Conspiracies are not the inventions of ignorant people. You need to be creative to mix facts and fiction (eg, assumptions) into a narrative that is (somewhat) believable. It’s probably safe to say that conspiracists are intelligent people with a (very) creative mind. However, they assume our leaders are (more) intelligent. What if that assumption is false?
The Dutch Financial Times published an interesting opinion on the corona impact by two professors, which contained the following phrase:
“Moreover, we know – also from recent research – that leaders in crisis stress have a tendency of copying each other’s approach. Questioning which leader does “better” becomes somewhat irrelevant.” Note: translation by LO.
In any crisis situation, there are certain default behavioural patterns: the fight, flight, freeze and fawn response (eg, Psychology Today, Wiki). Leaders copying each other’s corona response qualifies as a freeze response behaviour.
Politicians copying each other’s behaviour also show a Cover-Your-Ass approach. They can easily hide behind other politicians while avoiding accountability and/or responsibility (my blogs). Political survival requires plausible deniability (my blogs). In general, a freeze response would suggest mindlessness rather than competence.
The disastrous economic impact of the corona response has – subsequently – caused a fawn response. PT: “The fawn response involves immediately moving to try to please a person to avoid any conflict.” USA is spending several trillions (ie, a thousand billion) of dollars on corona relief packages. Hence, Trump’s corona response qualifies as a flight and a subsequent fawn response.
Sweden has been attacked by many for not adhering to the World Health Organization‘s guidelines. Their extraordinary approach qualifies as a fight response, albeit to the WHO guidelines. Some southern European countries had the notion that you could actually fight a virus and opted for a military type of lockdown and faced a disastrous economic fall-out.
By definition, any conspiracist must overrate the intelligence of her/his opponents. There cannot be a conspiracy when political leaders are pictured as mindless sheep. The conspiracy narrative requires devious and shrewd opponents. Its absence (indeed) erodes conspiracy theories.
The mindless corona response by many political leaders will accelerate the demise of 2 of the 7 Belief systems, being Politics and the Truth. Both will be replaced by Technology and – government mandated – Data/Info. China is showing us the way…….
Show Me The Way (1975) by Peter Frampton
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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