The Ulterior Life
Phronesis File—A Dunce of Conspiracies
Our political life is crammed with talk of “conspiracy theories.” We all have opinions about how various public events or newsworthy circumstances came to be. Some of our theories will simply be wrong, comprising premature and careless judgments, requiring a fresh dose of remedial facts. Human tendencies toward confirmation bias and custom-made realities have created a lot of negative baggage for conspiracy theories!
But we too readily marginalize folks we call “conspiracy theorists.” Using this term, we categorize people according to one ideology or one suspected mode of behavior. We want the curious, the skeptical, and the analytical to stick to a comfortable script. Don’t they realize that these are urgent times, demanding quick action and prompt agreement—or at least these are impatient, emotional times, demanding minimal debate so we can get on with our narcissistic multitasking?
This complex world needs people skilled at engineering and reverse-engineering who enjoy studying the combination of tools, talents, processes, and motivations by which accomplishments occur. These analysts help us answer the “how.” We need others with a philosophical inclination who tackle the “why,” and still others who simply love investigating the “who, what, when, and where.”
Post-modernists might object to such questions because of their old-fashioned focus on “reality.” Leaders of the post-truth mentality say reality is explained better by conceptualization than by nitty-gritty investigation. The search for truth, which helps us correspond with reality, is therefore outdated, using tools which are less efficient and effective than a newfangled quiver containing psychology, propaganda, and raw power.
This conflict is complex. Several different generations, all active in the US population mix, define reality and its role differently, but they still must collaborate with—and persuade and learn from—each other. Many people in their 20s up to their 50s need today’ media to be influential in the public square. But they are less interested in the who/what/when/where/why/how motif of journalism. Meanwhile, a significant population aged 55 and over clings to that schema of objective truth-seeking. Boomers see a daily stream of emotions, talking points, and fervorinos encouraging the “in” crowd of true-believers as a betrayal of old-school journalism.
Of course, neither the just-the-facts mandate nor the just-the-fervorinos approach is perfect. The “news pyramid” structure in “objective” journalism, for example, places more important facts higher in the story and omits facts that do not fit a lean, trim article, so there is a subjectivity inherent in the fine-tuning by reporters and editors.
There is fertile ground for the growth of conspiracy theories.
First, our built-in desire to make sense of things prompt us to pursue constructs that affirm we’re thinking clearly and lining up with our comfortable reality. We figure the public actors we observe, the heroes and villains in the narrative we follow, must also be acting in alignment with our expectations. Nudge, nudge, that probably extends to “behind the scenes.”
Second, media organizations deeming it a service to filter out information which contradicts their audience’s orthodoxy (and is therefore wrong) have a larger “news hole” (forgive the old newspaper term) available for their side of the story, for imaginative polemicists or aspiring pundits who want to garner more social-media clicks. Stories “serving” various ideological camps can be wilder and can stretch the envelope more because counterfactual insights which might have pushed back or planted doubts simply don’t exist in the package.
My biggest concern is that today’s gradual process of dumbing-down the news is paired perfectly with the worst of “conspiracy theory” thinking.
Although the digital world offers more access to more truth/reality than ever, many lazy theorists support modest expeditions fishing for data that capture only what will affirm their worldview; they fail to realize an important thing about the burden humans face. The more information we consume, the more we should use it well to take in the “big picture.” With great power comes great responsibility.
In general, I want to stand up for the free-wheeling exercise of curiosity and investigation. This is a stance Pope Francis has taken in his annual World Communications Day messages. He has urged journalists and news consumers alike to dig more deeply, listen to more voices, and accept more surprises.
Are we afraid of curiosity killing the cat, or sending us down dangerous roads, or getting us canceled? An honest, humble focus on seeking authentic truth provides the necessary guard rails for persons of faith—and for persons of science!—against reckless driving. Catholicism says a love of the really real will ultimately point us toward Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. Commitment to the truth will regenerate trust in society, just as commitment to Christ as the truth will regenerate hope.
