Maylight

Here are the shots of Maylight from tonight.... like the band on the whole - why did they only play 15 minutes though....?

On a completely unrelated matter, I was looking at some tsunami comments I'd made on an old blog. It's interesting that they were viewed and not really commented upon. While I was working on the Three Estates New Deal for Communities project I tried to get a conspiracy theory group off the ground. This didn't happen, I guess to many people getting lots of 'paranoid' people together and letting them conspire together is not a good idea. What I thought could be achieved is using a group to explore norms and values within the area concerning what was generally considered normal to state - what was possible to talk about without feeling as if you're committing a faux pas. There are social rules about what is reasonable to state

What it may also have provided is a means to tackle the social stigma about those who don't have great faith in the establishment in Britain. Too often someone may come across as depressing or naive if they don't indicate any degree of confidence in the authorities - it's perhaps the complexity of the idea behind that kind of statement and broader awareness that's going to separate someone from being a 'nutter' who doesn't believe anything the government say from someone who expresses their opinions in a slightly more conservative manner and can come across as intelligent.

Conspiracy theory may also contribute to well being in some respects not undermine it: it shouldn't cause paranoia to get worse. Conspiracy theorising may perhaps even contribute to well being if done following certain guidelines -
It could contribute to understanding of political activity and then assist with awareness of how much control an individual has over social or economic problems;
It could result in plans of action which may assist with dealing with problems locally and doing something constructive;
It could contribute to setting norms within a group which may then influence norms in the locality which then contribute to social stability;
It could help reduce paranoid classification of individuals and self doubt over lack of faith in the authorities;
It may also reduce depression and negative self-images if a number of residents if they realise that they have relatively normal views that many people hold.

There are social rules about when and how to discuss conspiracy theories, which I assume are theories which are largely not recognised by the authorities as having sufficient credibility to be taken seriously, as opposed to what is considered credible, usually by the political establishment. A conspiracy theory is only an account of events which is not accepted by the political establishment who may have their reasons for ensuring that some theory is not investigated. Exploring this through a community group may have offered some opportunity to set group norms and thus reduce paranoia and depression which may be quite difficult to tackle outside of a social group and provide a means to ensure that residents can still participate in surveys, a number of communities of interest and place, use of local resources, influence over local resources and possibly even some decision making. If there were residents on the 3 estates who have more regard for conspiracy theories than what the government state then it may be reasonable to ask how they should be engaged in community groups. What is on the blog I wrote about the tsunami a couple of years ago is still there, it hasn't been removed by anyone so it's not impossible to speculate and survive.