How to Sabotage a Philosophy

[APeacefulWarrior]

Pointing the finger at supposed negative individuals or groups in the world is a great way of raising paranoia and a bad way of protecting oneself from what they do.

This is an excellent point that I wish more people would grok. Those who seek to profit from fear therefore profit from being feared. All one really has to do is look at any of the many so-called "conspiracy theory" websites online, and see how nearly all of them are spiraling inwards to the depths of a paranoia that basically has no limits. They come to see enemies everywhere, to the point they cannot even recognize friends. (Or else become so tribally-minded that they define friends solely by "those saying the same things as me.") Once that happens, they are effectively neutralized in terms of having any positive effect, and very often end up causing many negative effects specifically because they are internalizing and reflecting the negativity they perceive to be all around them.

Or put more simply, whenever one screams about the "Illuminati" or whatever poorly-defined shadowy group they fear, all they're doing is giving that group free advertising. That they rarely manage to correctly identify their foes is merely icing on the cake, to the fearmongers.

I know it's cheesy to quote Star Wars, but there's much truth in Yoda's line about fear leading to anger, hate, and suffering.