Chemtrails

6/28/07  FCA

Chemtrails are supposedly some sort of government plot to dumb down the population by spraying chemicals out of airplanes. What are normally known as condensation trails, contrails, are seen by the chemtrails people as an evil plot. 

I went to a local lecture abut it and the presenters, including Jim Berkland, the earthquake guy, my adult school geology professor, made an appeal to evidence that was irreproducible and unverifiable. One repeated point is how the skies are no longer as blue as they were prior to 1999, and that the clouds look “greasy”. How in the hell can anybody prove that? They showed all cumulus clouds as evidence of prior atmospheric health, whereas cirrus and stratus clouds, high clouds, which are the same general shapes as supposed chemtrails and dispersed contrails, were never shown or spoken of in their natural state. It was hopelessly partial (but show me something that isn’t). Now I can’t say that I’m not partial too, but I like to think I’m not a crackpot or that I can distinguish obvious faith material from science material. “Googling it” was the main source of evidence, but that is not a definitive proof. The chemtrail guys are very weak on evidence and methodology.

Yet it was emotionally satisfying for them to beat the war drums. I can see that. Being an alarmist has its appeal. One of the lines is that it is not a “theory”, it is a fact, and this leads right to the heart of the matter. Who gets to say how things are? Theory or not, fact schmact, the issue is one of assigning causality and constructing an explanatory narrative that says how things are. In my opinion, how things are hinges not on any facts but on apriori assumptions; that seems to be the way people work, even the hard scientists who all fit and work their evidence into the going paradigm until the paradigm shifts and things can be seen another way. It is not really about being falsifiable then, it is a matter of inertia. There are no facts and the conspiracy folks and the blind faith folks exploit that weakness in human thought.

I see that the chemtrail guys are like me in many ways, disillusioned with technology, the military, they notice pollution, extinction, the fouling of our nest, they see modern health related issues with dirty air. But these things have actual explanations like Chinese industrial dust storms, auto pollution, smokestack pollution etc; there are actual causes. You don’t need a conspiracy to come up with bad air. These people are alienated and powerless, cut adrift in a modern world of individuals hungering for meaning and belonging; so am I.  I can see where the soil is fertile to the facile mind.  It is satisfying to be able to place all moral blame outside of oneself, to be the honorable victim. Yet this runs against the grain of obvious self-help, universal, perennial philosophies that locate the nexus in one’s own heart, one’s own self. That is where the answer is, in the frigging mirror! (I see this as making it a one way street, I take control, the two way street stuff leaves me open to all the exteriors, and since I have so little control anyway, why not grab what control that I can?)

The chemtrail in-crowd also includes folks who have serious toxin fear, which is strong in the health food, organic, natural foods scene. But here again, there is plenty to worry about already with bovine growth hormones, antibiotic laden pork and unlabeled genetically modified soy, corn canola and rice. No need for a conspiracy, things are tough already. (Toxin schmoxin, the grim reaper is after your ass and no amount of colon cleansing is gonna stop him.)

I like the constant reference to “them” and “they” while never giving any information that leads to any plausible links as to who “they” are. The presentation reminded me of A Beautiful Mind, making connections that weren’t there. It is very creative, logic is used, but the foundation is flawed. Could there really be a global covert operation to spray fungus on us, that the perpetrators would then have to breath themselves? It is so outlandish as to be really entertaining. I can’t take it seriously other than in a curious way, to see what makes the scene tick.