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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