Humankind Suffers from “The Babel Syndrome”

The Babel Syndrome is what happens when mass hysteria divides society into two camps, each blind in its own way. Those inside the hysteria are often well-meaning, genuinely convinced they’re on the side of the good. They put their faith in a “God Cabal”—trusted authorities, scientists, or intellectuals—whom they see as guiding them toward a solution. And they really do mean well. But their collective belief, amplified by fear and social pressures, blinds them to the harm they’re doing. They act in the name of the good but end up perpetrating something much darker. The greatest evils, after all, are always done by the well-intentioned.

Outside the hysteria, things aren’t much better. Here, people don’t see the phenomenon as a bottom-up mass delusion. Instead, they see a master plan. A “Demon Cabal” pulling the strings from above—malevolent elites orchestrating the chaos, plotting depopulation, or implanting tracking chips. This misdiagnosis breeds its own kind of hysteria. Instead of understanding the irrationality for what it is, the outsiders spin wild conspiracies that only drive the insiders further into their belief in their own righteousness. The outsiders think they’re exposing evil. The insiders think they’re saving the world. Both are trapped.

And so the cycle feeds itself. The more the outsiders cry “evil,” the more the insiders cling to their “good.” The more the insiders dismiss the outsiders as irrational and dangerous, the more the outsiders double down on their cabal theories. Each side fuels the other. It’s a runaway system. Neither can see the hysteria for what it really is—an emergent, bottom-up phenomenon that doesn’t need a mastermind to make it destructive.

The tragedy of the Babel Syndrome is that it destroys the possibility of communication. The two sides speak different languages, each unintelligible to the other. Those inside trust their God Cabal. Those outside fight their imagined Demon Cabal. Neither realizes they’re locked in the same shared delusion. Like the myth of Babel, the very act of trying to communicate only drives them further apart.

But the real problem isn’t just the divide. It’s that the divide ensures nothing is learned. The insiders don’t recognize the hysteria. The outsiders don’t recognize it either, mistaking it for something sinister and planned. And even if both sides could see it for what it is, it’s not clear they’d have the tools to stop it. But naming it—the Babel Syndrome—is a start. It’s the first step toward understanding how we keep falling into these patterns and how we might, someday, avoid them.

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