sophiaserpentia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophiaserpentia) wrote2006-01-24 11:40 am
sophiaserpentia) wrote2006-01-24 11:40 am
Entry tags:
- anarchism,
- biosociology,
- brain,
- cannibal,
- economics,
- edifice,
- embedded theology,
- empire,
- feminism,
- global politics,
- ideological divisiveness,
- justice,
- libertarianism,
- marxian analysis,
- mcarchons,
- memetics,
- news media,
- oligarchical collectivism,
- political theory,
- radicalism,
- social stratification,
- tyranny of the written word,
- viceroy,
- will and causation
on conspiracies that shape society, politics, and the economy
A link on the friend's list this morning had some interesting information on the Fed's decision to stop reporting on M3 and suggesting that this is to cover up a Federal Reserve plan to hyperinflate the dollar. So far, so good; that's the kind of evil i can see happening as a result of the Fed's relative impotence in the face of Congress's utter fiscal irresponsibility. Printing lots of money is every junta's favorite way of paying off its debts.
I should have stopped reading the comments though when i saw the word "Bilderburgers." Ordinarily, i would have; LaRouchean-style conspiracy theory doesn't sit well with me.
If there were truly a conspiracy to shape the course of world events, it would not look like a secret cabal. A secret cabal could be too easily exposed for what it is. Just the fact that there is widespread speculation about secret cabals precludes the existence of one, because no secret cabal worthy of the name would tolerate open speculation about the existence of secret cabals.
No, it would look like something else entirely, something much less obvious.
I think that a lot of people are drawn to the idea of a conspiracy because, after all, there are a few people in the world who have a lot of power, money, and influence, and there are many of us who have little or none. And this is a situation with which the majority of us accept quietly, due in no small part to the presence among us of people with uniforms and guns who take orders from the influential folks. It's also a situation that exists because there are people in the world who feel completely entitled to take whatever they want, without any thought for who is put out in the process.
It's been recently established that primates have an innate sense of fair play; and so even on an unconscious level we look at the world around us and know that there is something vastly unfair going on around us. But we can't see it. That's because we've been very effectively blinkered to its existence.
THAT is what a real conspiracy looks like. It would be something we all buy into, a presumption built in to all of our language, culture, and ideology fnord. Something considered "common sense" so that the defenders of it seem rational and straightforward, can defend the unfairness of it all with a calm rational voice. Something considered "natural" so that proposals to replace it with something more fair and egalitarian sound wacky and far-out. Something we are all recruited to play a part in, unable to see it because we have been cultured from birth to see it as a normal part of the way the world works. Something we have no words to describe because we have been numbed and desensitized and because, even more subtly, we employ a censor on our consciousness to keep it from active awareness. Our own scrambling from day to day for survival keeps us from seeing it, because we are too busy worrying about our own lives and sanity. And lastly, those who do happen to look up from the grindstone to see that the emperor has no clothes are led to dualistic "us vs. them" thinking that makes it difficult to understand (and therefore criticize) the full ubiquity of the conspiracy and our own individual participation in it.
Hannah Arendt's appraisal of evil as banal holds in this case, because the conspiracy shaping world politics and events, preserving privilege for a few, looks exactly like the kyriarchy.
I should have stopped reading the comments though when i saw the word "Bilderburgers." Ordinarily, i would have; LaRouchean-style conspiracy theory doesn't sit well with me.
If there were truly a conspiracy to shape the course of world events, it would not look like a secret cabal. A secret cabal could be too easily exposed for what it is. Just the fact that there is widespread speculation about secret cabals precludes the existence of one, because no secret cabal worthy of the name would tolerate open speculation about the existence of secret cabals.
No, it would look like something else entirely, something much less obvious.
I think that a lot of people are drawn to the idea of a conspiracy because, after all, there are a few people in the world who have a lot of power, money, and influence, and there are many of us who have little or none. And this is a situation with which the majority of us accept quietly, due in no small part to the presence among us of people with uniforms and guns who take orders from the influential folks. It's also a situation that exists because there are people in the world who feel completely entitled to take whatever they want, without any thought for who is put out in the process.
It's been recently established that primates have an innate sense of fair play; and so even on an unconscious level we look at the world around us and know that there is something vastly unfair going on around us. But we can't see it. That's because we've been very effectively blinkered to its existence.
THAT is what a real conspiracy looks like. It would be something we all buy into, a presumption built in to all of our language, culture, and ideology fnord. Something considered "common sense" so that the defenders of it seem rational and straightforward, can defend the unfairness of it all with a calm rational voice. Something considered "natural" so that proposals to replace it with something more fair and egalitarian sound wacky and far-out. Something we are all recruited to play a part in, unable to see it because we have been cultured from birth to see it as a normal part of the way the world works. Something we have no words to describe because we have been numbed and desensitized and because, even more subtly, we employ a censor on our consciousness to keep it from active awareness. Our own scrambling from day to day for survival keeps us from seeing it, because we are too busy worrying about our own lives and sanity. And lastly, those who do happen to look up from the grindstone to see that the emperor has no clothes are led to dualistic "us vs. them" thinking that makes it difficult to understand (and therefore criticize) the full ubiquity of the conspiracy and our own individual participation in it.
Hannah Arendt's appraisal of evil as banal holds in this case, because the conspiracy shaping world politics and events, preserving privilege for a few, looks exactly like the kyriarchy.