Trust is indeed the biggest concern about today’s “cold war” of conspiracy theories. Everyone might look like a potential conspirator, especially in a world where many of us see a collection of labeled groups and sheeplike audiences—not unique, free, independently thinking individuals.
We must beware because, while conspiracies unite people in a sense, theories built from small facts and big egos only polarize people. More inquiries into private orthodoxies could lead to more calls for the silencing of misinformation and disinformation, generating still more suspicion. Only more truth-telling and truth-seeking will stop that downward spiral.
In the best of all worlds, a desperate hunger for a fuller truth that transcends our flights of fancy will turn people’s eyes heavenward. We will see in Christian faith an amazing combination of transparency and mystery that explains things with the brilliance of the Book of Job and the Good News of Jesus. Our curiosity will focus on the Kingdom of God as the compelling reality where we can be openly collaborating, not secretly colluding—in a community of creation, in communion with the Creator.
This reminds me of a Catholic preacher’s insight. He asked: What is the difference between a paranoid and a mystic? And he answered: The paranoid sees in the world a conspiracy against him. The mystic believes there is a conspiracy in his favor.
Pandevotional Prayer/Reflection
Our pastor at Our Lady of Victory Parish in upstate New York used a potentially controversial word in describing the feast of Mary’s Assumption, which Catholics celebrate on August 15. He said the Lord extended to His mother the great privilege of joining Him in a way not yet afforded to other human beings—instead of dying an earthly death, being raised, body and soul, into heaven for all eternity.
Merriam-Webster gives this definition of privilege: “a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor … especially, such a right or immunity attached specifically to a position or an office.”
Our culture speaks today of a privilege that attaches to people because of their skin color. I will not argue about this meaning, but let me note that privilege, in the minds of Merriam-Webster and my pastor, is something granted directly to a particular person by dint of special circumstances.
The unusual idea of the humble Mary of Nazareth receiving a privilege prompts a couple of thoughts.
First, her assumption into heaven was not the first privilege God gave to Mary. She said yes when offered the amazing role of mother to Jesus, and she had already been granted liberation from the human curse of original sin. These were privileges that were hardly luxurious; as the Blessed Mother, she suffered a great deal and provided a lifetime of loving service to the Holy Family and to the Apostles.
When privilege is granted as part of an important role to be played, we can see clearly that privilege is best experienced as a gift that has been earned or which entails responsibility. It is not a pre-existing condition destined for ill effects. Some kinds of privilege definitely can be misused (because humans other than Mary still have our full complement of sinfulness), but we need to treat it as a purposeful blessing to be re-gifted.
Second, let’s examine the privileges we have received (skin color may be one of them) in order to discern clues to the mission of love which God has in mind for us. He is the giver of gifts like skin color. God has others in mind when He gives us gifts to be shared.
Our New York pastor offered a beautiful idea. He recalled how, when he was a kid, he came home from school every day and knew that his mom would be home to welcome him. During those years when it was less common for both spouses to have paid jobs, there were few things that reflected the strength of family love better than the mom’s sure presence.
This blessing gave our priest, Fr. Tom Morrette, a special sense of the love in God’s family. He commented that the Catholic belief in Mary’s privileged body-and-soul presence with her son is a comfort to all of us. No matter our earthly circumstances, we know we have our Blessed Mother caring and interceding for us in heaven, right up to our own deaths. In other words, we can say what Fr. Morrette was able to say throughout his childhood: “Mom’s home.”
Infokeeper – a fact worth remembering from current events
Rapper Chuck D, a venerable hip-hop performer and expert on the history of American popular music, offered timely insights on C-SPAN’s Book TV. Variety reported in February that he has released his latest in a series of original audio-books or book-music anthologies from the Audible company. The product, titled Songs That Shook the Planet, points listeners toward pieces of music that present Black voices on key themes from the days of the civil rights movement.
