It's more frightening to realise that there is no conspiracy running the world, pulling to strings, and realise that everyone is not very good at their jobs and dont know much about the world.
A conspiracy is comforting, the reality of ignorance and incompetence is much more scary
"When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth." (Steve Jobs)
An always appropriate quote by Alan Moore regarding conspiracy theory:
“The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that
conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is
more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually
chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish
Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory. The truth is far more
frightening - Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.”
Certainly, conspiracies exist, but the tendency to believe conspiracies to be all powerful and omnipresent is essentially a religious belief, a kind of occult thinking. Better to believe the world is being run competently by sinister forces than incompetently by sociopathic bureaucrats.
You say that, but just a few days ago the Panama Papers were released. I don't buy into the worldwide conspiracy thing, but there's clearly stuff going on that others don't want you to know about.
Other than a list of names, what did the Panama Papers tell the world that it didn't already know? That the rich use offshore accounts and shell companies to hide their money from the government wasn't exactly a secret to anyone. For that matter, not everything revealed in the Panama Papers is necessarily illegal.
As yet, this isn't the world's reaction, merely Iceland's. From what I can tell, most of the outrage seems to be from governments wanting to know where their tax money is - popular outrage seems to be minimal.
Although to be fair, the momentum would probably take more time to build in larger countries with more diverse and complex societies.
Yes they're hardly competent to manage conspiricies. Just tawdry little deals deriving from this bizarre culture that believes its enemy is oversight & the citizenry.
A strong, responsible citizenry won't quake in fear and protects itself.
In Switzerland where rifle training is commonplace & one in every other house's larder. Bank robbers don't get far there, the citizens camly and responsible detain or kill them long before their efficient police even get there.
Sadly in Europe & the US the Executive fears and seeks to weaken, terrify & disarm their electorates.
Conspiracies do to politics what religions do to life: provide a framework explaining the inexplicable, in order to confort and indicate paths for meaningful action.
A conspiracy is comforting, the reality of ignorance and incompetence is much more scary