Single Bullet Theories, Roswell, and the Twin Towers
A few years ago, during a bout of seemingly endless unemployment, I took some freelance work proofreading college psychology text books. I’d taken one psychology course in college and loved it. But that class and an afternoon spent with my sister when she bought her very first DSM-IV and we self-diagnosed ourselves as post-traumatic stress disorder and separation anxiety disorder sufferers composed my only experience with psychology up to that point.
As I perused multiple-choice self-exams and text boxes with little “Did you know?” factoids, I began to suspect there might be significant things wrong with my psyche. Like all good students of psychology, by the time I was finished with the project, I’d done some more self-diagnosis. And I was sure I had what is called “self referential disorder.” I don’t remember what it is exactly now, it’s been a few years, but it’s a form of paranoia where you think everything is about you. The songs on the radio? The DJ is playing them just for you. You see a sign on the side of the road for Weight Watchers and you are SURE they were put there just to torment you about those extra five pounds you’re carrying around.
I’ve since become sure that I’m NOT suffering from this particular malady, but I have some empathy for those who are. Paranoia is self-perpetuating. The more paranoid you are, the easier it is to convinced that there is reason to be. I understand that.
But this really frightens me. I’m mean, I’m all for people being pissed at our current government, if that’s what it takes to get those hard-core right leaners out of power. But, seriously? Are things really this bad?
And you know what’s scarier? No one has even seen “World Trade Center” yet. What happens when the third of the country who subscribe to this form of conspiracy theory hop on Oliver Stone’s, a.k.a the reigning king of paranoia, bandwagon?
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:53 am
So, when I went into Safeway yesterday evening — mere hours after getting a double dose of horrifically disappointing job-related news — the fact that Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” just so happened to be emanating from the store’s speakers was, like, a total coincidence then…?
August 3rd, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Oh, I don’t know. After all, wasn’t the holocaust a complete fabrication? Obviously, because there are people who actually have the extra amounts of hours to plan *and* execute such elaborate hoaxes (likely the same people buying into said conspiracies).
August 3rd, 2006 at 1:13 pm
God, I think that I’m being drug to that horrible mans movie tonight. I just don’t wanna go, even if it is a free screening. Can’t a guy just be left alone to drink.
August 7th, 2006 at 10:43 am
[…] I know I just wrote a post a few days ago about how shocked I am that there are so many people who believe that 9/11 was a government-sponsored conspiracy. But, by the end of this movie, I was a firm believer that if the movie wasn’t depicting our current reality, it was definitely showing us where we could easily go. It’s a terrifying idea, which is what makes the movie so important. […]