“Conspiracy theory is never really a problem of intelligence. It’s an emotional wound that overpowers the higher faculties of the mind – and is, therefore, best treated not with a barrage of countervailing facts, but with reassurance, kindness, and love, for it’s here that the problem invariably began.”
Alain de Botton
I’ve been thinking about the proliferation of conspiracy theories and strange attractors during this pandemic. There are a lot of conversations around fear, courage, and the dark workings of this shadowy government.
Some are paralyzed by fear; others continue to live with an attitude of devil-may-care. In the middle, stand a diminishing few who are attempting to hold the tension between COURAGE and TEMERITY.
As the Aries season winds down, let’s take a look at one of its core superpowers, but also its most significant shadow.
Courage is not the lack of fear. To act in courage is to have a grounding in reality and its facts. To act in courage, one needs to be prepared in knowing that what they are facing could destroy them (figurately and symbolically), but they forge ahead nonetheless.
To act in courage is to hold the tension between the rational and the heart. One can act in courage when they have the backbone to face the facts and yet answer the call of the heart.
It’s not a devil-may-care attitude. It’s not hubris-defying the mysteries of life and death. Courage accepts the existence of death and its powers. It’s not poisoned by immature bravado.
The shadow side here is the vice of TEMERITY.
Temerity means unreasonable contempt of danger or opposition. The etymology of TEMERITY highlights its dangers. It’s related to BLINDLY, DARKNESS, GLOOM, and even OPPRESSIVE.
Temerity is not courage, because it’s blind, and it refuses to SEE with the eyes of REASON.
As a culture, we often mistake COURAGE with TEMERITY. We applaud the daredevils who defy the gods of reason and authority. They become lightning rods of belief fervor, stripping away the need for the coolness of reason.
We are a culture that exalts BELIEF over THINKING. We love to say ‘I believe…’ and the hidden message here is that because “I believe,” I don’t need to respect the voice of reason. Aspects of reason have been rebranded as ‘fake news’ and ‘conspiracy theories’ but not just the most fervent in the cult of believers, but also by those who would seem otherwise ‘rational.’
Courage is to be exalted, but temerity should be feared. Temerity is a berserker disseminating chaos and confusion. It’s easy to get confused because our culture doesn’t know how to distinguish the two.
The products of TEMERITY are dank darkness and oppressive gloom.
After the first hooray, the reality of its byproducts reveal its truth.
In the basement of the American Soul, these two dragons fight each other. At times, courage gains the upper hand, as revealed at the best of times in American history and its leaders. But at different times, the dragon of temerity wins, with disastrous effects. What is even more disturbing about this struggle within the American Soul is that whichever dragon wins, so follows suit the rest of the world.
America isn’t like Las Vegas, where what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. What happens in America spreads to the rest of the world, permitting other world leaders to release either their courage or the temerity dragons of their own psyches.
As citizens of America, we each hold the tension of these two opposites of COURAGE and TEMERITY. We are the thread in this cultural fabric. When we point the fingers at our leaders, we are missing the point that it’s also our responsibility (as in our ability to RESPOND) to acknowledge these two dragons that are fighting within ourselves.
When we lean towards vouching for conspiracy theories, dismiss reason, and fall on our knees at the church of unreasonable and immature belief, we are each feeding the dragon of TEMERITY. When we keep our minds flexible and present in the face of trying facts, and we respond with measured actions, we are feeding our COURAGE dragon.
What we are seeing playing out on the world stage with this pandemic is much more than a health or economic crisis. This is an age-old philosophical struggle between those who hold the tension between creating a world where there’s space for both reason and heart, and those who in their wounded fears, prefer to dismiss the need for nuanced and sensitive approaches to problems that they refuse to engage with in a conversation.
What we are witnessing is the intensification of a BELIEF WAR. One that never left us since the bygone days of the Dark Ages. We have another Crusade in our front yards. It will take much courage to face our collective anxieties about ambiguity and complexity. This pandemic is just one of the many issues that will crop up again and again until we come to terms with our two dragons: COURAGE and TEMERITY.
As for Aries. This archetype teaches us that as humans, we have the innate drive to forge ahead, to stake our claim, and stand our ground. It teaches us about how we make changes, go after what we desire, and also create boundaries between self and others. Somewhere in our birth charts, we have Aries, even if we don’t have planets in this fiery sign. It’s in this place within ourselves that we see the dragons of COURAGE and TEMERITY face each other.
