| -Caveat Lector-
''The power of words � Part 3: that damned relativity thing''
Printed on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 @ 23:25:58 EDT By Matthew
Riemer
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
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YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States) (YellowTimes.org) � The more likely someone is of accusing you of being
conspiratorial in your ideas the more likely it is that they actually don't
understand how the world works or the more afraid they likely are of the angle
you're presenting. This is said assuming that the individual (presenter of
supposed conspiracy) is not proffering ideas about George W. Bush being a lizard
or aliens ruling Earth from subterranean headquarters. But then again, maybe it
applies to them too. Things that shocked us in our youth, or at least surprised us, no longer seem to do so once we've grown to "adulthood"; in part, this evolutionary phenomenon would seem to be a function of our intelligence or, more precisely, our understanding. As we begin to understand more as an organism we also begin to "discover" more: things that we once did not understand are now understood - and they also "make sense" this time; certain newly understood concepts somehow nicely, surprisingly, and weirdly "fit in" with others learned in the past; some questions simply become moot. And now because of this, what we perceived in the past as a confusing melange of ideas, facts, and theories seems to coalesce into a revelatory and natural whole. Many Americans are still unaware of many important and incriminating historical facts or are simply in denial with regard to certain conspiratorial ideas, facts, or legends. The denial seems to result from the corollary between the amount of coverage something receives and its level of perceived truthfulness or importance. To not report a story, event, or fact, indeed, serves to de-emphasize its significance. To paraphrase Hakim Bey: To escape televisualization is to escape existence. Consider the casualness with which historian, Ralph B. Levering in The Cold War: 1945-1987 observes the following, much of which, many people would deny had ever happened or would simply label as conspiracy theories:
the FBI, the CIA, and the Defense Department, in addition to or as a byproduct of their normal functions, were secretly abusing the civil liberties and threatening the health of numerous Americans and Canadians. The FBI, for example, conducted continuing surveillance against civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., on the premise, never substantiated, that "Communist influence" dominated his movement. Contrary to its charter, the CIA also conducted extensive surveillance of individuals within the United States, including members of Congress. Seeking to learn to control behavior, the CIA conducted experiments with hallucinogenic drugs on unsuspecting Americans, at least one of whom committed suicide while unknowingly under the influence of LSD. Experimenting in bacteriological warfare, the Navy in 1950 blanketed San Francisco for six days with a bacteria known as serratia (which, it was discovered later, could cause a fatal pneumonia). And the Army in 1953 conducted chemical warfare tests over St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Winnipeg, Canada, dropping cadmium sulfide and zinc in aerosol clouds. Although Americans did not know everything the CIA was doing, the attentive public, members of Congress, journalists, and of course leaders of the administration knew that the CIA, under the president's direction, was involved in overthrowing the government of Iran and restoring the Shah to power in 1953, in overthrowing the government of Guatemala in 1954, and in trying to overthrow the government of Cuba in 1961. Most people did not know about serious CIA plotting in places like Laos, Indonesia, Syria, the Congo, and British Guiana, but most probably would have acquiesced as they did in the other three. And yet Americans almost certainly would have been infuriated to the point of demanding war if a foreign government had been discovered trying to overthrow the nation's government or assassinate its leaders.Now how many people would accept all of these claims made by Levering? I really don't know, but I would imagine many would question them by asking: "Well, if that's true why haven't I heard more about it?" or "There's no way a story like that wouldn't receive a lot of attention from the media. Do you think they'd let that one slide? Look at what they did to Clinton." Still other reactions might include acceptance, as in: "Well, I didn't know that specifically, but what's the big deal? That's in the past now. Nothing like that happens anymore." or "We were just trying to protect ourselves then." Former military or intelligence personnel usually fall under this latter description, alluding to the early days of "blunders" and "irresponsible adolescence," as if the CIA and government were involved in new enterprises, simple pups in an overwhelming world, where inexperienced mistakes spurred by youthful exuberance were both commonplace and unintentional. It would seem as though this line is currently bought by many. The Levering excerpt is significant not because of the specific experiments and coups it references, but because of the offhandedness with which it reports them as truth. This indicates that which is considered normal or accepted by a learned historian or other specialist can be fully unbelievable to the layman. An example of this is a discussion I had with a communications professor at a major university about his Intro to Mass Communications class in which he extensively expounds on the corruption of the mass media as well as the exploits of the U.S. He said that students frequently told him that they became uncomfortable in his class and sometimes left because of it; this was apparent when I attended. One student, a member of the armed forces, even came to him privately to tell him that he often had to hold back his anger during class because of what was being said. And the professor is just scraping the surface. In short, much of which many people "know" to be true is still unacceptable as "truth" to the majority of the people. The coverage something receives coupled with its "likelihood of happening" relative to the simulated world created by the media via its projections of what the world is like, depicted in sitcoms and other popular "shows," creates some kind of believability factor. Because of this someone may more readily believe that which is unverified yet believable over that which sounds unbelievable but is actually true. We should become more learned of government and history, in general. Not everyone needs to be an expert, but the vast majority of us need to pay more attention to what is going on around us, both domestically and abroad. This includes reading the newspaper (many different ones including foreign), both mainstream and alternative, engaging in personal research of history, politics, government, etc., and basically becoming more skeptical of what we are told. Maybe if more of us pursued such activities we'd see how funny those who talk about terrorists, freedom fighters, conspiracy theories, peace processes, and the like really sound. [Matthew Riemer has written for years about a myriad of topics, such as: philosophy, religion, psychology, culture, and politics. He studied Russian language and culture for five years and traveled in the former Soviet Union in 1990. In addition to his work with YellowTimes.org, he's also maintaining http://www.rottenindenmark.org, as well as being in the midst of a larger autobiographical/cultural work. Matthew lives in the United States.] Matthew Riemer encourages your comments: [EMAIL PROTECTED] YellowTimes.org encourages its material to be reproduced, reprinted, or broadcast provided that any such reproduction must identify the original source, http://www.YellowTimes.org. Internet web links to http://www.YellowTimes.org are appreciated. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om |
