Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Straw Men Burn Best

The High frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) in Gakona, Alaska, directs a high frequency radio signal into Earth's upper atmosphere to study how the Earth's atmosphere affects radio signals. The project has been controversial since its inception.


We all know a photograph (or satellite imagery) cannot lie. So when a circular anomaly appeared on some weather maps of South West Australia in early 2010 it was offered as evidence that the HAARP was causing anomalies in Australian weather systems.


The rise and rise of conspiracy theories that explain natural disasters as man made perhaps reflect a greater shift to a secular society. Previously, conspiracy theories explained natural disasters in terms of perceived immorality that inspired divine retribution in the shape of drought, or flood, or earthquake or fire.


If natural disaster can be averted by right behaviour and prayer then perhaps it can be forestalled, in modern times, by unmasking political conspiracy and rogue science. Either way, a little witch burning - there's not much difference in the mind between science and witchcraft, is there? - seems to have a calming affect on the human spirit.

2 comments:

  1. Yes, the notion of an 'act of God' appears to have flown out the window representing a shift to secular thought. We appear happier when we have someone or something to blame rather than just accepting what is. In other words, we love a 'witch hunt' and emply all kinds of strategies in order to find the perceived enemy. Witchcraft was and science is, involved in the fantasy that they can control nature forces.

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  2. I suspect that there are a lot of 'conspiracy theorists' out there. Brecon (via mobile text last night) says I should keep an open mind and that Parkistan and Haiti floods are attributed to HAARP.

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