Coincidences, Conspiracy Theories and You
Conspiracy Theory. It's the epithet par excellance of our modern political environment. It's crushes debate, walls off the truth into an intellectual ghetto and undermines any collection of facts that point to nefarious decision-making by those in power.
Funny, though, that every day people are charged with criminal conspiracy in courthouses across America. When two or more people plan to rob a bank, hold up a liquor store or defraud a government agency they are charged with conspiracy. But, somehow, when we talk of this sort of planning at higher levels--among politicians, military types, policy-makers...the word conspiracy is code for crackpot delusion.
Why?
Perhaps because it defuses, obfuscates and hides the fact that most things happen for a reason. Yes, I know...chaos theory...but decisions do get made, plans do get concocted and those choices are often implemented. Here in the WoB, I've found the utmost resistance to any implication that events might be part of plans, plots and power plays that transcend mere incompetence, belie stupidity or foolhardiness. People are so invested in this city, it's importance and the rhetoric of democracy that they cannot imagine that people entrusted with protecting us, caring for us and leading us might actually care little about deaths, looting the treasury and the ill-effects of their devious ways. People are invested. They cling to denial. They can't handle the truth.
That's why I am not a conspiracy theorist. I'm a coincidence theorist. I like to look at facts and odds-busting coincidences, tell anyone I can and let them draw their own conclusions. I could give big picture tie-ins. Patterns are there...and have been for decades. The same thing seems to happen over and over again. Dots can be connected.
But let's discard the conspiracy theory epithet. Remember W saying immediately after 9-11 that we need to stop spreading "dangerous conspiracy theories?" Wow, wasn't that a bit excessive?
No.
By putting that label out there, those who see one flaw after another in the official conspiracy theory...that 19 foreigners were able to pull off 9-11...puts them on the Grassy Knoll with Oliver Stone pointing in a different direction based on where they heard the shots coming from. They are kooks, now.
So, let's deal in coincidences. Let's just look at facts and see what they tell us. Here's an example of a coincidence theory. The Taliban was in negotiations to build a pipeline for the Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves in 1999-2000. They went to Houston. Shortly thereafter, the deal fell through, the Taliban pulled out. Chevron and Unocal were the big players in that venture. Condi Rice was on the board of Chevron and their Central Asian expert. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was a special consultant to Unocal. So was our special envoy to Afghanistan after the Taliban fell, Zalmay Khalilzhad. Both paid by Unocal. Almost immediately, Unocal started building a pipeline in Afghanistan that would go through Pakistan and out to the Indian Ocean. Our troops protected the route...troops that could've been hunting down Osama. The British press exposed this. Unocal stopped, but restarted under an offshore subsidiary. Wow, what a set of coincidences.
Or the coincidence that the guy--John O'Neill--who was the FBI's point man on Al-Qaeda, broke open the USS Cole bombing and had developed a flow chart of names and plans that pin-pointed the next attack to lower Manhattan, to the World Trade Center, was pushed out of the FBI and offered almost immediately therafter the chief security job by the WTC. Frustrated by his inability to get someone to pay attention to his warnings and railroaded by his beloved FBI, he took the big payday at WTC. He knew what was coming. He knew quite a bit. His body was found in the rubble of the WTC. Not demolished into tiny bits. They found his body. And it's also interesting that the company in charge of security for the WTC was partially owned by Marvin Bush. Wow, more coincidences.
I could go on, and on, and on.
But I leave it to you to look for yourselves. Look for coincidences. For facts that defy odds. Like the odds that the first death from the anthrax attack was the guy at American Media who made the decision to run a photo of the drunken Bush twins on the cover of the National Enquirer. Wow, what are the odds?
Many people know something strange is happening. The CIA-Leak scandal shows some conspiring in the Veep's office, right? The conspiracy to commit torture seems obvious now, right? But keep your eye on coincidences. Look for facts and draw your own conclusions.
Julius Caesar may have said, "E Tu Brute." Perhaps it was the first conspiracy theory. But it wasn't the last. Still, let's not fall for the easy write-off, the language of denial. Let's connect a few dots. It'll actually make more sense than the official conspiracy theories we are fed everyday.
