The Dangers of Conspiracy Theories, Etc. | Hannah Arendt

[@matthewhollands5871]

Excellent talk, Herman. For myself, I have always found that when discerning truth in these and other situations, two extremely useful tools are Occam's razor and Cost/Benefit analysis. Many conspiracy theories posit things that are simply too complicated under careful examination to be plausible, or where the potential cost to "them" drastically outweighs any potential benefit. Human beings are rarely so ideological that they will act directly against their own interests (although it does happen occasionally), and of course, the more complicated a conspiracy the more likely it is to fail or be discovered. Again, great talk.

[@GadflyAcademy]

Greetings, Matthew...great to hear from you/connect! Yes indeed...I appreciate your points and may borrow them at some point if I revisit this issue(!) Hope this finds y'all well! 🙏🏻

[@chronotriggerfan]

Arendt's observations on totalitarianism mirror those of Eric Hoffer's in The True Believer. As an avowed "conspiracy theorist," I find myself consistently humbled by Ecclesiastes, where Solomon declares even the most erudite of wise men as vain. Yet we Orthodox Christians are still called to pursue Truth and truth - the transcendental Truth of Christ and worldly truth as best we can, forming two bars of the Cross we must carry. Wise as serpents, gentle as doves 'n all that. There comes a point when the collection of facts must cease and we must distill them into Wisdom guided by the Holy Spirit. St. Paisios warned of a supercomputer creating a dossier on all of Creation well before the Internet, which is also very humbling to the data-craved "conspiracy theorist"!