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Hurricane Conspiracy & Government
At the risk of beating this topic to death, I just realized there’s one big old fat contradiction going on amidst a lot of the conspiracy explanations I’ve been going through in regards to the hurricane. On the one hand, you have all these people crying about the hurrican being caused by essentially George W. Bush, or at least a secret shadow govt group. And then on the other hand, you have people who are legitimately pissed off about the lack of response or slow response of George W. Bush to fix things down there.
There seems to be a giant philosophical dilemma nestled within here about what the nature of government ought to be. Basically one style of thinking implies that government is always at its core an evil which will sow destruction to gain greater power. Then you have the other avenue which says we ought to be able to look to our government to protect us. Maybe this is bigger than just the hurricane or conspiracy theory. Maybe this goes right down to the roots of the American attitudes towards government. Which one is it? Is government evil or is it there to help us? And is there any possibility that it can be both of these things, or rather that it should be both of these things? How do we balance one with the other? How do we keep the evil in check? Can the “good” side of the government (the one that helps us) cause more damage than the evil side? Didn’t one of the greatest increases in the American government take place when they were trying to help people out of the great Depression? Does it all fit some larger pattern?
September 4th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
problem: the government rescue failed
reaction: what the hell went wrong?????
solution: strengthen homeland security. make domestic military operations easier to initiate. and the one that im sorry to say is going to be pushed with increased vigor and acceptence….. the implanted microchip.
you dont just fail to plan….. you plan to fail
theres the real conspiracy.
one
human?
September 4th, 2005 at 9:59 pm
The purpose of government is to control the people. That’s what central authority does. If it can best control us by helping us, it will do that. If it can best control us by killing us, it will do that.
You make a good point about the conspiracy crowd. It always bugs me that so many of them are stuck in the denial and anger stages. I often feel like I’m in the trenches of a war, and half the people on my side, instead of fighting, are busy exclaiming, “They’re shooting at us! I can’t believe they’re shooting at us! How dare they!”
September 4th, 2005 at 10:07 pm
Excellently worded. People don’t realize that control doesn’t always wear a devil mask!
September 5th, 2005 at 5:47 pm
anger and denial are components of grief. conspiracists are grieving about loss of what? power? control through understanding? those are reasonable desires but it so often gravitates into political blame. bush didn`t respond quickly enough to katrina? i thought it was the state of louisiana`s job to respond first, it isn`t a federal level emergency.
September 6th, 2005 at 10:29 am
The government gained an unusual amount of power in 1913 with the stealthy passage of the 16th amendment, the introduction of the Federal Reserve Bank, and a permanent income tax. I believe the growth you refer to began here, not during the depression. If anything, I think the depression was partially caused by gov’t policy.