I enjoy a conspiracy theory as much as the next conspiracy theorist lover. In fact, I coined a word to meet my literary and grammatical need - conspiratorialist, one who subscribes to one or more conspiracy theories. By the way, I do not mean this in the negative vein in any way, because I, too, am a conspriatorialist. I subscribe to a number of conspiracy theories. And I also subscribe to the maxim that a truly good conspiracy CAN'T be proven. It therefore remains only a "theory," but a GOOD one!
Like I said, I like a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but these days it seems that almost nothing that happens "just happens." An event, whether great or small, occurs somewhere in the world, and seems to MOST of us just to be that, an event that happened. But really "we" (those who are not "conspiratorialists" concerning the event in question - in other words, the "dupes") are being tricked or manipulated by the members of the "conspiracy." Fortunately, I am not a dupe regarding EVERY conspiracy, In fact, though I do not subscribe to every conspiracy that comes along, I am very smart concerning those conspiracy theories to which I subscribe. I am sure most of you are, too. After all, there are not that many dupes in the world...at least that is my theory.
Some events have been labeled "conspiracies" since the very day they occured, while other events only became "conspiracies" months, years, or even DECADES after they happened. Before we realized that these events were actually conspiracies, we were all dupes! An example of an event that has "always" been recognized as a conspiracy is the JFK assassination. Everyone in his or her right mind knows that one was a conspiracy; therefore, we all entertain the conspiracy theory that John F. Kennedy was shot by not one, but two or three gunmen, and that Lee Harvey Oswald was just a patsy for "them," whoever they were. In fact, THEY were the people that wanted President Kennedy dead! But for conspiratorialists, defining who they were has been a task that has taken over fifty years to complete. Not only that, but each set of conspiratorialists have come up with their own lists of who "they" were, and each set of conspiratorialists can "prove" that their conspiracy theory about JFK's assassination is the right one!
Then there are the events that "just happen," or at least that is what the dupes of the world believe. For instance, Watergate, the downfall of Richard M. (Tricky Dick) Nixon, was one of those things that just happened. No doubts, no conspiracies...it just HAPPENED. The space shuttle disasters were both very sad and brought a great pall over the nation on two separate occasions, but these terrible accidents were just tragedies...they just happened. So, no conspiracies, right? Wrong, these days even the most obvious happenstances somehow ferment into conspiracies with vintage (of both kinds!).
One of my favorite "I could watch this a million times" movies is "The Abyss;" you know, the movie about a group of underwater oil wildcatters who encounter submarine aliens while the world teeters on the brink of both nuclear war and total annihilation. During that movie, the character called "Hippie" says about the situation, "This must be a conspiracy," to which he receives the reply, "Oh, Hippie, you think everything is a conspiracy." Hippie then says, "Everything IS!" Well, maybe not everything is a conspiracy, but many things do somehow seem to evolve into conspiracies with time. As a very conscientious conspiratorialist, I exercise a great deal of discrimination as to what conspiracy theories I lean toward. After all, I do not want to be dupe if I can possibly help it. All we have to do is be smarter than the conspirators!
Unfortunately, it turns out that it is very difficult NOT to be a dupe, after all. I just found out that the Watergate break-in, what I believed to be a simple act of political sabotage that backfired for Nixon, was in fact a much deeper conspiracy involving who knows who all for all kinds of unknown, but diabolical, reasons. I did not have time to delve into that one. Suffice to say, however, that I am a dupe when it comes to Watergate. How silly of me to believe that Nixon and his associates merely pulled off a burglary of the opposition's headquarters to gain political advantage. My bad! In another tragic event, John Belushi died of a drug overdose, right? Nope, wrong again. He was actually involved in some deeper political business and was "suicided." But, alas, I was a dupe in that one, too. Need something a little more recent? Okay, it turns out the terrible Sandy Hook school shootings were not perpetrated by a lone, crazy guy. Not only that, there are now several different conspiracy theories ranging from multiple shooters to (yes, of course) the "Government" controlling the shooter and allowing these murders to occur as a "false flag incident." Man, I hate to be a dupe.
I think back to "The Abyss." Hippie said "everything IS a conspiracy." Maybe he was right. It does seem like we in America today, and people all across the world for that matter, are ready to label any event we cannot understand as a conspiracy, and then we are free to adopt whichever conspiracy theory most closely matches our own view of what happened, who did it, and who is covering it all. Actually, I find that I expend several calories per day pouring over the various conspiracy theories to which I subscribe, and to the new information and new documents that seem to come out of the woodwork with maddening regularity. As a conscientious conspiratorialist, I do try to keep up to date with the changing conspiracy landscape. But I sometimes wonder, too, when something will finally happen that really is what it is, just a simple, honest to goodness incident. On the other hand, how boring would that be? Why be bored, when there is a good conspiracy theory to believe in? And I love a conspiracy theory just as much as the next guy...really. No conspiracy here!
