Saturday, April 01, 2006
Mulder's Razor
I think I'm going to coin a new phrase: "Mulder's Razor" for the tendency to believe that the correct answer to any question is the conspiracy theory, and to search for the conspiracy from the start. To be fair, perhaps we should call this "Wilson's Razor" as a tribute to the stand-up philosopher Robert Anton Wilson, so I can accept that version as well.
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3 comments:
Ha! I'm going to use it, with attribution, of course.
I'm not familiar with Wilson, but I've heard it said that so many people gravitate to the conspiracy theory because otherwise you would have to believe life and history is a series of chaotic events of which no one has any real control whatsoever, and most people can't accept that. I've heard this propounded as the reason so many people insist Kennedy was assassinated as the result of a conspiracy.
I tend to think that the more complex and irrational the conspiracy theory is, the more likely it is that the answer to the mystery in question is stupifyingly simple.
Another thing, conspiracy theories are just fun. Who doesn't love a good mystery?
All hail Mulder.
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