So close and yet so far

I stumbled on a link to a talk given by someone named David Icke today.

In my opinion he really hit the nail on the head with part of what he was saying but -in my opinion- was pretty far from reality on other things.

His basic message:
a) People are controlled and manipulated by fear to serve an agenda that benefits the few at the expense of the many. Conflict is manufactured to generate a mindset that factors out higher level thought, creativity, and wisdom from the minds of most of us and puts us in a subservient and exploitable position.

so far so good.

b) He claims that a group of "reptilian" beings connected with Aliens, The Illuminati, jews, royal families etc. is behind this and has been 'pulling the strings' for thousands of years.

Fruit loops.

OK so here's my opinion: humans have been more often than not controlled by fear for essentially our entire existence. Controlled by the few at the expense of the many. By fear. But I really don't think external "boogeymen" are involved. No aliens, no Illuminati (in the sense of world control), the jews are not behind it, nor royal families.

It's just us. Doing it to ourselves. I think fear based control of the many for the benefit of the few is an emergent property of human existence. Some people find themselves in positions to exploit fear for their advantage and they do it. From Ancient rulers to Dick Cheney.

We are perpetually exploitable by fear because our brains are wired for fear having "trump card" power over other brain functions. See "The Three Pound Universe" by Judith Hooper for a great explanation of this wiring. The human brain's wiring evolved this way because during our evolution it was important for our survival. If we were digging out a mud hut or discussing where the buffalo were moving it was important that we drop that to deal with the Sabre tooth tiger lurking in the bushes. Fear needed to have trump card status in the brain or we were going to get eaten.

"The Three Pound Universe" goes into detail about how the higher functions of the brain are shut down by fear. Reason, abstract thought, complex language all fly out the window.

If you want to control people against their own interests it's essential to use fear. When fear is used strategically people will be unable to reason through what is being done to them. I think this has been known by power hungry people since the dawn of time. What evolved as a defense mechanism in the natural world is now exploited in the social context.

Why do people like Icke seem to get half of this right (control using fear) but don't get the other half right. IE that it's just us controlling each other as opposed to some over the top external force. Why the need for a grand conspiracy. I think the idea that we let other mere mortals control us this way just makes us feel bad about ourselves and we reject it. If this is engineered by other normal flesh and blood people then what does that say about us, who submit to it. What does that say about our country, our city, our family. It says were not all that we think we are. It says we are really kind of pathetic. We don't want to be pathetic.

But if our condition is the result of a grand conspiracy of aliens, Illuminati, royals and well placed jews then our condition is is not so sad. It's a bad position but not a sad and pathetic position. It's understandable. "Gee, given all that our condition might be even worse!" And we can get involved in a heroic struggle to overthrow our tormentors! Now we are feeling better about ourselves.

Similar in my opinion, is the conspiracy stuff surrounding the assassination of JFK. Despite there being no credible evidence emerging in 45 years of looking, many (most?) choose to believe that it was a conspiracy as opposed to Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone. People just don't want to believe that the world is so chaotic and capricious that a nobody, a dreg of a human being acting alone could kill the most powerful man on the planet and change the world. We don't want to live in such a world. Such an arbitrary and uncontrolled world. So we insist on grand conspiracies to make the equation add up in our heads.

If you look at what is called "progress" - social progress, technological progress, etc. it's based overwhelmingly on reason. The Manga Carta, the Declaration of Independence, Calculus and so on. So reason does intrude into the regime of fear but in my opinion the journey forward has just begun. Fear still trumps reason in relations between nations. The league of nations/united nations has so far gained little traction. They have been irritants to those who want to exploit fear to start wars but no more. The few control this world economically and do so largely at the expense of the rest of us. There is no such thing as "corporate democracy" at the moment.

A small slice of goodness (based on reason) has been carved out with a lot of effort and bloodshed but the journey is at an early stage.