Like I said, I like a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but these days it seems that almost nothing that happens "just happens." An event, whether great or small, occurs somewhere in the world, and seems to MOST of us just to be that, an event that happened. But really "we" (those who are not "conspiratorialists" concerning the event in question - in other words, the "dupes") are being tricked or manipulated by the members of the "conspiracy." Fortunately, I am not a dupe regarding EVERY conspiracy, In fact, though I do not subscribe to every conspiracy that comes along, I am very smart concerning those conspiracy theories to which I subscribe. I am sure most of you are, too. After all, there are not that many dupes in the world...at least that is my theory.
Some events have been labeled "conspiracies" since the very day they occured, while other events only became "conspiracies" months, years, or even DECADES after they happened. Before we realized that these events were actually conspiracies, we were all dupes! An example of an event that has "always" been recognized as a conspiracy is the JFK assassination. Everyone in his or her right mind knows that one was a conspiracy; therefore, we all entertain the conspiracy theory that John F. Kennedy was shot by not one, but two or three gunmen, and that Lee Harvey Oswald was just a patsy for "them," whoever they were. In fact, THEY were the people that wanted President Kennedy dead! But for conspiratorialists, defining who they were has been a task that has taken over fifty years to complete. Not only that, but each set of conspiratorialists have come up with their own lists of who "they" were, and each set of conspiratorialists can "prove" that their conspiracy theory about JFK's assassination is the right one!
Then there are the events that "just happen," or at least that is what the dupes of the world believe. For instance, Watergate, the downfall of Richard M. (Tricky Dick) Nixon, was one of those things that just happened. No doubts, no conspiracies...it just HAPPENED. The space shuttle disasters were both very sad and brought a great pall over the nation on two separate occasions, but these terrible accidents were just tragedies...they just happened. So, no conspiracies, right? Wrong, these days even the most obvious happenstances somehow ferment into conspiracies with vintage (of both kinds!).
One of my favorite "I could watch this a million times" movies is "The Abyss;" you know, the movie about a group of underwater oil wildcatters who encounter submarine aliens while the world teeters on the brink of both nuclear war and total annihilation. During that movie, the character called "Hippie" says about the situation, "This must be a conspiracy," to which he receives the reply, "Oh, Hippie, you think everything is a conspiracy." Hippie then says, "Everything IS!" Well, maybe not everything is a conspiracy, but many things do somehow seem to evolve into conspiracies with time. As a very conscientious conspiratorialist, I exercise a great deal of discrimination as to what conspiracy theories I lean toward. After all, I do not want to be dupe if I can possibly help it. All we have to do is be smarter than the conspirators!
Unfortunately, it turns out that it is very difficult NOT to be a dupe, after all. I just found out that the Watergate break-in, what I believed to be a simple act of political sabotage that backfired for Nixon, was in fact a much deeper conspiracy involving who knows who all for all kinds of unknown, but diabolical, reasons. I did not have time to delve into that one. Suffice to say, however, that I am a dupe when it comes to Watergate. How silly of me to believe that Nixon and his associates merely pulled off a burglary of the opposition's headquarters to gain political advantage. My bad! In another tragic event, John Belushi died of a drug overdose, right? Nope, wrong again. He was actually involved in some deeper political business and was "suicided." But, alas, I was a dupe in that one, too. Need something a little more recent? Okay, it turns out the terrible Sandy Hook school shootings were not perpetrated by a lone, crazy guy. Not only that, there are now several different conspiracy theories ranging from multiple shooters to (yes, of course) the "Government" controlling the shooter and allowing these murders to occur as a "false flag incident." Man, I hate to be a dupe.
I think back to "The Abyss." Hippie said "everything IS a conspiracy." Maybe he was right. It does seem like we in America today, and people all across the world for that matter, are ready to label any event we cannot understand as a conspiracy, and then we are free to adopt whichever conspiracy theory most closely matches our own view of what happened, who did it, and who is covering it all. Actually, I find that I expend several calories per day pouring over the various conspiracy theories to which I subscribe, and to the new information and new documents that seem to come out of the woodwork with maddening regularity. As a conscientious conspiratorialist, I do try to keep up to date with the changing conspiracy landscape. But I sometimes wonder, too, when something will finally happen that really is what it is, just a simple, honest to goodness incident. On the other hand, how boring would that be? Why be bored, when there is a good conspiracy theory to believe in? And I love a conspiracy theory just as much as the next guy...really. No conspiracy here!
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