by professorpan » Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:03 am
Roth,<br><br>I do believe in secretive, organized syndicates (plural), and anyone who doesn't believe in conspiracies isn't paying attention.<br><br>What I *don't* see much evidence for is one vast, overarching, global conspiracy with tentacles wrapped throughout media, education, corporate America, and so on down to local government and bulletin board infiltration agents. <br><br>I've studied this stuff for years, and there was a time when I believed in a massive, worldwide cabal (aka the Illuminati, PTB, or whatever). Experience and research has made me believe that scenario is highly unlikely. The interests, desires, and power structures of the elites shift and change. Intense secrecy and heirarchical power structures create friction, power-jockeying, and infighting. One group of elites would love nothing more than to seize power from their rivals. Human nature ensures that a "Yertle the Turtle" pyramid will inevitably collapse, and that every dictator creates a thousand rebels.<br><br>As we're seeing now with the Bush Cult, the elites are just as opportunistic as anyone else, and they'll turn on each other when they taste blood. Good people expose them (sometimes), and they are forced to retreat from their positions of power, or go to jail, or worse.<br><br>It's easy, once one adopts a conspiratorial mindset, to look for tendrils of the Octopus where none exist. I know; I've been there. And I am quite sure that the real power brokers are happy when people concede more power to them than they really have. They *want* people to be scared of them, and to fear their omnipotent, all-seeing eye. The Wizard behind the curtain is a very apt metaphor.<br><br>I'm not a skeptic of all conspiracies, by any means. I am quite convinced of the existence of elite secret societies, international narco-politics, backroom deals in corporate boardrooms, and war profiteers hatching plots. But I don't believe an all-encompassing Illuminati is engineering the Curious George movie. <br><br>There are enough terrible, tangible, and provable things to believe in and to fight against than to waste our time chasing shadows. If we concede that they are all-seeing, all-knowing, and control every organ of government and society, we're playing into their hands. Instead, if we focus our attention on smoking them out of their spider holes with the harsh light of truth, we might make some progress. <br><br>I hope that explains it. I frequently get tarred and feathered in this forum for not agreeing with those who see conspiracies everywhere. We all agree, in principle, that secrecy and power are a bad combination. We just differ on the scope and on specifics. <p></p><i></i>