Untitled Document
Taking a Closer Look at the Stories Ignored by the Corporate Media
Donate | Fair Use Notice | Who We Are | Contact


COMMENTARY
All Commentaries
9-11
CIA
Corporatism
Economics
Government / The Elite
Imperialism
Iraq War
Media
Police State / Military
Science / Health
Voting Integrity
War on Terrorism

NEWS
All News
9-11
Corporatism
Disaster in New Orleans
Economics
Environment
Globalization
Government / The Elite
Human Rights
International Affairs
Iraq War
London Bombing
Media
Police State / Military
Science / Health
Voting Integrity
War on Terrorism
Miscellaneous

SEARCH/ARCHIVES
Advanced Search
View the Archives


E-mail this Link   Printer Friendly

MEDIA -
-

"Conspiracy Theories" and Cultural Imperatives: The Millennial Conspiracy Driving Cultural Evolution

Posted in the database on Tuesday, August 02nd, 2005 @ 00:00:59 MST (2943 views)
by Dr. Gerry Lower    Axisoflogic  

Untitled Document

The term "conspiracy," appropriately enough, comes from the Latin word "conspirare" meaning "to breathe together," to inhale collectively the air from a few individuals and be proud of it. The terms "conspiracy theory" refer to "a theory (sic) that claims an event or series of events is the result of secret manipulations by two or more individuals or an organization, rather than the result of a single perpetrator or a natural occurrence" (Wikipedia).

Conspiracy "Hypotheses"

What most people refer to as "conspiracy theories" are not theories at all. Ther are merely hypotheses that defy the "official" establishment understanding of historical and contemporary events. Colloquially, a conspiracy "theory" is any non-mainstream hypothesis about current or historical events, with the implication that the hypothesis is unfounded, irrational or in some way unworthy of serious consideration.

All cultural conspiracy "theories," from the Da Vinci Code to the 9/11 "Saudi Connection," differ indeed from the establishment line but, like the Bush establishment line, they are typically based on little or no solid evidence. As a result, both the Bush establishment line and conspiracy theories are hypothetical at best, fabrications at worst.

Because the proponents of conspiracy theories typically substitute zeal for fact and logic in order to further their argument, the expression "conspiracy theory" is typically used by opponents of such hypotheses as a term of derision for an allegation that they consider impossible, unproven, or a lie.

Conspiracy theories in general allege that some particular event, e.g., an assassination, a revolution, or a terrorist attack, resulted not solely from the visible action of overt socio-political forces but rather from intentional covert actions taken beneath the playing table. To some extent, this is always true in societies feigning democracy or not caring the least about its values.

Conspiracy Theories

Historians generally use the term "conspiracy" to refer to events that are considered to be real, proven, or at least seriously plausible and supported by fact. Conspiracy theories can then be taken as actual theory, i.e., the viewpoint with the greatest explanatory value and the greatest utility as a starting point for further investigation, explanation and problem solving.

A very clean example of a true conspiracy theory comes from the current Bush administration under the rule of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and those conspiring to establish America as the sole global role model for democracy. They envision an America in fiscal and military dominion of the world in order to maintain the "American Way" (as opposed to leading the world by honoring human rights and promoting democracy).

A blueprint for George Bush's foreign policy was written in 1992 after the Persian Gulf War by then-Defense Secretary, Dick Cheney. The overt conspiracy took material form in the Project for a New American Century, a Washington-based "think tank" created in 1997. Its agenda included the elimination of Saddam Hussein to ensure that Iraqi resources were in the right hands. The September 11th terrorist attacks on New York and Washington provided the PNAC conspirators with what Condoleeza Rice would refer to as a "great opportunity."

Here is an example of a conspiratorial plan that was more or less formalized 15 years ago by members of the Bush White House. The plan was implemented by pandering to the religious right and realized with the appointment of the Bush administration. It was, upfront and from the onset, an overt political conspiracy to create a "controlled society" - in what Jefferson and Franklin originally intended to be a democracy.

It was a plan for usurping what little power remained in the hands of the American people and placing that power into the hands of the corporate aristocracy, those who claim to be the source of human nourishment on earth, those who worship themselves in capitalism's self-embrace, those who promote everything that has been going wrong with America since capitalism came to dominate both political parties following World War II.

Is there a conspiracy of the rich to feed off the poor? Well, of course not. John Locke (one of America's British founding fathers) pointed out long ago that this is all built right into western religious systems, that the rich find it necessary to feed off the poor or else there could be no rich. In other words, the concept of an honest rich man is an oxymoron, like religious capitalism itself. For starters, it would be hard to find an honest man willing to define riches in monetary terms.

There is no need for a "conspiracy" when rich people think similarly, pray similarly, and support leadership and policies in no one's interest but their own. It is not so much a group conspiracy then as it is a cultural conspiracy, launched millennia ago by those living in a despotic Biblical world, by those who made despotism into a religious way of life. That way of life, which follows a way of faith-based thought, has now been imposed upon the entire world by the Bush administration, in the name of human rights and democracy.

