Birds Aren’t Real & The Malleability of Beliefs
What young people have to teach us is that in the absence of holding an engrained identity we can actually view the issues of our times more objectively
If you ever believed in Santa Claus and now you don’t, that would be proof that beliefs are malleable. And yet it seems as adults that our beliefs represent the very cannon of truth — that our beliefs become engrained into our identity.
Recently, I was engaged in conversation with some neighbors where I was sharing about a book I recently read that went deep into climate change. It was a friendly conversation that took a turn when one neighbor interjected that, “Global warming is a myth.” I admit I was a bit triggered by his comment, as I’ve read a number of books on the subject, watched many documentaries, and also rely, to some extent, on my own personal observations.
My reaction was to quickly extricate myself from the conversation as I felt there would be no benefit in attempting to explain otherwise, that it would likely descend into an argument that would leave us as we began: agreeing to disagree. What a waste of time, I thought.
But alas, misinformation and outright lies abound in today’s Internet fed culture — enter the Birds Aren’t Real movement.
I first heard about it a few years ago when I took notice of a “Birds Aren’t Real” t-shirt my daughter was wearing. I asked her about it, and she explained that the government replaced all the birds with robotic drones that continuously surveil the public. Knowing that she is intelligent and well informed I didn’t jump to any immediate conclusions about her dropping off the deep end of crazy conspiracies, but rather sought to probe the matter a little further. But she didn’t offer much in the way of a deeper subtext to the assertion that birds aren’t real.
My daughter can also be funny and ironic at times, so I left it there, as a mere humorous commentary on the absurdity of our modern world. Turns out, I wasn’t far from the truth of it.
The Birds Aren’t Real movement is a real thing. They have chapters across the country and a line of merchandise. They hold protests. They even have billboards and give interviews with real media outlets. For most of the movement’s history there has been no reveal of its true intentions until the New York Times did a piece on it, in which the movement’s founder revealed that it serves as “A safe space for people to come together and process the conspiracy takeover of America. It’s a way to laugh at the madness rather than be overcome by it.”
Full disclosure, there are plenty of conspiracies that I actually believe in. Some that I’ve had personal experience with. Some that I’ve thoroughly researched. Many that are hidden in plain sight. But I don’t believe in all of them. And many of them are so whacky that they border on the absurd. Which is what the Birds Aren’t Real movement is all about. It’s completely absurd.
Gen Zers get this. My daughter got it. Young people who find that the country they grew up in is absurd get it.
In fact, young people have always seen through the veil of adultism. They’re wired to resist authority and rebel against conventions. But somewhere along the line, they become adults themselves and conform to conventional norms.
The 1960s offered some real hope through a generation of young people who wanted to burn the old institutions down and create a new kind of world. But instead, most became the baby boomers who now run the world. They’ve become the ones behind the curtain who pull the levers and push the buttons on big business and government and economic policy. What happened to them? Where did their idealism go? And why did they change their beliefs?
When I was growing up in the 1970s, we used to say “that’s bad” to reference something that we thought was actually really good. Then in the 80s young people would say “that’s sick” to reference something really awesome. Then it was, “that’s dope.” Today, I’m told young people say things like, “this shit’s gas,” or “fire.”
What I find noteworthy about the lexicon of our youth is that they use words to state the grammatical opposite of their actual meaning. The history of the colloquialisms of the young is a clue to our very makeup — that we all come hard wired for contrarianism. I had it in spades as a young man, and I did (somewhat) conform for a number of years as I labored away in a corporate cubical of presumed success until I had an epiphany. And I’ve been gradually deprogramming my thinking ever since.
Our beliefs are indeed malleable, but not if we associate our identities with them. That’s where the boomers failed. They felt they could change the system from within, but in order to exist within the system they needed to conform. And once they accepted the need for conformity the battle for true change was lost.
When a religion develops hierarchy, their message becomes dogmatic, because all their members/followers are either invested in the approval of those in authority, or they aspire to religious authority themselves. In other words, they must “believe” in the prescribed doctrine in order to fit in and be a part of the religion. This is when belief becomes attached to identity. For one to be a good Christian, Jew, Muslim, etc., they must conform. Questioning the doctrine is not acceptable within the hierarchy.
The same is true for political party affiliation. If I proclaim that I’m a Democrat or Republican, then I must ascribe to the party platform. Since I’ve attached my identity to a particular party, I must go along with it. And anytime someone questions my political beliefs I take it personally, because they’re attacking my identity. It feels like they’re attacking me.
The same is true for economic philosophy, environmental policy, education, healthcare, and even sports teams. If I say I’m a “socialist” or a “capitalist” I’ve attached my identity to it and can no longer perceive the benefits of the other system.
“Why join the Navy if you can be a pirate?” - Steve Jobs
What young people have to teach us is that in the absence of holding an engrained identity we can actually view the issues of our times more objectively. Since by the nature of their youth they are not yet fully attached to a particular identity they naturally gravitate toward rebellion from conventions.
This is actually healthy and necessary for the growth and evolution of a culture. Indigenous people have names for people who never let go of their contrarian ways. In English, we call them “contraries.” Indigenous cultures view the contraries as healers. And so, in this way, we can say that young people are healers. And the Birds Are Not Real people, affectionately referred to as “the Bird Brigade,” are offering us some form of healing by detaching ourselves from conventional belief systems, and in so doing we learn how malleable beliefs truly are.
This, from the founder of the movement, “Yes, we have been intentionally spreading misinformation for the past four years, but it’s with a purpose. It’s about holding up a mirror to America in the internet age.”
For more on identity see our prior post We Are Not Our Identities. And to go down the rabbit hole a bit further read the new York Times piece, Birds Aren’t Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory.
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