Susceptibility for conspiracy theories

In a previous article I gave some definitions of conspiracy theories and reported about their pervasiveness, in this article I review some social-psychological papers on conspiracy ideation.

Lacking control in day tot day life causes fear

The desire to combat uncertainty and maintain control has long been considered a primary and fundamental motivating force in human life and one of the most important variables governing psychological well-being and physical health. For example learning details and training about a painful medical procedure can reduce anxiety and even lead to shorter recovery time.

In contrast, lacking control is an unsettling and aversive state, activating the amygdale, which indicates a fear response. It is not surprising, then, that individuals actively try to re-establish control when it disappears or is taken away.

Jennifer A. Whitson and Adam D. Galinsky show in their paper ‘Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception’ that participants who lacked control were more likely to perceive a variety of illusory patterns, including seeing images in noise, forming illusory correlations in stock market information, perceiving conspiracies, and developing superstitions.

Conspiracy theories… a long history and a new trend

Conspiracy theories in retrospective

Claims that rich capitalists are no longer out to make a profit, but to create a one-world government go back many decades now and it is always said that it is really going to happen this time, but it never does.

Since these claims have proved wrong dozens of times by now, it makes more sense to assume that leaders act for their usual reasons, such as profit-seeking motives and institutionalized roles as elected officials. Of course they want to make as much money as they can and that can lead them to do many unsavoury things. Revolving door policy, demagogy, manipulation and corruption must be denounced, but not be buried in intangible myths and conspiracy legends.

Dorling refers to sociologist Zygmund Bauman for a refutation of conspiricism. Look here for a video of Zygmund Bauman explaining his view on conspiracy theories. Both claim that there is not and never has been conspiracy of the rich:

“There has not been any great, well-orchestrated conspiracy of the rich to support the endurance of inequality, just a few schools of free-market thought, a few think tanks preaching stories about how efficient free market mechanisms are, how we must allow the few ‘tall poppies’ to grow and suggesting that a minority of ‘wealth creators’ exist and it is they who somehow ‘create’ wealth.”

“That there is no great conspiracy was first realised in the aftermath of the First World War, when it became clear that no one ‘… planned for this sort of an abattoir, for a mutual massacre four years long’ (Bauman 2008: 6). The men they called the ‘donkeys’, the generals, planned for a short, sharp, war.”

Proposition basic values movement

1. No violence, except as a legitimate response to repressive attacks.
2. Assemblies with maximum public participation. The consensus as a method of decision-making.
3. Cooperation and synergies, mutual aid. Dialogue to resolve conflicts.
4. Collective intelligence, encouraging debate and knowledge sharing.
5. horizontal system. No hierarchies and lack of permanent leadership, besides organic leadership, rotating and revocable in any specific area.
6. Impeachment of actual debtocracy.
7. Organizational transparency. The truth as a shared aim.
8. Environmentalism, protecting resources, decrease in consumption, and sustainability
9. Non partisanship, discarding the current system of political representation
10. Anti capitalism. The abuses of capitalism have caused our reaction
11. Humanized economy, giving priority to the common good, based on caring for each other and the world.
12. Self management. Capitalist slave-labor out of the system.
13. Secular spirituality. Any religious rule can not have any influence in the movement.
14. Health and educational systems for the growth of healthy people, leaving the allopathic drug system, and mass-oriented education to fit future work.
15. Inclusivity of every individual or group who respects these values ideology??
16. Revocability and continual review of these values

Participatory Economics

Author: Michael Albert

This is the second part of a speech delivered to a CNT Sponsored gathering in Barcelona, Spain, October 11, 2011, published on Zcommunications

Participatory Economics, or parecon, which the replacement for capitalism that I advocate, is built on just four institutional commitments.

Parecon is therefore not a blueprint for a whole economy. It is a description of key features of just a few centrally important aspects of an economy.

Parecon is enough, and just enough, for us to know that with parecon future people will self manage their economic lives as they decide.

#14Ja – World Day of popular assemblies

#WPAD : World Popular Assembly Day

SinceMay 15, 2011a movement unprecedented in form and substance challenges the”representative democracy”. This movement has spread fromSpainaround the world despite the countless media manipulation and police repression.

The probability of a global revolution has rarely been this strong.

Democracy is a political system where the “people” have the power. The words “representative democracy” are operations to make us believe that we are a democracy. But we have never lived in democracy; freedom of expression is not enough. In our political system, the masses give all power to a minority, without any control.

Wreedheden op Tahrir maar het volk geeft niet op – Cruelties on Tahrir but the people does not give up

The police shoots with real bullets

Liberty Park can be anywhere

Auteur: Tod Gidlin

The Occupy movement has much to gain from its symbolic eviction. But only if it evolves beyond Zuccotti

Forcibly dispersed in the wee, dark hours of Nov. 15, as pesky journalists were shoved away by the police, the occupants of Zuccotti Park — aka Liberty Square — were surely reminded that Michael Bloomberg was not only the mayor but, when all was said and done, possibly the best-known 1-percenter in Greater New York.

