Does teenage spirit create conspiracies?

I am pondering a lot around the teenage spirit, that I recognize in new agers turning anti vaxxers. And it bothers me a lot.

Yesterday I listened to a person who told anyone who wanted to listen, that she had messages from the spiritual world, that told her that vaccines are dangerous.

And I roll my eyes.

This spring I had tears in my eyes so many times, due to persons sharing conspiracy theories. And it was obvious to me, that the ideas of the conspiracies told, had very little to do with what was actually going on. It made me sad.

And I started to see a pattern, that very much ressemble what happens in most of us in the teens. We start forming our own lives, and in the process, many of us turns to rebels, saying no to suggestions or demands from parents, school, religion or society. That is natural, and it’s a phase most of us goes through.

What is a rebel to me? Well, it’s a person who doesn't trust authorities and have an 

opposing opinion.

Well I was the perfect rebel in my teens. If my mum said: Turn left, I turned right.

It was like it was impossible to take the same position as her. I had an urge to be in opposition, to claim the opposite.

What I wasn’t aware of, at the time, was that it putting myself in the other corner wasn’t really making a choice. I didn’t take my own stand, I was just putting myself in another corner. I was reacting to what my parents - and other authorities said.

To put it in another way, the rebel REACTS to something. And I think that one of the differences between acting as a teenage rebel and as an adult, is the capacity to give RESPONSE rather than to react.

What I needed to do, to let go of some of my rebel-reaction, was to stop for a moment or more) and listen to myself: ”What do I really hope/think/wish in this matter?” 

And when I listen to myself, my response could be that I agree with my mother, disagree with her, or something in between.  And then I would respond to what the authority (in this case my mum) says, and not react.

And what I see in the new agers turning anti vaxxers is that they still live in the teenage spirit, reacting to what authorities wish or demand. They place themselves in the opposite corner, pointing fingers ("pointing fingers" is simply a metaphor for so many actions I've witnessed in SoMe this year).

And I see now, as the time for the corona vaccinations are about to start worldwide, how the anti vaxxers comes crawling from different corners, and approaching SoMe, sending endless messages about the "conspiracy" behind the vaccines.

And I notice how the rebel in me actually gets a bit triggered. And the ones triggering my rebel is actually the anti vaxxers. Maybe one of the reasons is that I notice how many of them talk like authorities. It's a bit paradoxal, isn't it.

I am a person who has worked as a journalist for more than four decades. To me it's important to take part of science, to be critical to sources etc. And to me it's important also to question authorities... and to give them right, when they have more knowledge than I have.

So what happens to my rebel as the anti vaxxers  screams about the danger with the new vaccine. Well the rebel would like to stand first in line to get the vaccin, sort of just to tease the anti vaxxers.

But since I now learned to react less, and more often give response, that will not happen. I don't need to prove anything to anyone.

I will  have the time to make an informed choice about the vaccination. And I think the vaccination against covid is actually for the greater good, and taking it, would be an act of compassion and solidarity. And doing it doesn’t turn me into a sheep.

Well, let’s see what happens. In my mind, in the world, and with the rebel spirit.

Charlotte Cronquist is a love warrior

Love is the answer