Ghostbusting is the latest political tool to bewilder hoi polloi. Unknown American ghosts are prosecuted over an alleged 2008 plot to overthrow and kill Costas Caramanlis!
Ted Goertzel points out conspiracy is a meme that is easy to propagate and difficult to refute. Having long flourished in politics and religion, they have also spread into science and medicine. The central logic of the conspiracy meme is to question, often on speculative grounds, everything the establishment says or does and to demand immediate, comprehensive, and convincing answers to all questions.
The imaginary ridiculous plan was hatched to thwart Caramanlis's efforts to improve energy relations with Russia! Caramanlis, who lost elections to Papandreou in 2009 in the wake of myriad scandals, advanced plans for a major pipeline to bring Russian gas to western Europe.
Unconvincing answers are taken as proof of conspiratorial deception. When an alleged fact is debunked, the conspiracy meme often just replaces it with another fact. When the conspiracy meme is reinforced by a regular diet of alternative videos and one-sided literature, it can become a habitual way of thinking. People who believe in one conspiracy are more likely to believe in others. http://venitism.blogspot.com
Prosecutor Nikos Ornerakis has concluded that some of the violence that erupted after the police shooting of a teenager in December 2008 was part of Pythia plot aimed at destabilizing Greece.
Scientific and technological conspiracies often allege the misuse of science by government, the military, or large corporations, and they include bizarre claims that the military suppressed technology that could make warships invisible, automobile or oil companies possess hidden technology that can turn water into gasoline, and the military is secretly in cahoots with space aliens.
Caramanlis pursued closer cooperation with Russia on energy issues, annoying American ghosts. South Stream gas pipeline, which will bring Russian natural gas to Greece and western Europe, rivals the Nabucco, the American backed pipeline, which will bring gas from central Asia to Europe.
Goertzel notes the conspiracy meme works because conspiracies do exist in the real world. Claims of conspiracy cannot be reflexively dismissed, but they are difficult to test because lack of evidence can be interpreted as proof of how cleverly the conspirators have hidden it. The first step in testing claims of conspiracy is to establish precisely what is being claimed.
Conspiracy quite loosely is an agreement between two or more persons to do something criminal, illegal, or reprehensible. But whether something is reprehensible is in the eye of the beholder. Conspiracy also usually implies something that is secret and hidden. Conspiracy is a secret plan on the part of a group to influence events in part by covert action. Conspiracies certainly do take place, and it may be that the most successful ones are never discovered.
The Greek government is so stupid that it hoodwinked all media that I was conspiring to trigger a war between Greece and Turkey and blame Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, for it! Accusing dissident bloggers of treason, Graecokleptocrats have manufactured a blood libel in cyberspace, which in turn incites hatred and violence. http://venitism.blogspot.com
A sensitive issue cannot be fully explained in a post, but only in a speech, in that magic eyeball to eyeball contact, baring my soul, and declaring truths that cause shock and awe. That's why I look forward to the invitation of your organization to speak at your conference. Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com
The conspiracy meme flourishes best in politics, religion, and journalism, where practitioners can succeed by attracting followers from the general public. It isn't essential that practitioners actually believe the theory; they may just find it plausible and useful to raise doubts and discredit their competitors. But this strategy should not be enough for scientists. Scientific findings are just that - findings, not speculations about undiscovered goings-on. These findings must be replicable by other scientists.
Trial lawyers have a great deal of use for the conspiracy meme because they succeed by convincing juries. It is part of the standard repertoire of memes they use to discredit evidence offered by experts of all kinds, including scientists. Lawyers focus on the motivations of the experts, on who hired them, on what they are being paid for their testimony, and so on.
They also seek out an expert who will testify on their side, implying that expertise is for sale to the highest bidder and that opinion is divided on the issue in question. The rewards can be very great if a class-action lawsuit results in a settlement against a wealthy corporation. Conspiracy theorists typically overlook lapses in logic and evidence by their supporters, but they are quick to pounce on any flaw on the part of their opponents.
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