This sagacious performer, who first gained fame as co-founder of “Public Enemy,” spoke at an event in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
During his remarks, he directed music-lovers to songs, such as Stevie Wonder’s autobiographical “Living for the City,” with the firm instruction, “Anything you say you love, you should know thoroughly about.” Hear, hear!
He pointed out that rap, defined by Urban Dictionary as the act of talking over a beat, has in its DNA the instinct to honor the spectrum of Black music. It is a portal into the content and context of African American history. Hip-hop songs have served as a great “introduction” to previous songs that tell powerful stories, Chuck D added. He noted the implicit salute to vinyl records and to DJs of an earlier generation who served as curators and historians educating Black listeners.
Here is one more historical datapoint that is worth knowing. The term “podcast” was invented in the early 21st century to define a digital file that could be “broadcast” and played on individuals’ iPod personal music devices.
That’s the Spirit—an experience of God
TV’s Food Channel brought me the latest addition to my stockpile of inspirational words: gursha. A program last week, focusing on the cuisine of Ethiopia as it is served up today around Washington, DC, saluted that country’s cultural combination of hospitality, relationship-building, and one’s daily bread.
The setting is festive, though not a huge feast. circumstances are profound. The daily bread is called injera. It is a spongy and resilient material, served as a giant flat circle (a kind of family-sized tortilla). Diners are participatory, not passive. They sit around the bread and the accompanying stew (wot), and they lean in to eat with their fingers; gently tearing off a piece of injera, they grasp some of the meat and vegetable and then consume their envelope of goodness.
Their collective eating is the real package of goodness, generating a sense of abundance and appreciation. It finds its ideal expression in gursha.
Those who celebrate this spirit include the Comboni lay missionaries, a group that helps to bring the Catholic faith to various countries. They devote a page of their website to gursha, the term describing this situation—“when another person who is dining with you unrolls a strip of injera, wraps it around a tasty bit of wot, and then feeds you directly by hand. It is the final breakdown of the notion of personal space! The trick is to take it without letting your mouth … [contact] the person’s fingers and without letting the food fall.”
The missionaries online praise Ethiopia as a place where “food is always shared.” They cite the country’s axiom: “Those who eat from the same plate will not betray each other.”
This act of selflessness at the heart of the country’s culture is a reflection of solidarity spiced with very practical wisdom. In any locale where food is a hard-won treasure, fellow travelers meeting their everyday challenges must trust one another and reinforce common-good thinking.
Acts of trust are necessary everywhere, whether or not they involve food. Sadly, many people in the US find it more difficult to live a life of trust nowadays. They are reluctant to sacrifice their personal space; they protect their shelter-in-place homes with high-tech gadgets. And they often control and customize their dinners, eating them alone.
The Ethiopians I saw on TV would argue that meals should be times of spontaneous encounter. That entails a certain amount of planning and a certain amount of mystery—trusting the setting, food, and people to interact according to a recipe that is not completely written down or “baked in.”
Participants’ reactions may differ, some food may fall. But the custom must be preserved because it helps retain a certain approach to life.
This reminds me of another dinner scene—the Last Supper as recorded in the Gospels. In that place and time, and in every Mass in our own age, God joins us in a kind of gursha. Thus, there are two breaking-bread experiences we can ponder and imitate. They both help us to express, and build up, an essential trust in the grace that comes from realistic, practical humility. We offer hospitality and pursue solidarity not because we are uniformly virtuous, but because we are uniformly vulnerable. At the same time, we strive to deserve the gift, and we are empowered by the mystery that is uniquely true: the Real Presence.
Now that we are participating in the National Eucharistic Revival initiated by the US bishops, perhaps the gursha is a tool for evangelization and the Eucharist is an edifying response to our materialist mind frame. So much of our consumer culture tells us to take things lightly and to falsely inflate the value of foods and many things which frankly are a “false presence” of goodness and happiness. This idea might be “food for thought.”
Just Kidding—wit waiting to be used
A comedian observed that, if you watch golf on TV and then play it back in slow motion … there’s no difference!