For years conspiracy theorists of various stripes and colors have been trying to convince the public that everything is not as it seems. They contend that we are not being told the truth—instead, we are being fed carefully concocted set pieces designed to affect a certain outcome. The result could range from a simple misdirection of scrutiny away from supposed secret cabals or a complete fabrication of a historical event. Whatever the means, explains this fringe community, the desired end stay the same—the concentration of power in the hands of a furtive, hidden few.
Conspiracy believers have traditionally been dismissed as cranks or grouped with the lunatic fringe. This characterization has made it particularly easy to dismiss them, especially when their claims are subjected to tests of validity such as Occam’s razor, faulty logic and falsifiability.
But what are we to think when the government is caught in a lie? By this I mean not just a governor lying about his infidelity, or one using her stature as a public figure to defray legal costs, but entire departments of the federal government. Lately two instances where the people were either told outright fabrications or lies of omission were uncovered: the Lejeune Contamination and the withholding of research into phone use and distracted driving by the NHTSA.
In the Camp Lejeune water scandal health officials claimed for years that contaminated water posed no danger to Marines or their families, a stance which was reversed this April with the government admitting that over three decades a million people may have been exposed to the benzene in the water. This latest in a string of water quality failures nationwide flies in the face of reports that tap water is safer than bottled because federal regulation makes it so.
Driving while distracted is as dangerous as driving drunk. Using a hands-free device does not mitigate against the risk, because it’s the conversation itself that takes away attention from the road. This would have been the finding in 2003, had research and warnings been made public by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Instead, potentially life-saving information was moth-balled because the agency was warned not to lobby states. In essence, it had double-guessed its mandate to protect motorists and caved in to political pressure.
Do these failures then give credence to the wolf-cry of conspiracy believers? Not so fast. I find that when dealing with such unwieldy bureaucracies, it seems far more likely that incompetence accounts for such cock-ups than does malice, to paraphrase Hanlon’s razor.
So what do we do now? Always be vigilant. You may have seen ads on TV and other media extolling the virtues of tap water over the bottled variety. For most of us, it’s likely true. But before you abdicate responsibility for your family’s health to the government, have your water tested, and don’t settle for doing it once. Sure, it might prove pristine the first time it’s tested, but years or decades after some catastrophe could make it’s way into your glass.
Don’t scoff at science. It’s too easy to dismiss research that says cellphone use or texting/eating/putting-on-makeup-while driving is as dangerous as drunk driving when you are able to get from point a to point b hundreds of times since you’ve been going on your daily commute. Easy enough until you become a statistic for the first, but hopefully not the only, time.
Cohen, Aubrey. “Tap water more closely regulated than bottled water, GAO says.” The Big Blog Seattle PI July 8, 2009 July 21, 2009 <http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/173260.asp>
“Conspiracy theory.” Wikipedia Wikimedia Foundation, Inc July 21, 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory>
The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten. July 20, 2009. July 21, 2009 <http://www.tftptf.com>
“Hanlon’s razor.” Wikipedia Wikimedia Foundation, Inc July 21, 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor>
Jefferson, Cord. “Paging Erin Brockovich.” Good Magazine July 17, 2009 July 21, 2009 <http://www.content.good.is/post/paging-erin-brokovich.html>
Richtel, Matt. “U.S. withheld data on risks of distracted driving.” New York Times July 21, 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/technology/21distracted.html>
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