Conspiracy Theories and Focused Energy
About a week ago my oldest brother called me to tell me about a 2 hour movie that was on the Internet about many different conspiracies. It's a funny relationship I have with my brother. We rarely talk, which is unfortunate, but when we get on the same page about a political or religious topic we end up talking forever. I am still soaking this video in before I call him about it.
Apparently this video has been around for a couple of years. Nothing in it was a shock to me or anything new to me. The url is http://zeitgeistmovie.com/.
The first thing that comes to mind is - wow I just watched a two hour movie online. Bandwidth is HERE!
Beyond that it talks about the conspiracy theories around Judeo-Christian religions with the purpose of convincing people to return to their pagan roots or at least to a renewed understanding of where some of this might have all began. As someone who questions everything and always have I have already gone down the path of religious conspiracies and how different faiths are similar and how the concept of creative commons already existed when it comes to how we created many of our mythologies. The battle among different faiths has always been incredibly silly to me - because the differences are so small and random. I do not mean to belittle other people's passion, I just don't understand the intense emotions around it all.
The video personally loses me when it suggests that there was no such person as Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus Christ (or whatever his birth name was) did exist the same as Moses, Sidhartha, and many, many other spiritual leaders. When I studied Buddhism in college what struck me was how pure Sidhartha's message was and how it became warped and corrupted as the message spread. Basically marketing lies and exaggerates and does whatever it needs to do to sell, not just in the world of business but in the world of spirituality as well. I think the same is true with Jesus. He was a great spiritual leader, one of many who have walked this earth but the stories that were told to spread his teachings were exaggerated and mis-represented of his actual teachings. Just don't argue with me on that point unless you want to justify the useless killings, tortures, wars, and more that have happened in his name.
The video goes on to talk about conspiracies in our government starting with 9/11. Alright that I can buy into, not because of the overwhelming evidence that is everywhere, but mostly because of my gut. I trust my gut more than anything. It rarely let's me down. On 9/12 I woke up, turned to my husband and said, "Bush let this happen." It was all so clear to me. Everything from that moment forward confirmed what was in my gut.
There are several other conspiracies in the movie, all that play well to the book 1984, possibly the scariest book I have ever read.
But I do not fear the future. I have listen to this video a number of times since last week and I ask myself why this information does not scare me.
Here's the thing. I am not oblivious to the fact that we are all being watched. Google is my friend in technology, but I do not trust them. I do not know how many people realize this, but Google's initiative for personalized search requires that they track your search history. The way they do that is by getting you to sign up for their various services and once you are logged in they start tracking. No one tells you this is going on. As soon as I learned about it I went in and found that option to suspend them from tracking my search history or web activity. Now, I put everything out there. I mean everything. I just signed up for a really cool service at Jott.com where if I use it to the fullest extent every moment of my life can be tracked. I am ok with that. But I suspended my Google search history just to see how it would affect my search results.
When I was watching the movie I would google certain topics as they came up. When they began to discuss the North American Union, I went to my search toolbar and typed in "North Am" and immediately Google suggested North American Union. Why? Of all the things I could have been searching, why did Google suggest that? I could have been typing anything in there. Google is not supposed to be tracking my search behavior and web history....but apparently they are.
I turned to the only person I know who is completely plugged in, Tim Moenk. He gave me an answer I could live with, that it was a video loaded in Google Video so it was responding like a Google adwords. That worked until later when I typed in "North Am" North American Union was suggested again. Eeeerrrrrie.
Alright, so here is the thing. Many people might react to this by saying they are not going to put their personal information out there. Some of my friends have made a more radical choice. They put it all out there so there is nothing left to hide. Nothing that can be held against them. I think that is pretty cool.
Now to the focused energy aspect. I still question why I do not get scared, freaked out, or whatever about these conspiracies. Here is what I think. My mom would watch something like this video or other bits of information that claim our rights are being taken and we will be slaves to the rich and powerful, believe it and take that attitude that there is nothing we can do about it. I look at it and say, "yeah - go ahead and try!"
Throughout history people have continuously gained more and more independence. Just the other night I was telling my boys some stories about my dad, who was very active in his union, and they asked what a union was. I started my explanation with the stories of how working conditions were when we had the fires in the factory that killed women and children, the fact that children worked, and the book Slaughter House Rules. I talked about how the Unions were not the most honorable institutions, but it took some drastic means to get to the outcome and that Union rights were actually where my dad and I differed in opinion, because I believed by the 80's unions were harmful.
So where does that leave me today? With hope. As I mentioned in the post about the Civil Rights exhibit, I am so proud of what people have been able to overcome. We have groups of people in this world who are small in comparison to those who were trying to dominate them or in some cases eliminate them, who have overcome the lies and the torture and abuse. I can not believe any effort to rule people could ever be accomplished. Especially today in a world where we are able to gather and collaborate unlike any time in history. There may be theories out there, some may be true, that there are groups wanting to use this technology against us. Well....let them try. I will not focus my energy on who is tracking what is in my life, I am focused on what good I can bring with what I do in my life.
On that note, I have been immersed in research related to social change, civil engagement, and so forth. The information I have found only continues to give me hope that we continue to build a better future every day. That is where we need to continue to focus our energy. Anything else that tries to scare us or control us should be ignored, because it simply can not and will not get in the way of the human spirit that has come this far.