Funny, though, that every day people are charged with criminal conspiracy in courthouses across America. When two or more people plan to rob a bank, hold up a liquor store or defraud a government agency they are charged with conspiracy. But, somehow, when we talk of this sort of planning at higher levels--among politicians, military types, policy-makers...the word conspiracy is code for crackpot delusion.
Why?
Perhaps because it defuses, obfuscates and hides the fact that most things happen for a reason. Yes, I know...chaos theory...but decisions do get made, plans do get concocted and those choices are often implemented. Here in the WoB, I've found the utmost resistance to any implication that events might be part of plans, plots and power plays that transcend mere incompetence, belie stupidity or foolhardiness. People are so invested in this city, it's importance and the rhetoric of democracy that they cannot imagine that people entrusted with protecting us, caring for us and leading us might actually care little about deaths, looting the treasury and the ill-effects of their devious ways. People are invested. They cling to denial. They can't handle the truth.
That's why I am not a conspiracy theorist. I'm a coincidence theorist. I like to look at facts and odds-busting coincidences, tell anyone I can and let them draw their own conclusions. I could give big picture tie-ins. Patterns are there...and have been for decades. The same thing seems to happen over and over again. Dots can be connected.
But let's discard the conspiracy theory epithet. Remember W saying immediately after 9-11 that we need to stop spreading "dangerous conspiracy theories?" Wow, wasn't that a bit excessive?
No.
By putting that label out there, those who see one flaw after another in the official conspiracy theory...that 19 foreigners were able to pull off 9-11...puts them on the Grassy Knoll with Oliver Stone pointing in a different direction based on where they heard the shots coming from. They are kooks, now.
So, let's deal in coincidences. Let's just look at facts and see what they tell us. Here's an example of a coincidence theory. The Taliban was in negotiations to build a pipeline for the Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves in 1999-2000. They went to Houston. Shortly thereafter, the deal fell through, the Taliban pulled out. Chevron and Unocal were the big players in that venture. Condi Rice was on the board of Chevron and their Central Asian expert. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was a special consultant to Unocal. So was our special envoy to Afghanistan after the Taliban fell, Zalmay Khalilzhad. Both paid by Unocal. Almost immediately, Unocal started building a pipeline in Afghanistan that would go through Pakistan and out to the Indian Ocean. Our troops protected the route...troops that could've been hunting down Osama. The British press exposed this. Unocal stopped, but restarted under an offshore subsidiary. Wow, what a set of coincidences.
Or the coincidence that the guy--John O'Neill--who was the FBI's point man on Al-Qaeda, broke open the USS Cole bombing and had developed a flow chart of names and plans that pin-pointed the next attack to lower Manhattan, to the World Trade Center, was pushed out of the FBI and offered almost immediately therafter the chief security job by the WTC. Frustrated by his inability to get someone to pay attention to his warnings and railroaded by his beloved FBI, he took the big payday at WTC. He knew what was coming. He knew quite a bit. His body was found in the rubble of the WTC. Not demolished into tiny bits. They found his body. And it's also interesting that the company in charge of security for the WTC was partially owned by Marvin Bush. Wow, more coincidences.
I could go on, and on, and on.
But I leave it to you to look for yourselves. Look for coincidences. For facts that defy odds. Like the odds that the first death from the anthrax attack was the guy at American Media who made the decision to run a photo of the drunken Bush twins on the cover of the National Enquirer. Wow, what are the odds?
Many people know something strange is happening. The CIA-Leak scandal shows some conspiring in the Veep's office, right? The conspiracy to commit torture seems obvious now, right? But keep your eye on coincidences. Look for facts and draw your own conclusions.
Julius Caesar may have said, "E Tu Brute." Perhaps it was the first conspiracy theory. But it wasn't the last. Still, let's not fall for the easy write-off, the language of denial. Let's connect a few dots. It'll actually make more sense than the official conspiracy theories we are fed everyday.
posted by Josophist at 1:10 PM
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