So, what is it? We are more familiar with hypochondria which is a morbid condition characterised by depressed spirits, stress and anxiety about the state of one’s health, and this irrespective, very often, of having very good health. Contrachondria, on the other hand, is a morbid and anxious condition characterised by depression and stress at encountering any suggested contradictions of one’s group’s consensus of opinion, and this irrespective of the truth or veracity, or even the blatant falsity of those views. Fear is an ever-present element of this condition.

It is very easy to diagnose as we all have it, though it differs in form and comes in various degrees of severity. Its onset is usually triggered when ideas at variance with views widely held are expressed. Whilst it cannot be cured in the sense of eradication from the human condition, its form can be altered and even overcome in some of its manifestations. An example of this happened in the 15th Century, and this lessening of contrachondria changed the world.

Off the coast of Morocco there is a reef, Cape Bojador, that runs one hundred miles out to sea. It is plunged in dramatic surf. European sailors of that time believed it to be the edge of the world, and none had ever sailed beyond it.

A younger brother of the King of Portugal, now known as Prince Henry the Navigator, decided to explore Africa. He funded thirty different expeditions to do this. All were afflicted with contrachondria and reinforced each other’s fears of falling off the flat earth, so they found various reasons and excuses to fail. At last, in 1434 in an expedition commanded by Gil Eanes a barquentine-caravel became the first European ship to pass Cape Bojador by sailing well out to sea. The contrachondriacs were undone. In the following centuries Europeans navigated all the world and colonised much of it, changing the world for ever.

A form of the fear of contrary notions afflicts the animal kingdom also. Sardines cling tightly together at the onset of predation, and herds and flocks move together in unison and tend to fear the safety of dispersal, even sometimes at their peril. Some such instinct may be at the base of human contrachondria.

Social people, though more rational, hold to the axiom that we are “better dead than out of fashion.” It is not the particular fashion of the time, but the fact that it is the fashion, which invokes the fear of contrary dress.

With the help of our fear of change we have now developed a carbon-phobia, and most are alarmed at the prospect of climate change. Models of atmospheric carbon dioxide and the industry associated with promoting fear of carbon has been part of this; however, this essay is not concerned with how most became alarmed with the climate’s future. We intend to show that there are several scientific observations which tend to discount much of this fear, but there is no interest in examining them. This is a pity and again, contrachondria would appear to be responsible.

One contradictory observation comes from geological research. Through geologists’ knowledge of rocks, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere during past ages such as the Cambrian Period is known to have been five times higher than the present 400 parts per million. The temperature was very little warmer when there was 2,000 ppm in the atmosphere. The most recent ice ages had higher CO2 levels than now. Professor of Geology at the Kalgoorlie School of Mines, Dr Robert Fagan’s website at https://www.dr-robert-fagan.com/ has all the data under Climate Change Unpicked.

Professor of Physics Dr Michel van Biezen of the Loyola Marymount University, in his videos (one being https://youtu.be/57pU2F-bIQs of 9 minutes) explains the effectiveness and limitations of CO2 as a greenhouse gas. While the heat (infrared radiation) escaping from earth back into space has wavelengths ranging from 0.6 to about 20 microns, CO2 only operates within narrow wavelengths close to 4.1 and 15.5 microns. The total infrared radiation available to CO2 interception is only 18% of the total. The major greenhouse gas, water vapor, already intercepts 70% of this, leaving only 5% as the total that CO2 can intercept. Most of this, 3-4%, is already captured by the present level of CO2, and even vastly increased levels can have little effect on atmospheric temperatures. This confirms the geological levels.

Resisting and ignoring this data can only be explained by contrachondria. 

At times an idea may be so widely held that none can think to dispute it, even though it has no basis of truth. The belief that gold has high value is one such. No indispensable and unique use for gold has ever been discovered. Life is not possible in the absence of carbon, nor of the trace elements zinc, copper, selenium, chromium, cobalt, iodine, manganese or molybdenum. Gold plays no part in life.

Sometimes gold’s property as a conductor which doesn’t tarnish is acclaimed for it. There are a great many conductive elements and anyhow, electronics are not stored in corrosive environments. This property of gold is of no value unless you intend to throw your computer into the sea, or dip it into an acid bath.

