As far as CT goes, I look at it like this. For lack of a better term, I think what I do is imaginatively and somewhat spastically, orbit all ideas I find interesting and look for a way to peer in. No, not go in! Not yet. I don’t even know what it is I’m looking at yet. But peer in to the slats in the windows of this complex existence. Props to human? for bringing up the possibility that in reality no one and nothing is in control. Doubtlessly, some portions are controlled by other more seductive portions, but in the grand scheme of things nothing and no one are ever indeed in control.

On a recent flight back to Seattle we basically chased the twilight in a losing race to catch back up with the Sun. Of course, since I always request a window seat and am always imaginitvely on-edge, I needless to say began to focus on my position (and everyone else’s in this epoch of Human history) along the duration of the gorgeous, summertime flight. And you wanna know what I felt?

I felt sorry for George Bush, Dick Cheney and having seen Enron the day before, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling etc etc. If only the controllers and authorities of this world understood how small and probably wrong — just like me! — they probably are. It’s when you feel something bigger that you are very, very right. I felt bad. I realized they were no bigger or all that more powerful than I — if you take into account everything else there is to know.

The conspiracies are just feedback from the volume being artificially turned up on a system in deep psychic decline. We are a species in search of a new and more powerful sense.

If we approach the term from a linguistic angle, “conspiracy theory” is a term that frames ideas as outlandish, absurd, and paranoid. Ditto “tin foil hat,” another phrase that needs to be exterminated with extreme prejudice.

The enforcers of the mainstream reality matrix have won this battle of language. And as McKenna asserted, everything is made of language. They’ve won. It’s over. “Conspiracy theory” is as dated as X-Files reruns and day-glo alien head keychains. The Repuglican Plutarchy won the hearts of Red Staters with language tricks like “compassionate conservatism,” “tax relief,” and “family values.” And the reality-is-what-we-say-it-is cops have won by branding heretical thought as delusional and the province of the deranged. The man behind the curtain remains hidden while the people stare at the images on the screen, mesmerized and nodding in assent as their pockets are picked and their souls slowly crushed.

Where do we go from here? That’s what keep asking myself. Some verbal/semantic ju-jitsu is required — a good start is the “coincidence theorist” riposte. Turn it around on them.

Beyond that, I’m struggling to find the answer. And the more I frequent my favorite boards, the more saddened I am to see the lack of discernment among those seeking answers. John Judge and Mae Brussels are not equal to Alex Jones and Sherman Skolnick, yet they’re all thrown into the same stew.

How do you help people to utilize proper discernment when we’re all swimming in a murky, shark-infested sea?

In other words, if it can’t be boiled down to economic factors (left) or plain old evil (right), it’s conspiracy.

Watch “Interview With The Assassin”, an indie “mockumentary” by Neil Burger about a man claiming to be the second gunman on the grassy knoll. I rented it on DVD recently and felt it was a great film that captures the CT paranoia that eats itself like a snake catching its own tail. What’s great about the movie is its open-endedness, and it nails on the head the appeal of CT for the disenfranchised. A much better movie than, say, Mel Gibosn’s CT movie w/ Julia Roberts a while back.

I think what you are referring to, in terms of picking apart CT until it self-destructs, has been covered artfully by Thomas Pynchon in “The Crying of Lot 49″ and it has to do with the ties between pop-cultural narcissism and CT paranoia. In short, we want to believe that what affronts our egos daily is actually a part of something bigger that we must fight against, in order to preserve our ideas about ourselves. Pynchon’s novel is a huge mindfuck for the protagonist, almost Phillip K. Dickian in its labrythine suspiciousness. I recommend you read it, as it is Pynchon’s most accessible book.

I actually kind of like that conspiracy theory is such a pejorative word. I think there’s some kind of hidden advantage to that, but I’m not quite sure how to articulate it yet.

i read about this concept in zen last night called ‘turning words.’ they’re words/phrases used by zen teachers that are contradictory, vulgar, violent, misleading, derogatory, etc. in order to get students to ‘turn’ from their preconceived notions about what reality consists of. i think that’s why i like phrases like ‘conspiracy theorist’ and all the cursing that goes on around here (fuck! shit! goddam!).

LVX: I actually kind of like that conspiracy theory is such a pejorative word. I think there’s some kind of hidden advantage to that, but I’m not quite sure how to articulate it yet.

I do agree with you it’s the same as journalism in one regard, but in another I think there’s a weird spiritual dimension to it that not enough of us are really probing. It fits into the rest of the puzzle somehow

one
human?

In studing international relations, Politcs and terrorism I have come to this conclusion, Trust no one.