The Addiction To Delusion

 

I started The Second Sun blog in 2015 to discuss delusions and to serve as my personal soapbox. This is my fourth blog and my most important one since I believe that the greatest threat to humanity is our own delusions.

I believe that the antidote to delusion is critical thinking, which is something I regularly see drifting away into outer space. We all believe what we want to believe, especially when it gives us comfort or confirms our own biases.

Sixteen years ago I started blogging because as an environmental activist I was frustrated with the constant pushback that I was getting. I just wanted to promote initiatives that made logical sense, to me, at least, yet my work was blocked, stopped, or argued down at every step.

By far, my greatest hero is Teddy Roosevelt who fought hard for the environment and working class. He worked on both liberal and conservative causes and his mantra was: If you see a problem, go after it and fix it. This is how I define a true progressive.

To make solid accomplishments you must have a firm grasp of reality, and that's where we've lost it here in modern America. Our current politics depress me and suck the life out of me. All we do anymore is rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, and we spend more time arguing about where to put them than we do moving them.

The Anti-Greta

It's not surprising that a conservative think tank is now backing a young climate change denier named Naomi Seibt. This is the same organization that has a long history of being tobacco friendly. And where do they get their funding? I will just say their funding comes from nefarious sources who have a vested interest in fossil fuels. In other words, the funders are rich, greedy bastards who desire immediate profit at the expense of our planet's future. And again, it wasn't surprising to see the Anti-Greta speaking at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which is the place where human brains go to die.

Cults

Let's jump forward to cult behaviors, which sucks the brain of rationalism and replaces it with some delusional mythology. Cults are a concern to me because they put a sizable portion of the world's population into a mythical Happy World. Once in some ideological cult a person's ability to address real world problems diminishes.

One of my favorite YouTube shows is called Telltale, hosted by Owen Morgan, which is devoted to cults and oppressive religions. According to the show's host, cults abound in our culture and even include a new one, called the Fat Acceptance Movement.

Morgan puts cults into three categories:

• Level 1 Cult - Decentralized, Non-Focused
• Level 2 Cult - Decentralized, Focused
• Level 3 Cult - Centralized/Hierarchical

Level 1 cults include anti-vaxers, essential oils promoters, flat earthers, and supremacists. Level 2 are groups like Trumpists, Bernie Bros, and other cults of personality. Level 3 cults are groups like Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Scientologists, Amish, People's Temple (Jones Town), and Heaven's Gate.

The criteria for the three levels of cultism comes from Steven Hassan's "BITE" model, which stands for Behavior Control, Information Control, Thought Control, and Emotional Control. In following this model I was definitely in a cult when I attended a fundamentalist Baptist church in central Florida for a couple of years. There was pressure in the church for me to keep my hair short and to wear double-knit pants instead of corduroy. I have no idea how double-knit pants made me a better Christian, but that was an example of how far these religious whack-jobs had ventured from reality.

And now, when the Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking at my door once a month I feel sorry for them. They are mechanical robots. I look into their faces and see the hollowness and emptiness in their eyes. I don't see how anyone would subject themselves to mind control, but yet most people do at varying degrees of severity. I want to look at these religious robots and say, "You know, you don't HAVE to do this. It's a beautiful, sunny day. Go do something you enjoy, or at least do something that really counts, like planting a tree." And what's more, I know they aren't proselytizing because they care about me, they are simply doing it to earn brownie points with their mythical being.

The point being is that any form of mind control is bad because you are injected with some sacred dogma and you're not allowed to question. When that happens, and when your free thinking is sucked away, the ability to critically analyze a problem in a balanced manner goes away.

Addictions

Self-destructive addictions are another form of delusion. I have seen people go to great lengths to explain away their drug, alcohol, and tobacco addictions. I can tell they've spent much time creating their narratives. Their first step was getting themselves to believe their justifications for self-harm and then they somehow think I'm going to buy their illogical reasoning, which now seems so real for them. But to me, it's an insult to my intelligence, and believe me, I've heard it all before. People will downplay, brush off, and rationalize their addictions. Please, you don't have to invest all that time trying to sway me. I know that tobacco, alcoholism, and drug abuse kills, or at the very least, causes permanent harm.

While it's devastating to see people I love caught in these negative feedback loops, it's equally heartbreaking to see our entire society suffering from addictions and then struggling to justify them. There are addictions to fossil fuels and affluence, and right now we are seeing the addiction to Camelot, which is a love for this idyllic place in American history where everyone was happy and everything was good. I have no idea when this time was but I see red hats that read, "Make America Great Again," so I'm guessing that Camelot was whenever "Again" was. Was it the Reagan era or the Kennedy era? More likely, it's a made up time when white people ruled and prayed in schools, while blacks were treated like second class citizens and gays were thrown in jail. There was no devil rock music then, except for Elvis, and everyone went to church on Sunday. Now, half of America has an addiction to the ethereal, mystical, time in our history known as "Again."

Reality

So, climate change deniers call themselves climate change "realists." And the new Anti-Greta, who has shown her support for the alt-right movement, is now being paid by a right-wing think tank to spout propaganda, which only feeds the delusions of the people who don't want to deal with the problem.

Let me drill through all the delusions and make a simple point: Climate change is based on science. Science is one of the few things in this world that is still hinged on reality, and I desperately cling to it. 

Now, when you get into Quantum Mechanics and String Theory there are a lot of weird, elusive things going on with matter and reality that we haven't pinned down yet. But our species is only 200,000 years old and we've only been doing formal science for 450 years, which is a tiny blink in our history. I am willing to bet that in another 450 years we'll figure out the remaining mysteries of the universe and figure out gravity, dark matter, dark energy, consciousness, and even the super-complex mystery of photosynthesis. In fact, just in the last two years scientists have taken major steps forward in understanding photosynthesis. And this process is important, since chloroplasts had to evolve to oxygenate the Earth, to allow complex life to begin.

And if you want to attribute the last remaining "unknowns" in science to a god, that is fine with me. Nature doesn't care what you do or believe. It only responds to what is real, which is why climate change is such a big issue with me. Yes, you can say that all four of my blogs have taken on the underlying theme of climate change, and, well, that is true. It's an issue that torments me day and night. You can call Greta and me climate alarmists, but I know that's just another addiction rationalization technique. I suppose you are just trying to protect your religious dogma or your way of life, and I get it. But if we don't all cling to reality then all hope is lost. No matter how many people the Aztecs sacrificed, their empire still fell.

Before you tell me that climate change is "bullshit," like several people have, I encourage you to educate yourself. The best starting point is the Union of Concerned Scientists website. Don't just drink the Kool-Aid propaganda — educate yourself. Be a critical thinker!

Sources:

• Heartland Institute Reluctantly Stands By Denial of Cigarette Smoking Risks, by Nick Surgey, PR Watch
• Who is Paying for Heartland Institute Climate Denial Palooza?, by Kert Davies, Climate Investigations Center
• Naomi Seibt: Anti-Greta Activist Called White Nationalist An Inspiration, by Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Emily Holden, The Guardian
• Telltale website
• The BITE Model of Influence, by Steven Hassan, Open Minds Foundation
• Finally, the Mysterious First Part of Photosynthesis Comes Into View, by Morgan Sherburne-Michigan, Futurity

Photo: Fares Hamouche