The Normalization of Blindness
How narratives, framing, and self-censorship erode logic — and why gifted clarity exposes what others look away from
The Logic of the Illogical
We live in a time when nothing seems logical anymore, and when logic itself is under pressure. Anyone who questions the official narrative is instantly neutralized by a single label: conspiracy theory. With that, the conversation ends before it has even begun. It is an intellectual weapon that disqualifies every form of dissent (Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009). Yet reality cannot be subdued by words. On the contrary: as events unfold at ever greater speed, it becomes increasingly clear that the official story cannot withstand the test of logic.
Narratives are not neutral descriptions of reality. They are carefully constructed frameworks that determine what is visible and what remains hidden (Entman, 1993). A narrative is not a report — it is a system of power (Foucault, 1972). From false flag operations to large-scale framing, stories are crafted not to invite inquiry but to demand obedience (Herman & Chomsky, 1988). Questions are not answered, they are labeled. The label conspiracy theory functions as a stopgap — a way to avoid addressing inconvenient truths.
Recent history provides countless examples of this mechanism. Most striking is 9/11. More than twenty years later, doubt is growing: documentaries, research reports (Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, 2019), and even students questioning their teachers show that the official explanation is riddled with cracks. At the same time, we face exponential debt mountains and expanding states: we are trapped in a financial system that is structurally bankrupt (Graeber, 2011). Debt is no longer a tool; it is a chain. NATO is presented as a shield for stability, but in practice functions as the largest organized violence system since its founding (Mearsheimer, 2014). The COVID-19 crisis shifted from a health emergency into a social fault line: the unvaccinated were excluded with an inhumanity rarely seen, as if humanity itself were a privilege that could be revoked (Agamben, 2021). And when former heads of intelligence agencies lead governments, as has been the case in several countries, we must ask whether we are governed or merely controlled (Chesterman, 2020).
The years 2020 and 2021 left behind scars that are rarely named. During this period, countless businesses were deliberately destroyed. Entrepreneurs who had spent years building their ideas and ideals lost everything overnight. Not because of mismanagement, but because of policy choices that left no room for alternatives. Many tried, often in vain, to save their people and their companies. Those who believe that starting over is simple are mistaken: in reality, only a few can. The rest were left in a vacuum of loss and uncertainty (Koltai, 2022). Families were irreparably split. Fault lines that will never heal. What was lost does not simply return. And yet, the cycle repeats: again and again, new groups are sacrificed to the narrative. I will never accept that narrative.
Parliamentary systems, too, are increasingly a façade. Debates may appear intense, but the outcomes of votes are often incomprehensible and defy common sense. Parties acting from rigid ideological conviction only reinforce this pattern. The result is politics as circus: grand spectacle, high cost, little substance. Those who truly think ahead do not last long in this system. Politics has become incident-driven: sensitive issues are systematically kaltgestellt, while structural solutions are postponed indefinitely. Mainstream media reproduce the dominant narrative, while alternative platforms remain divided and rarely move beyond post-hoc analysis. Crucial data required for genuine inquiry remains locked away (Habermas, 1989; Crouch, 2004). That fact alone speaks volumes.
Remote work is another case in point. It is often presented as the logical and efficient modernization of labor. In practice, the results are often the opposite. Productivity is not significantly higher, while absenteeism — particularly within government agencies — is alarmingly high (Eurofound, 2021). The emphasis on individualistic measures further reinforces social isolation. Where work once offered social context, it has now been reduced to screens and protocols. Contact is discouraged, encounters are minimized. The collective dimension of work — thinking, acting, and learning together — disappears. Education mirrors this pattern. What is presented as modern digital learning is often mere programming: standardized content with little room for critical thought or dialogue (Zuboff, 2019). Children do not so much receive education as they are prepared for conformity. In both cases, the concern is not efficiency or quality but manageability. A society of disconnected individuals loses the capacity for collective resistance. Opposition is no longer forbidden; it is simply rendered impossible.
Technology amplifies this trend. Digital surveillance, algorithmic censorship, and the rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) provide states and corporations with unprecedented power to monitor and steer behavior (Zuboff, 2019; Bratton, 2016). Where power once relied on visible institutions, it is now embedded in invisible infrastructures. Code is law. Control is no longer enforced through coercion but through the architecture of digital life itself.
Narratives also operate geopolitically. While the West legitimizes itself through the language of democracy and freedom, alternative power blocs such as BRICS are rising in influence. The result is a struggle over narrative on a global scale: who gets to define “order,” “security,” or “development”? (Acharya, 2017).
The willingness of people to conform to illogical or inhumane systems has long been observed. Arendt (1963) described this as the banality of evil: obedience without reflection. More recent analyses of mass formation (Desmet, 2022) show how fear, isolation, and meaninglessness make people susceptible to narratives that promise certainty. Blindness is rarely a lack of information; it is a collective conditioning.
Underlying these dynamics is the struggle over resources and ecological resilience. Many of today’s conflicts and narratives revolve around energy, food security, and climate (Biermann, 2014). Power cannot be separated from the ecological foundations upon which it rests. Whoever controls nature controls society.
Science, too, has been instrumentalized. Increasingly, it serves as a tool of legitimization rather than as an independent pursuit of truth. “Follow the science” during the pandemic was not an invitation to critical inquiry but a command to obey (Ioannidis, 2020). Science has shifted from a method of discovery to a means of power. A science that no longer asks questions but dictates answers ceases to be science.
It may already be too late to reverse the tide within existing structures. We are entering a period darker than most can imagine: institutions are hollowed out, words lose their meaning, freedom is replaced by manageability. Yet this does not mean we are powerless. The only way out is not through the systems that confine us but through awareness of our own strength and essence. As Jung emphasized in his analysis of individuation, the core of being human lies in the process of becoming conscious — the realization that we are more than roles, numbers, or categories (Jung, 1961). We are not objects of control but subjects of consciousness. Transpersonal philosophy and consciousness studies confirm this: the human experience cannot be reduced to social or biological functioning, but is rooted in a deeper dimension of being (Wilber, 2000).
As a gifted individual — a term I personally dislike, as it implies distance and should never be used that way — I am compelled to reason everything through. Clarity makes it impossible to ignore the logic of this era: the end is inevitable unless we realize that the solution lies elsewhere. Closer than we think. Nothing is accidental. We are beginning — without limitation — to express our natural state of being. What we do internally manifests externally. The veil of the timeline is no longer as thick as it once was. If it does not exist in your mind, it does not exist externally. And in that realization, every choice becomes significant. The ripple you leave is vast, unqualifiable, incalculable. You shift reality because you shift yourself.
In my own work, I have described this as the price of clarity: the burden and at the same time the strength of a consciousness that refuses to settle for the superficial narrative (Van Helvoirt, 2025). Dabrowski (1964) called this the dynamic of positive disintegration: the breaking apart of old structures so that higher development can emerge. Giftedness, in this sense, is not a label of distance but a form of existential closeness — a radical obligation to see and act clearly.
The logic of the illogical can only endure so long as we forget who we truly are. The moment we remember, it loses its hold. The deepest power lies in the collective realization that the human family cannot be broken. No narrative, no authority, no system can undo that. The question is whether we dare to awaken to that truth, precisely at the moment when the darkness seems deepest.
Note: References for all works cited (Foucault, Arendt, Habermas, Crouch, Zuboff, Desmet, Orwell, etc.) are available upon request.
Awesome