Welcome to the Living Myth podcast with Michael Mead, where this shifting, changing world is looked at from a mythic perspective.

This episode addresses the rise of conspiracy theories and spread of falsehoods in conjunction

with the phenomenon of a widespread loss of personal identity.

Recent studies show that amidst radical social changes and growing levels of personal insecurity, many people feel a greater need to feel part of a group.

While being part of an in-group can relieve underlying feelings of insecurity, it can also involve a loss of true identity.

As the contemporary confusion between truth and lies intensifies,

Mead offers the age-old concept of a genuine act of truth

that can restore the sense of personal integrity

and also serve as an antidote that can reverse the spread of poisons in the collective body of society.

It is our mutual fate to be alive in an era of mass misinformation and rampant disinformation

and the promotion of big lies and conspiracy theories that generate cycles of falsehood-fueled rage on one hand

and a deepening sense of outrage on the other hand.

The development of mass communications in a world that is rapidly changing makes it possible for partisan groups

and digital influencers and basically bad actors to increasingly amplify the spread of falsehoods

that tend to lead to a sense of greater and greater mistrust of all societal institutions.

Yet, this seemingly growing problem cannot simply be reduced to a lack of the facts or a dearth of good

information, for it turns out that exposure to accurate information does not reliably

or consistently cause people to give up false ideas once they have been taken into a person's

inner system of belief. Recent studies about the issues generated by big lies and false beliefs and conspiracy theories

suggest that the ultimate cause of people becoming more prone to accept and to spread

misinformation derives from underlying

social conditions and psychological forces that are not easily understood.

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