[GJM] CONSPIRACY THEORY OR CONSPIRACY FACT - BILDERBERG WORLD GOVERNMENT?

[Steve Consilvio]

The problem with most conspiracy theories is that you can scratch the  
surface of any random person, and you will find that they share an  
affinity for certain ideas, but that does not make them in league  
with one another.

Secondarily, democracy is premised on the existence of conspiracies.   
Every political party, civic or trade organization, and even each  
religion is a conspiracy of sorts.  All have their own myopic world  
view of what is wrong and who is to blame (never themselves, of  
course,) and they take steps to evangelize and promote their point of  
view.  In other words, every True Believer is a conspiratorialist,  
but that doesn't mean that there is an actual conspiracy.

Since the law is malleable, everyone tries to use the law to their  
personal benefit.  That isn't criminal, it's expected.  Everyone  
tries to protect their gains, no matter how huge or meager, and  
strives for more.  Greed is the ultimate intellectual conspiracy,  
though what is coveted may differ.  Some want power and to be honored  
and obeyed, some want wealth, some want a lifestyle, etc.

A criminal conspiracy has a short-term and specific objective (rob a  
bank, etc.,) a political conspiracy is so ubiquitous that it is like  
the word "apostate" or "blasphemy."   It reveals more about the  
person who says it than about what is being described.  Every  
conspiracy was formed to combat a previous conspiracy, real or  
imagined.  Conspiracy theory is how fear and paranoia propagates itself.

The reason that certain individuals win presidential elections is  
because their sense of paranoia matches so well to the majority of  
the populace.  Reagan and Nixon, for example, made a career of  
seeding fear of the communist conspiracy.  Once they attained power,  
they were no longer afraid of the communists, and made peace with  
them.  (It is perfect Orwellian logic.)  In other words, people vote  
for their most favored conspiracy.  (The belief that the King was  
evil, for example, was a conspiratorial idea that has endured for 200 
+ years.)  The more fears a person has, then the more likely he will  
be trusted by a majority of people, since their fears overlap.   
People never trust people who do not share their fears.  Reagan and  
Nixon could be trusted with the Communists because they had so well  
established that they were afraid of them, first.

That bears repeating:  People never trust people who do not share  
their fears.

A lot of people do not trust me, because in general I have exhausted  
all my demons.  There is very little that I fear, which makes me  
universally untrustworthy.  :-)  If I formed a political  
organization, I would instantly be a "conspiracy" in the minds of  
some people, particularly as the ideas and influence grew.

The Sons of Liberty, for example, were a conspiracy because they  
believed that the colonial government was conspiring against them.   
Their criminal conspiracy was to throw tea into the harbor.  (The  
Boston Massacre, in contrast, was not deliberate.) A colonial act of  
terrorism increased the paranoia of the Empire, just as 9/11  
increased the paranoia of the Bush administration.  It is the chicken  
or the egg question, but like everything else, we reap what we sow,  
for good and for ill.  As we saw in Moore's F911, Bush was already  
afraid of the people, and was unwilling to get out of his limo to  
walk to the White House at his first inauguration.  The people who  
pelted the limousine with eggs already believed that he won because  
of a conspiracy, but he really won legitimately, as the candidate  
with the most fears.  (Al Gore now fears that the sky is falling,  
which has resonated well in some corners.)

Tyranny is when the government fears the people.  Rebellion is when  
the people fear the government.

When it comes to fear, there is no right side to choose.  I would  
rather be an individual than be loyal to an orthodoxy of fear.  I  
suspect that all heretics have shared the same proclivity.  Fear has  
never solved a problem; fear is the problem.  Blessed are the  
peacemakers.

peace,
steve