- When one dares to dig beneath the surface of governmental
programs to reveal undisclosed purposes, he or she is usually met with
charges of being a "paranoid" defender of "conspiracy theories."
More often than not, such an accusation silences the questioner, as it
is designed to do. I long ago came to the conclusion that those who chastise
others for spouting "conspiracy theories" tend to do so because
they don t want the implications of their own schemes revealed to the public.
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!," intoned the
Wizard of Oz, an admonition designed to intimidate the inquisitive into
silence.
-
- I, for one, gladly admit to the embracing of any conspiracy
theory for which there is credible evidence. But those who condemn me for
my views never seem interested in examining the evidence, their purposes
being more to prevent the raising of discomforting questions. Having read
a good deal of history over the years, I ask my critics to account for
the countless foreign intrigues, plots, assassinations, alliances, and
other cabals that have been at the heart of so much of the history of the
world. Do Shakespeare s tragedies almost all of which are grounded in
conspiracies of one kind or another have nothing to teach us about the
machinations of human behavior?
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- A Jewish acquaintance once criticized me for my views,
adding "there are no conspiracies." "May I quote you on
that?," I asked. He could not understand my purpose in wanting to
do so, so I told him: "because it s not often one hears Jewish people
denying the Nazi holocaust the way you just did." After advising him
that the "Nazi holocaust" requires a conspiracy of German government
officials, he was prepared to modify his statement to allow for the kinds
of conspiracies that he believed in.
-
- One of my colleagues, who teaches antitrust law, attacked
me for defending even the idea of "conspiracies," until I asked
him if he intended to reduce his course from three units to one. "Since
so much of antitrust law consists of conspiracies to restrain trade, or
fix prices, or divide up markets, or monopolize an industry, or engage
in such more subtle conspiracies as conscious parallelism, I assume
that, since you do not believe in conspiracies, you will take the lead
in condemning such specious theories."
-
- Conspiracy theories abound in our society, and are widely
accepted, . . . provided you are identifying the "politically correct"
conspiracy. World War II was conducted, in part, on the premise that the
so-called "axis powers" were conspiring to take over the world.
But if one tries to offer evidence that FDR secretly manipulated the Japanese
into an attack on Pearl Harbor in order to serve his political agenda,
the "anti-conspiracy league" quickly appears to attack not the
evidence, but the state of mind of the accuser. When World War II ended,
the "international communist conspiracy" was hurriedly rushed
onstage to justify the commitment of trillions of dollars of wealth and
hundreds of thousands of lives to fight a "Cold War." When the
"Cold War" critics began to speak and write about how this campaign
was designed to serve American corporate-state interests at the expense
of the American people, the "anti-conspiracy league" was again
called into action.
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- For those who are paying attention, the incongruity of
the critics of conspiracy theories should be apparent. "We are busy
conducting wars against sinister foreign conspiracies," they might
argue, "and anyone who suggests that we might be engaged in conspiracies
of our own, are paranoids. " "They" conspire, in other
words, but "we" do not. A childishly simple explanation for consumption
by childishly simple minds.
-
- "Paranoia" consists not in a fear of others,
but in a baseless fear. Would one regard a Jew, in Nazi Germany, as "paranoid,"
because he thought the government was out to do him harm? If so, how would
we characterize the state of mind of another Jew, similarly located, who
did not see any threat from his government? When one further considers
how preoccupied government officials are with protecting themselves from
those they imagine themselves to represent to the point of routinely
having bomb-sniffing dogs, armed security guards, and military helicopters
and soldiers accompany their public appearances it should be asked: just
who is being "paranoid?"
-
- It is interesting to observe the psychological projection
that takes place in such dynamics. The defenders of statism attack their
critics as "paranoids" while, at the same time, fostering an
endless supply of "enemies" against whom they promise us protection!
Politics thrives on the mobilization of the fear of others. President Bush
s unilateral declaration of a permanent war against the rest of the world
can only be premised upon the most paranoid assumption that everyone else
is involved in a conspiracy against American interests!
-
- It has always been comforting to most people to imagine,
albeit unconsciously, that the "dark side" of their personality
i.e., the capacity for violence, dishonesty, bigotry, etc. can be severed
from themselves and projected onto others, against whom punitive action
can then be taken. All that occurs in such behavior, of course, is the
punishment of the others who stand in as scapegoats for the feared shortcomings
of those engaged in projecting. This kind of thinking has produced the
current Bush-induced mindset that when America bombs other countries
killing innocent men, women, and children in the process it is a force
for "good" defending "freedom." When these other countries
retaliate for such attacks killing innocent men, women, and children in
so doing they represent the forces of "evil" engaged in "terrorism."
That grown men and women can internalize this kind of playground logic,
particularly when the consequences are so deadly, is indeed frightening.
-
- This war whose name is ever-changing has moved far
beyond simply retaliation against those responsible for attacking the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th. It has become more of
a self-righteous "holy crusade" against nations that are unprepared
to acknowledge America as the rightful ruler of the entire world. Neo-conservative
zealots have exploited the September 11th tragedy to pursue a much broader
agenda of American hegemony. It is no longer sufficient to track down the
perpetrators of that attack, the war must be expanded to include nations
whose identities seem to have been selected from someone s Rolodex file
of place-names! "Who shall we attack next?" has been the operative
question around Washington. After months of bombing Afghanistan, President
Bush was quick to declare an "Axis of Evil" as the broader enemy,
suggesting that North Korea, Iraq, and Iran were engaged in some conspiracy,
apparently of satanic dimensions, against America. Soon, new candidates
were offered up for public consumption: the Philippines, Indonesia, Somalia,
the Sudan, Colombia, and perhaps other Middle Eastern or African nations.
The candidates for inclusion on this list may include anyone unprepared
to genuflect before American interests. (The list will presumably not include
China, which would likely offer deadly resistance.)
-
- Let us suppose that some criminal has engaged in a violent
attack upon your Uncle Willie s home. Let us suppose, further, that Willie
has undertaken a campaign to discover and bring to account the perpetrators
of this offense. This would be a perfectly rational response on his part,
for which the rest of us would likely lend our support. But suppose that
Willie goes further than this and, not being able to discover the criminal,
begins going through his neighborhood shooting anyone about whom he has
become suspicious, or against whom he has long harbored a grudge. Would
your response be to jump on his bandwagon and assist his undertaking, or
would you want him confined to some facility that could provide him with
a whole lot of couch time?
-
- It is time for sane men and women to put down their flags
and begin to recognize the current war-mania not simply as a misguided
adventure, but as the collective psychopathic disorder that it has become.
When those in power tell us that they are engaged in an endless war against
endless enemies, it is time to say "enough!" We have a responsibility
to maintain the conditions upon which life may flourish on this planet,
not to follow the madness of those who have no greater vision than to commit
all of mankind to a state of universal and eternal warfare in furtherance
of their delusions. It is time for intelligence and human decency to transcend
the frenzied jingoism now prevailing upon the land, and for intellectual
honesty to expose the schemes of those who conspire against life itself.
___
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- Butler Shaffer teaches at the Southwestern University
School of Law.
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- Copyright © 2002 LewRockwell.com
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- http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/shaffer8.html
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