For the foreseeable future this blog is suspended. Surviving functions have been transferred to Eye on the World.
Anthony North
March 11, 2007
February 21, 2007
THEY ARE OUT TO GET US
The problem with rubbishing conspiracy theory is that we are conspired against constantly. Politicians are a prime example. It is in the nature of a politician to crave power and dictate to the population. Why else is he where he is?
We can immediately see, here, an inherent need to conspire against us at the heart of any governing body. When politicians come up for election, they conspire within their parties to over-inflate their good points and hide the bad.
This is conspiracy of the worst kind – deceiving us is a valid political tool. Hence, the party we vote for is never the true reality of the particular party. We are not only conspired against and lied to, but totally duped.
Even a ‘popular’ government is intrinsically conspiratorial in nature. This is so because no party can ever have the total vote of the population. There are always those who will feel disenfranchised, and everything a government does is conspiratorial against those people.
With realities like this in society and politics, I find it surprising that there are as few conspiracy theories as there are.
© Anthony North, Feb 2007
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February 15, 2007
WHEN AN EVENT IS MORE THAN AN EVENT
Let me upset all you conspiracy theorists. JFK was assassinated by a loner called Lee Harvey Oswald and Princess Diana died in a tragic car accident. Yes, I know, it’s so boring, but so is much of life. And maybe this is the point about such events.
The reality of the life of JFK and Diana was that they were far from boring. Rather, they were sensational; so to admit that their deaths may not be as sensational as their life is a bit of a let down. Maybe we need to invent something more, to do justice to who they were.
This does, infact, fit into a historical pattern. Although seemingly different people, JFK and Diana were charismatic and died tragically young.
The template for this kind of death was set two millennia ago with Jesus Christ, who was also charismatic and died tragically young. With Jesus, it was not acceptable that he could have a normal death, so almost immediately we find the beginnings of a conspiracy. Judas betrays him, and the Sanhedrin conspire to have him executed.
After the event, the death cannot, of course, be normal. Rather, he is Resurrected – he cheats death – and finally ascends to Heaven under his own terms. And in this way, the whole thing is sensational.
JFK and Diana share the sociology of the above – and in more ways than this. For instance, all three were in the business of changing society. Indeed, following them, society DID change. So could it be that it was the event of the death that became a catalyst for change?
If we accept this as a possibility, then we can see how additional factors are placed upon the death by a social need for them to be seen as iconic. Which brings us to a simple point about an event. Is an event a circumstance in itself, or does our appreciation of the event after the event become part of the event too?
Basically, what I’m hinting at, here, is that there is a ‘relativity’ to an event which automatically takes into account the impressions people have of the event. And what is remembered is not the event itself, but a social history stamped upon it.
In times past the social processes involved formed new religions. Today, we live in a more secular society, so to satisfy the need to sensationalise a point of social change, we have invented conspiracy theory to keep the process going.
Hence, conspiracy theory may be a thing to be ridiculed by many. But it could well have an important social function. But I still think JFK was killed by a nutter, and Diana died in a pointless accident.
© Anthony North, Feb 2007
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February 8, 2007
THE TRUE AMERICAN CONSPIRACY
Conspiracy theories come and go, but one thing that has been constant in recent US history is that there has always been a continual spread of conspiracies involving the US government. And the supposed missing aircraft that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11 is a perfect example.
Why isn’t there any film to prove that a plane DID crash into the building? The simple fact is there is. If the Pentagon isn’t constantly filmed from all angles by security, then they are remiss. But this film will never be published, and for a very good reason.
It is now known that, during the hey-day of the UFO phenomenon, the US government purposely allowed stories of UFOs to circulate – they even encouraged them. The reason was simple dis-information.
Whilst supposed ‘crack-pots’ continued to witness strange lights in the sky, and identify them as flying saucers, advanced American aircraft such as the SR-71 could fly without suspicion, sightings of the aircraft dismissed as delusions from UFO freaks.
The US government likes nothing better than stirring up conspiracy theorists so that the public do not take secret US projects seriously. And in this light, they would purposely not disclose the evidence of the Pentagon attack that is so obviously there.
The only problem is does this prove that they ARE conspiring?
© Anthony North, Feb 2007
Go to Beyond the Blog for preview of my alternative network. See Blogroll.
WE’RE THE CONSPIRATORS
The vast majority of conspiracy theories say that the government is conspiring against us. But there is a logical variation that argues we are conspiring against them. It is all to do with official forms – you know, tax returns, censuses, benefit applications.
A question. When you fill one in, do you tell the exact truth? Do you let them know everything? Do you under-estimate or exaggerate? Go on, admit it, you don’t tell them all. And what happens if everyone who has dealings with government bends the truth, if only a little?
Government gets a distorted view of the people they serve. And the outcome of all this is that policies are based on that distortion rather than the true reality. And in being distorted, we don’t like what they do. They have no idea what they’re doing, or they’re purposely out to control us how they see fit.
© Anthony North, Jan 2007
LANGUAGE HYPNOSIS
Why do people believe in conspiracies? One rather subtle reason is the prevalence, in society, of language hypnosis. We are all open to self-delusion, but if a large number of people in a society suffer a delusion, then it turns from psychology to sociology, with society itself holding a large dose of delusional tendencies.
The most subtle form of this delusional ability concerns words. A word can be much more than its letters and literary meaning. Consider, for instance, Auschwitz. In reality, a tiny village, but with the establishment of a death camp there, the word has become the embodiment of evil, and fills the mind with meaning above the word itself.
This reaction to a word is a form of social language hypnosis. Its power has been known throughout history, evidenced by the importance of word magic in the occult, and even the Jewish Cabala tells us that the alphabet is an element used in creation.
In this way, an element of society can be stereotyped in a word, with sinister meaning piled upon it. Typical is the use of the ‘Jew.’ In reality the word describes a race. But place language hypnosis upon the word, and enculturation can turn it into an incorrect statement of malevolence, fuelling a whole alternative history of false cabals ruling the world.
Language hypnosis is one of the primary tools of the conspiracy theorist. Through the manipulation of words, and placing simple doubt upon something, reinforced by those words, a delusional need to believe in the false meaning is assured; and another ‘conspiracy’ takes on a life of its own.
(c) Anthony North, Jan 2007
January 11, 2007
THE FUNNY THING ABOUT CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Conspiracy theory is a troubling area of research. Let me make something plain. I hardly believe any of them. But I am aware that to be totally sceptical is a ridiculous stance to make. It is ridiculous for the following reason.
Whatever happens in society must have a reason. To dismiss something out of hand, without searching, seriously, for the reason, is to ignore impulses within society. And when impulses are ignored, we are not aware that trouble is brewing.
Conspiracy theory must, therefore, be taken seriously. For instance, consider this. A theorist cannot work alone. They must have the oxygen of publicity to become a conspiracy theorist in the first place. Without an audience, no one knows what they are, so they cannot be what they are.
The audience and the theorist are therefore conspiring against us.
(c) Anthony North, Jan 2007
