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Conspiracy Theory Theory

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Anonymous

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Now, I don't claim to believe that there are grand conspiracies controlling the world's events or not.. but I have finally realized why there's so many theories about them.

Because, in our heart of hearts, we really want to believe that someone competent is running things, who knows what they're doing. Because we look at our governments and the world events and go '..this makes absolutely no sense' and quietly hope that somehow, it /does/ make sense.
 
If there are any groups running the world from behind the scenes, it doesn't mean that they are any more competent/incompetent than the people who we would believe to be runnig it are.
 
No, conspiracy groups doesn't need to be competent. That is why CIA hasn't taken over the world yet. Not lack of initiative, they just have some very stupid ideas.
 
Yup, the CIA........

I read that the CIA & FBI have different ideas about the WTC incident.

The FBI think it was a bunch of fundamentalist hijackers who got amazingly lucky, whereas the CIA see it as the inevitable outcome of a minutely-planned, efficiently-executed terrorist operation.

The recently released video of OBL gloating over the WTC destruction (if it's really him!) seems to show him holding both these contradictory beliefs simultaneously!
 
Folks... the true secret master's, whomever they may be, would either be known to rule the world (and it would be blindingly obvious so much so our dissagreeing as to their identities would be unlikely) or they would have to be so good at keeping their conspiracy secret that we'd never find out until they chose to reveal themselves.

In the latter scenario all the current conspiracy theories (including this one) would just be blinds to deflect investigation from the true conspiracy...

Damn.

Niles "Would The All Seeing Eye Please Look My Way" Calder ;)
 
I think there is a bit of a paradox here. We desire a perfect authority, e.g. God, to take responsibility for us but without infringing our sense of freedom.

At the same time, we suspect that large, complex and autonomous human institutions are bound to be flawed in various ways.

Add to that the notion that all groups, partly for that reason possibly, have a predisposition towards authoritarianism and the result is a compelling tension, -we as individuals feel threatened by them.
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Is it a conspiracy that governments, businesses, unions, etc., cooperate with each other?
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As for the CIA, did anyone see that episode of Panorama on Sun. 2/12/01?

It featured ex members of the CIA complaining that the events of Sept. 11th could have been prevented if it weren't for restrictions put upon them in 1995 preventing the recruitment from within dodgy organizations of what they call 'paid assets' who had known histories of unethical activities.

This happened when one such 'proxy', some high ranking member of the extreme right-wing Guatemalan government named Alpirez, (yes, I made notes,) was publicized as having been involved in the torture and murder of a Mayan, Marxist rebel leader named Bamaca (AKA Everado) by the dead guy's wife, a Harvard educated lawyer named Jennifer Harbury who met him while conducting some kind of study there.

There was also something about a 'presidential executive order' in 1976 banning assinations.

-Justin.
 
Jim Marrs wrote an excellent and exhaustive book on the subject called "Rule by Secrecy". Reading it is very convincing. I'll leave it at that.
 
Here's another old chestnut to add to the stew (maybe a mixed metaphor there!)

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
(Lord Acton, 1834-1902, British Historian.)
 
Can I throw a curveball?

One of the outstanding factors of conspiracy based research is the wish to look for a linkage between disparate pieces of information. I've notice that in conspiracy based thinking there is no such thing as coincidence. If two people that a researcher is concened with were in the same city at the same time, then they MUST have met. If two events are linked by a researcher then they MUST, in reality, be linked.

Lacan the psychoanalist and theorist states that before a child realises that it is seperate from its parents, it does not realise that it is seperate from the world. It feels that it is the centre of the world and that the world is one harmonious whole. It has always seemed to me the the paranoid world view has a certain relationship to this.

The paranoid/conspiracy minded seem to map their conception of the world onto the actual world, trying to place themselves at the centre of it and prove that everything is inter-related around them. It is almost as if they are trying to regain that sense of oneness and order that was lost in childhood.

That is not to say that all conspiracy thinking is wrong, or that it cannot throw up useful information. It is just worrying the attempt to link everything to everything else, to turn everything into a unified whole. Looking at the farther reaches of conspiracy it is possible to see the ridiculously convoluted reasoning that is needed to complete this task, reasoning that seems ridiculous until you look at it as fulfilling some fundamental need on the part of the person that executes it.
 
I think something that drives a lot of conspiracy theories is that the results make it look like there was a conspiracy.

If one politician gets bought and uses his power to influence other politicians, then it looks like all the politicians were bought when they enact whatever legislation is being promoted. That leads the theorist to not trust the government.

Now that the theorist doesn't trust the government he does things like not licensing his car or keeping weapons illegally. That leads him into trouble with the law. In his mind, and what he tells other conspiracy theorists is that the government sent the police after him because he knew something.

Throw in a record of governments actually doing things like that and we are bound to have a lot of theories.
 
If I wasn't such a long-winded character, I would concede that previous posters have dealt with this pretty thoroughly...but as I AM a long-winded ... ahem... character... I will chime with my "two cents"...

First off, I tend to agree that there is a deep-seated human need to imagine that somewhere, somehow, there is competence, strategy, foresight, etc... even if we see precious little evidence of in any of the organizations we either deal with or work for ;) ...and even if we imagine this guiding influence to be somewhat malevolent.

Second.... I think that most of us vastly underestimate just how unlikely - if also mundane! - a good many events in our everyday lives are. Take your average fender-bender... and run the "tape" backwards... if either party had changed even one small detail of their respective days to that point, odds are they would not meet at that intersection... if you had not JUST made that light as it turned yellow, if you had taken just ONE more sip of that coffee, if the other guy had not misplaced his keys, causing him to be running exactly 2.2349748 minutes late, if, if, if....

Now imagine a conspiracy-minded analyst examining that traffic accident..and ALL the unlikely events that had to take place to bring those two cars together at just that time at just that intersection, etc... SURELY there was SOME guiding force at work, no?

I think the desire for order and meaning, and the overlooking of the many "unlikely" events and coincidences that pepper life, every day, both contribute quite a bit to the constant hunger for conspiracy theories...

Shadow
 
On a lighter note, this was in a US cellphone advert:-

The Arthur Andersen partner was on his cell phone when he said, "Ship the Enron documents to the Feds,"

but his secretary heard
"Rip the Enron documents to shreds."

!!!
 
So....what are you guys saying then... Bush is actually NOT reptilian??? :(
 
conspiracy as a guide toward finding someone who has a plan and control is one thing, but doesnt that lead to the absolution of guilt from the population when voted-in officials screw things up?
 
Xanatic said:
No, conspiracy groups doesn't need to be competent. That is why CIA hasn't taken over the world yet. Not lack of initiative, they just have some very stupid ideas.
Click to expand...
The CIA are great!
'Well it wasn't the bloody Chinese embassy yesterday, dammit!'
Bay of whats?
Ya gotta luv 'em.
 
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