Word of the Every So Often

acrimonious:  (adj.) bitter and sharp in language or tone; rancorous.  When the wedding vows became acrimonious, the rest of the afternoon became fairly obvious.

The Biggest Conspiracy of Them All

The biggest conspiracy of all is that there are no conspiracies.  All conspiracies were created by a special section of the government to take our focus away from what is really happening... and that is nothing.  There are no conspiracies.  9/11 was really a bunch of suicidal terrorists.  Oswald really killed Kennedy all on his own, and Jack Ruby really killed Oswald simply because he was angry.  Obama was born in the United States.  There is no “liberal media” conspiracy.  The gays have no secret agenda.  Jews, Christians, and Muslims, as well as everybody else, would really prefer to worship in peace and go home at night to their families after working at meaningful jobs all day.  All of the mass shootings are really just crazy people who have way too many guns and way too much time on their hands.  There are no aliens, zombies, vampires, the Loch Ness monster, or alligators in the sewers.  There are no secret government tests.  Vapour trails in the sky really are just ice crystals that are a natural part of the jets’ exhaust.  Fluoride in the water really does prevent cavities... and nothing else.  And vaccinations really do prevent bad stuff from happening, and the side effects are exactly what the experts say they are, and they really are experts.

And the list goes on, seemingly endlessly, with new ones being created every day.  And they all have one thing in common:  None of them is true.  And it doesn’t take a PhD to figure out why we insist that there are conspiracies:  People get bored really easily.  However, the government knows it doesn’t take much to give us something to do.  Look at Reality TV, the Academy Awards, Angry Birds, and online solitaire.  Look at Facebook.  Sudoku.  Crossword puzzles, and 5,000 piece, two-sided puzzles of utility access covers.  Look at bloggers and joggers and loggers who swear they’ve seen Bigfoot.

When we lived on farms or worked 14 hour days seven days a week in factories, we didn’t have time to get bored.  And even if we did, we usually didn’t live long enough to really have time to worry about how we were going to fill all that empty space yawning in front of us like an empty grave after we were given a golden watch and a hardy pat on the back.

But now we do.  And with all of this extra time, what everybody has come to realize is that the world is a mind-numbingly dull place.  And what the government has come to realize is that if people ever realize just how amazingly boring everything really is, then they might actually start doing those things that they believe others are already conspiring to do.  After all, starting a militia and planting real landmines has to be more exciting than playing Minesweeper.  So the government has come up with conspiracy theories to give us something to do... well, other than starting our own militias.  They have a whole staff they brought in from Hollywood.  After all, dreaming up conspiracies is really no different than dreaming up stupid plots for sit-coms week after week.  How is it possible that nobody notices that Bruce Wayne is really Batman?  What difference does it make!  How is it possible that seeing Elvis Presley dead, lying in a casket, really doesn’t mean he’s dead?  What difference does it make!  They’re all stupid ideas to begin with.  They don’t need intelligent explanations.  You don’t need to be logical when explaining the un-dead.  Conspiracies work because we’ll believe anything that even sounds remotely possible, and usually without question.

And the beauty with conspiracies is that they’re harmless.  Let people go on and on about who killed Kennedy, because in the end, there is nothing to “prove.”  It really was Oswald.  Prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse all you want.  Spend the rest of your life searching for Big Foot.  Sure, every once in a while somebody is able to prove a real conspiracy, such as Watergate or the whole Iran-Contra thing, and somebody might eventually even find Big Foot.  But that just makes it better.  Because if one conspiracy is true, based on the entire logic of conspiracies to begin with, then that means they all are true.  And any “proof” to the contrary – anything that proves that a conspiracy is non-sense – well... we all know that’s just part of the conspiracy, too.  And that includes any evidence that this conspiracy is not true as well.

We’re New and Improved!

The Incomplete Guide to English Grammar has added a few new features.  First, we’ve added a new tab over on your left, appropriately enough named “Features.”  There is where you will now find  Vocabulary, Essays, Book Lists, and Frequently Asked Questions.  As well, there you will also find a new section:  Say What?  In that section we’ll be looking at the idiocy of the English Language, examining such meaningless phrases as “Personally, I think...” and “New and Improved.”  Check it out!

Word of the Every So Often

fickle:  (adj.)  likely to change because of caprice, irresolute.  The fickle young man could never decide which social engagement he wanted to attend, much less which young lady he would take, so he ended up spending a quiet evening alone.

Word of the Every So Often

cognitive dissonance:  (noun)  the state of being where your brain (cognitive) is confronted with a problem you have no immediate answer for (dissonance); the ache in your brain when you’re forced to change long held beliefs.  After hearing a poem she really liked, the young woman was filled with cognitive dissonance after years of professing her profound and deep distain for all poetry.

Word of the Every So Often

corrective attentiveness:  (noun)  the act of listening to someone solely so you can point out why they are wrong.  The evangelist listened with corrective attentiveness to the young woman after asking her what her religious beliefs were.