You know, I've gotta tell ya ... I'm the last guy who wishes to don a tinfoil-hat and start watching out my windows in fear of black helicopters, but (oh, there's that word, theCL's about to go off the deep end) ...
As I've said to many of my friends over the past few months, "The conspiracy theorists stars have aligned!"
Yes, there's certainly a lot of jest in that statement, however, it sure is hard to argue against them these days. Isn't it? Yes, weird ...
Now I must admit, I've always been a fan of conspiracy theories. UFOs, Bigfoot, New World Order ... you name it, I find it fascinating! The one caveat I must add though, is I don't believe them.
For me, it's entertainment - science fiction, a thriller, even comedy! I'm intrigued by the story-telling. Weaving together some of these grand conspiracy theories requires a gifted, creative mind. An art indeed.
Generally, a traditional conspiracy theory is developed by taking little pieces of information from here and there, and then intertwining them together into a consistent story. These little bits of information used, are actual facts, thus giving the entire conspiracy a basis in truth.
When someone reads one these theories, and figures it a bit plausible, they go research a few of the facts on their own, find that they're true, and thus buy into the entire plot. I once weaved together a conspiracy based on my college fraternity, just to prove it could be done, on the basis of just about anything.
However unbelievable and misguided many of these stories are, they do provide us a valuable purpose.
"Whoa ... you're going off the deep end now," you say. My answer to you is simple: Because they do start with an ounce of truth, even though taken to the extreme, these theories offer us a valuable look at the macro-happenings in our society, and our government in particular.
As the brilliant psychologist James Hillman notes in his (highly recommended by me) book, The Soul's Code:
The stories that punctuate this [book] show it's method: mainly anecdotal. They show its passion: the extraordinary.
The extraordinary reveals the ordinary in an enlarged and intensified image. The study of the extraordinary for the sake of instruction has a long tail, from biographies of classical greats ... Church fathers ... to Emerson's Representative Men. This tradition is accompanied all along by the moral lessons to be drawn from the stories ... the theatrical tradition set forth extraordinary ... as exemplars for reflection in our own lives.
What exactly, is this guy, thCL, rambling about?
Oh, I don't know ... increased executive powers, senate rule changes to snuff debate, politicos calling for a new "Fairness Doctrine," $8 trillion in, um, "bailouts," that will ultimately set about a mass wave of inflation, a "homeland military" unit, a new president raised in communist doctrine, a VERY REAL Islamic threat - that half the (world) population wishes to ignore, the mainstream media declaring the end of the free market, with many politicos (including Republicans) joining the choir ... need I go on?
Lucky for my own sanity, I'm apparently not the only one who's a bit paranoid. Just yesterday, Right Truth had a great post saying, "I thought I was paranoid, but I'm not alone...":
Recently fellow counterterrorism friends and I have been discussing the fact that it seems something is in the works, something is hanging over the US, ready to strike. Turns out we are not alone in our concerns. In the last six months or so, national terrorism experts have been sharing their concerns that another strike on the United States is very close. No one is sure of the form this strike will take, nuclear, bio, chemical, or any number of other possibililties available to the terrorists. But they all feel something is just around the corner.
NO! I'm not in any way recommending that you run out and buy a tinfoil-hat or some tinfoil to make your own. To paraphrase Hillman, I'm simply pointing out the extreme, to magnify and light-up our vision, hopefully allowing us to gain an improved perspective.
Thomas Jefferson can say it much better than I, so I'll end with the following two quotes (emphasis added):
"It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights... Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power... Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go... In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
--Thomas Jefferson: Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. ME 17:388
"I see, ... and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that, too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their power... It is but too evident that the three ruling branches of [the Federal government] are in combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions foreign and domestic."
-- Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, 1825. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Memorial Edition) Lipscomb and Bergh, editors, ME 16:146
