Idea to ponder: believing in conspiracy theories as explanations of events is similar to believing in a god or gods. Both are products of the human tendency to ascribe intelligent design and planning to patterns and complex phenomena, an instinctive bias part of the human psychological makeup.

Posted by: Zed | http://www.mememachinego.com/ | Fri Feb 14 21:38:08 2003

Yes, we're storytelling creatures. Of course, saying that everything is explicable through insensate physical law, or that conspiracy theories are inherently impossible because big secrets can't be kept are just other explanaitons of events, other stories.

Posted by: Doug | http://www.reallyquiteunlikely.blogspot.com | Mon Feb 17 01:49:18 2003

The most rational of people in some ways are paranoids: they live in a universe of demonic efficiency where there is no room for coincidence at all. Everything that happens has a purpose relating to or a bearing upon them. To follow the last comment, they can see no narrative but one in which they are central.

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