Grapefruit said:

Any ever noticed that when someone has a real conviction that what they are talking about is true it can really appeal to you emotionally, making it very tempting to believe them even if it goes against your rationality?

I think this may be related to how tribal groups would respond to death anxiety and ensure survival. The tribal leader has to possess confidence in a set of beliefs that were likely passed down to him from the previous leader. By being confident and using as many tricks as possible to shore up the holes in the beliefs he acts as a central point to hold the tribe together and allow them to stay relaxed and focus within the horror of nature and maintain their existence.

Perhaps our modern day leaders are echoes of the past and represent a similar position. Only now the tribes have merged many different belief systems fight and vie for power causing internal conflict. For instance in cults you have guru lineage, and you see similar things with political ideas and religious sects, the master trains the apprentice to spread the word and shore up their followers. It could be that this is almost all there is to a belief system, a lineage, only it seems like more due to strong remnants of biological impulse from when it was essential to survival.

I wonder if this method of dealing with death anxiety is dying out in ways and we are transitioning to new group methods to better fit a larger tribe that doesn't have the same proximity to nature and resource. This could account for the diminished interest in groups, for instance in religion and spirituality within modern culture. Leading us to what people see as fragmentization and isolation and a lack of social values that were once important.

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Memories said:

Synchronicity of the collective consciousness!

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