! In all actuality, I now feel that the titles above are there only to lure unsuspected people in and help them, by the end of the book, get over the limitations and close-mindedness of wanting to “change people over to their way of thinking”.

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Review: Conspiracy Theories – The Pocket Essential Guide

Conspiracy Theories – The Pocket Essential Guide by Robin Ramsay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Conspiracies are real and by no means necessarily the product of a paranoid imagination. If this little book has a single message, this is it. But, as the Kennedy assassination showed, there is not just one big over-arching conspiracy. There are many smaller conspiracies, some of them competing, interlocking, overlapping…”

Insightful little book that shows how conspiracies are run-of-the-mill popular politics. Research into them, however, is undermined by the “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracy theorist” stereotype which has been fueled by deliberate government disinformation and distraction tactics (such as alien abductions and a great part of the UFO conspiracy paraphilology: who’s going to care about the real and very obvious conspiracies when there’s aliens out to get us?), propaganda and your standard simplistic, absurd, “over-arching” conspiracy theories: Jewish bankers, Illuminati, Masons etc.

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