Note: this is not a skeptic blog. I am a person of religious faith and do not reject out of hand anything that cannot be demonstrated using the scientific method. God cannot be demonstrated using the scientific method, yet I am sure He exists.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, Europe entered an extended period that has been called the "Dark Ages." In many parts of Europe there was economic and political chaos, and what is perhaps worse, there was a loss of knowledge. Many of the scientific, technical, and philosophical advances made during Classical Antiquity (the high-water marks of Greece and Rome) were lost. Many people sank into ignorance and economic blight. There was never a complete loss of learning, art, and the other trappings of civilization, but a great deal of what made the Roman Empire great was replaced by something darker and poorer. It would not be until the advent of the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century that learning and culture would once again be the underpinnings of European greatness.
It appears very likely that we are entering into a new sort of Dark Ages, led by an ever-growing number of people I call the "ignorati." The ignorati repudiate science, mainstream learning, and expertise based on real knowledge. They prefer to develop their worldview from information provided by people who don't know what they are talking about. The ignorati believe the world is divided between the haves and the have-nots, and there is an endless number of conspiracies among the haves to maintain their wealth and power at the expense of everyone else. Lies and disinformation campaigns are a major part of every conspiracy; people who don't believe these conspiracies exist are "sheeple," deluded people who swallow the endless stream of disinformation, and so are not in the know.
There are real conspiracies, of course: Watergate, Iran-Contra, the ridiculous and criminal antics of the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s. But to the ignorati, everybody in a position of wealth and/or power has been, is, or will be, a conspirator. All major professions are run by conspirators. Any event in the news is suspect, any position taken by a recognized expert who doesn't agree with them is a lie. The Centers for Disease Control are covering up the connection between vaccines and autism; presidents of the United States collude with aliens from other planets; archeologists don't want us to know the pyramids were power plants; cell phones secretly came from UFO technology; the United States government, that most malign of all agencies, is involved in endless lies, obfuscations, cover-ups, and dirty tricks. How dirty? Well, as an example, the alleged massacre of school children in Connecticut never actually happened! It was a lie concocted so the government has an excuse to take away our guns!
One of the craziest parts of this thinking is that believers can share their wacky ideas with a huge audience thanks to digital technologies and the Internet, all of which came from the very people they fear the most. For me, though, the scariest part of all this insanity is the repudiation of knowledge. Since the truly learned are part of the power structure, they are just as corrupt as politicians and bankers. Therefore, whatever they say is a lie, and anybody whose opinions diverge from theirs is to be taken seriously, no matter how ridiculous the argument. An excellent example of this phenomenon is the belief in Nibiru, which is supposedly a rogue planet in our solar system that is approaching the earth. This nonsensical idea has a convoluted history (which can be found on Wikipedia), starting with a woman in the 1990s who claimed to be in contact with aliens, who informed her of the planet's existence.
This idea was later taken up by a man named Zecharia Sitchin, a Russian-born economist and businessman who emigrated to England and then the U.S. He became interested in the ancient alien theories of people like Erich von Daniken and taught himself ancient languages, which he later said contained information about the existence of the planet Nibiru and the evolution of the human race via races from other planets. Sitchin, who is deceased, was an outspoken defender of his theories and wrote books on these subjects.
Sitchin was undoubtedly an intelligent and educated man, but not in astronomy, physics, or ancient languages, all extremely abstruse and technical disciplines. His work in those fields has been condemned by experts, but that does not stop many, many people from believing what he had to say, and concluding that the experts have conspired to keep the truth from the "sheeple." In order to believe Sitchin, a person is required to accept the idea that every astronomer in the world, and every expert in ancient Sumerian, is either a liar or a fool. The number of people willing to believe that can be estimated by going to Google or YouTube and researching "Nibiru."
Crazy conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, paranoia, baseless "history," unsubstantiated allegations, concocted evidence, repudiation of learning, suspicion of knowledge. How far are we from book burnings? It is vital that every reasoning person be aware of this awful development and fight it.