The mayor held a press conference later to say: “The First Amendment protects speech. It doesn’t protect the use of tents and sleeping bags to take over a public space.” Previously, the mayor had declared: “New York City is the city where you can come and express yourself. What was happening in Zuccotti Park was not that.” The protesters, he went on, had taken over the park, “making it unavailable to anyone else.” I suppose it could be said that any demonstration makes a given space “unavailable to anyone else.” And as for “expressing yourself,” well, that’s not what the First Amendment says, either.

Videos 11.11.11 Brussel – Bruxelles – Brussels

Video oorspronkelijk geplaatst op De Wereld Morgen

 

Nieuwe afspraak 10 december: Dag van de mensenrechten

Zie ook

P.B.: overbodig politie circus (ooggetuige-verslag)
Liberté d’expression et de circulation à la tête du client

Mars naar Athene: Perscommuniqué, 8 november 2011

NL

Perscommuniqué, 8 november 2011

Mars naar Athene

Waarom gaan we op stap?

Na de Europese ‘Indignados’ die in juli naar Brussel vertrokken, zijn wij met een dertigtal personen van alle nationaliteiten te voet vertrokken   op 9 november van Nice naar Athene langs Rome.

In de context van het betuttelen van Griekenland en daarna van Italië, willen we onze solidariteit betuigen tegenover deze twee volkeren en tegenover alle volkeren in de strijd.

Using a mailing list for information exchange between cities – Proposition Communication Workgroup Brussels November 4, 2011

Proposal: Daniël Verhoeven

Why?

We pleaded for reliable and transparent information exchange in our previous proposal. I will argue that only a mailing list is both, reliable and transparent. But there are two extra arguments: a mailing list has an horizontal structure and since mail is the oldest internet application, its threshold is very low.

I will argue by excluding other applications because they lack at least one of the four qualities mentioned.

Facebook. Facebook is not reliable. Fake id’s all around, so not transparent, plenty of manipulation all around too. Zuckerberg is collaborating with governments and police, deletes groups when under pressure, remember the oil spill in theMexicanGulf.

Scoop.it: Scoop.it is not horizontal. It is not clear to the users who is composing it behind the curtains.

The need for information and information exchange that can be trusted – Proposition Communication Workgroup Brussels november 4, 2011

Proposal: Daniël Verhoeven

Why?

In daily practice in the real world we trust information from people we trust, people with whom we maintain stable social relationships. These are people we meet regularly face to face. As to the social researcher Dunbar the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships is cognitively limited to about 150 people.

But what is trusted information in a movement wanting to span thousands of people?  The simple answer is: information that was released by some (general) assembly we attended.

There are two problems with this answer.

(1) We cannot attend all assemblies though we are interested in the decisions taken there. How is this information spread?

(2) How can we know that the source spreading some decision of an assembly can be trusted.

Today this is not clear at all because most information, for those who didn’t attend, is spread using the internet. Some people manage to make others believe that they are ‘representing the movement’. Let’s be very clear about this. They do not represent us.

Working Language for national and international meetings: English – Proposition Communication Workgroup Brussels november 4, 2011

Proposal: Daniël Verhoeven

Why?

Meetings in Brussels tend to be unilingual, bilingual or to become a disaster.  My experience with assemblies in Brussels is limited, but one I assisted was French only.  No translation at all.

The Assembly on the 8^th of October, when the Marches from the South arrived at Park Saint Elisabeth, used translators for French, Spanish and English. So it took plenty of time and ended in a rupture… It didn’t work. I’m in favour of sequential translation when only two languages are involved. But…

When national or international meetings take place inBrusselsone should at least consider what language the participants have in common. This will be English most of the time. When marching with the Meseta March, I was struck by the fact that French people and Spanish people did not understand each other. They had to use English as a bridge.

The Madariaga-College of Europe Foundation interviewed International Commission

The Madariaga-College of Europe Foundation recently interviewed Members of the International Commission from the Indignados Movement. The Foundation asked the Members about the Movements’ political proposals, how they are different to past political movements, whether coordination is possible and if the Movement’s demands are better channeled through a national, European or global level.

The interview followed a Citizen’s Controversy debate on 19 October 2011 at the Madariaga-College of Europe Foundation.

Over de krisis van het kapitalistisch systeem videos en grafieken

Auteur: Daniël Verhoeven

Waarom krisisen ontstaan in het kapitalistisch systeem, eenvoudig uitgelegd

Interview met Samir Amin over het Europees Systeem, nederlands ondertiteld