That gold has high value causes us to want to display it. For the same reason however, almost all of it is locked away in highly secure vaults where nobody is permitted to see it. The mining of gold demands enormous inputs of energy and resources, its disturbance and damage to the environment is considerable, and in view of its absence of utility this is simply waste. Yet because of contrachondria, until this very moment of writing, it appears that none have suggested that its mining be outlawed. This would save us effort, energy and irreplaceable resources and protect us from folly, foolishness, and waste.

Warren Buffett, the famous investor, has calculated that all the gold ever mined in the history of the world, if assembled and put into a cube, would measure 20 meters high, wide and deep. It would fit on an ordinary house block. Because of the myth that it has value, until the early 20th Century attempts were made to ascribe all the world’s wealth in terms of gold. This proved an impossibly inflexible currency and is now abandoned forever. If all the world’s gold was removed to the far side of the moon, its impact on human life would be nil.

That we continue to ascribe value to it is wholly due to our slavish contrachondria. 

One of the measures useful in addressing this malady is in confronting it. A challenging video which may be useful in this is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_d_GEy8lr0  It offers well-reasoned and sanely presented evidence that the Titanic did not hit an iceberg and sink in the North Atlantic. This invokes various reactions even though it does not claim to prove its hypothesis, and just gives the evidence.

The response “This is totally ridiculous, and I am not going to even look at such rubbish” is indicative of high levels of contrachondria. The reaction “OK I will watch it, but only to entertain my friends with the preposterousness of it” suggests a moderate level. “Let it float its boat and I will see if it holds water” is a mild one. Those exclaiming “I bet this is exactly right” have the highest levels of contrachondria and will be found to be associated with groups which have an abiding interest in conspiracy.

Another useful video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIw1OPH6QvM which tests our contrachondria. The historian, Dan Gibson, and many other academics too, now claim that the Prophet Mohammad was raised in Petra, and that in the whole of his life he never saw Mecca. This challenges all our accepted history, and the firmly held belief of a billion people. Amongst the evidence is that for a hundred years after the death of Mohammad, the direction of prayer in all Mosques (the kiblah) all pointed to Petra, not Mecca. Other evidence comes from the Koran. Again, a fear of contradictory data inhibits us from consulting it.

By 2021 the whole world was convinced that the only means of preventing deaths from Covid-19 was multiple vaccinations. We were so obsessive about this that effective treatments for it were not on the media’s radar. Among the many testaments of treatments is Dr. Shankara Chetty - Successfully Treated 7,000 COVID-19 Patients - 0 Deaths from the South African medico Dr Chetty. His explanation that the inflammatory phase of the viral infection beginning on day eight is, in fact, an allergic reaction due to viral debris, i.e., the spike protein. His recommendation of easily obtainable drugs such as promethazine (phenergan - you can get this antihistamine at any pharmacy in Australia without a prescription) to treat what is essentially pneumonitis would appear to be validated by his track record: Seven thousand patients treated and ... not only no deaths, but no Intensive Care Unit admissions and no hospitalisations. 

Good news is not news to contrachondriacs, it seems.

Perhaps the grandfather of all uncontested popular ideas, is that we are all sometimes able to make a little money. Not only do none of us make money through counterfeiting it, but no revenue from creating money increases appears in any Government budgets or accounts. All modern money is created in our banking systems, and usually by private banks. They create and own it all and only distribute it by renting it out to us at interest. Any money we have is always acquired from an original borrower somewhere. As a community, we owe every cent which exists.

The implications of this are that the elites which control money creations can readily acquire anything which money can buy, should they choose to do so. This enables the financial dependence of the major media to be arranged. The inertia of public misunderstanding of the private monopoly of money creations is greatly assisted to continue in this way, and given our affliction with contrachondria makes it nearly unassailable. 

Any effort to democratise new money creations so that we, the country’s true shareholders, can share in the benefits of it, would seem to await an increase in our knowledge of ourselves. If we can lessen our fears of believing what all others mistakenly believe, we may be empowered to pay ourselves a national dividend instead of continually increasing the national debt. A beneficial change in human wellbeing of the order of that which was forged by Prince Henry the Navigator nearly 600 years ago, may be offering. Accepting our vulnerability to contrachondria, and doing something about it, may be all it takes.

Perhaps it is only the truth which can set us free?