Millennial Conspiracies and Cultural Imperatives

While the Bush administration's neoconservative program of religious capitalism clearly qualifies as a true conspiracy against the values of democracy and the rights of the people, it does not do so because the conspirators are "bad" men (which they are) but because the conspirators choose to believe in a world view that is inherently bad, rooted in despotism, but consistent with justifying and maintaining the tendencies of the rich and powerful. Like the Holy Roman Empire, the Bush administration is not very holy because its Old Testament world view is so chock full of holes.

The Bush administration's agenda is properly seen as being integral to a much larger cultural evolutionary program, a program that has only been discernible during the 20th century and increasingly so since World War II. Much of what is seen in America under the Bush administration is the culmination of a right wing conservative effort going back to Jefferson and Hamilton and the conflicts between the ideological values of the Declaration and the operational values of the Constitution.

The Declaration sings of freedom and fairness and equality in the eyes of God. The original Constitution preached religion and British capitalism. Sure, let's guarantee every person in America a voice by virtue of a vote, but only if they pee through a hole in the front of their pants, only if they own land and only if they aren't black. In other words, it is a problem cultural in origin, a problem inherent in the American program because the values of the Declaration were very often ignored in writing the Constitution.

The Bush administration does not deal with reality and seek solutions to real human problems. It imposes an ancient religious world view that predates America and justifies vengeance and self-righteousness in the name of the rich and the powerful. We have come full circle. The Bush administration has coercively manipulated the people to accept the same Old Testament world view that justified Roman imperialism and British-European colonialism in the first place. We have met the enemy and it is who we have become under post-World War II religious capitalism.

It would be one thing if the Bush administration were membered with "Christian soldiers," peacefully fighting for nascent Christian human rights and their implementation in the political world. The Bush administration, however, is only able to fight violently for the Old Testament Roman values that justify conquest and control in the name of everything decent and in the interest of the rich and powerful.

In doing so, the Bush administration screams out to the world that it knows nothing of the dialect human values of nascent Christianity and Jeffersonian Democracy. Unfortunately for the Bush administration (and fortunately for the people), the world sees and hears and thinks for itself. Most of the world's democracies have already advanced beyond the belief that religious dogma provides a basis for implementing democracy.

The Republican party's religious capitalism has coerced conservative Americans into being the children of God instead of the citizens of a democracy. They were given the freedom to be both, but that freedom was not able to maintain adequate conservative control. Accordingly, conservative Americans have become children in thought, certainly in the eyes of Jefferson's God in the eyes of the educated world. In many instances, conservatives have become children even in the eyes of their own children.

Given the millennial religious conspiracy driving American capitalism under the Bush administration, as it drove Roman imperialism and European colonialism before, it is necessary to human comprehension that the Bush administration be placed into proper cultural perspective. Once done, the people are then confronted on a global basis with a cultural imperative, the need to get our collective act together and to control ourselves and our consumption in order to save ourselves and the world from ourselves.

It is a matter of whether one wants to laugh or cry in contemplating the only possible outcome, given that those whom Jefferson would call "fools and charlatans" are in the White House. The Bush administration will certainly defend its religion-based policies to the religious end. In doing so, the apocalyptic Bush administration will discredit supernatural religion and crony capitalism from the global political arena for the duration.

After all, in a democracy, supernatural religious world views are properly held alone at home, insofar as they must be held at all. Freedom of religion is, at the same time, freedom from religious coercion and oppression. It was intended to work that way to accomodate both children and citizens. The children are free to remain home with their religion and the citizens are free to maintain a government of, by and for the people. To be sure, it is the people and the living world who could use some honest, human attention.

In defending religious capitalism to the death, the fall of the Bush administration will allow the people to open the doors to human rights and the values of democracy for the duration. For the first time, the people will have the option of doing it right, establishing a democracy that our founding fathers could only dream about, a direct democracy that would place decision-making directly in the hands of the people in creating, for the first time, a government of, by and for the people. The technology to do so already exists.

The path to meaningful change always requires a bit of disgust with the past and the present and a vision of a better tomorrow. The Bush administration's anti-people and anti-earth capitalism provides all the disgust necessary. From here on out, it is up to the people to define what we mean by a government of, by and for the people. We know, thanks to the Bush administration, that the representative approach is far too prone to corruption. A direct democracy requires an honestly informed and educated public. Even as we work toward that goal, it is inconceivable that the people could do worse than a corrupt corporate aristocracy.

© Copyright 2005 by AxisofLogic.com



Go to Original Article >>>

The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not necessarily reflect those of Looking Glass News. Click the disclaimer link below for more information.
Email: editor@lookingglassnews.org.

E-mail this Link   Printer Friendly




Untitled Document
Disclaimer
Donate | Fair Use Notice | Who We Are | Contact
Copyright 2005 Looking Glass News.