I’ve been saying for a very long time that the costume of democracy serves as an increasingly threadbare cover for the naked truth that we in the West are ruled by criminals. This would be self evident to everyone if not for what Caitlin Johnstone recently called the “phenomenally excellent global narrative control” of the US ruling class.
Now hear Ed Snowden, speaking for just 512 seconds on November 24 this year …
https://youtu.be/5KEBC9Ng4tA
“All right,” said Susan. “I’m not stupid. You’re saying humans need… fantasies to make life bearable.”
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
“Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—”
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
“So we can believe the big ones?”
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
“They’re not the same at all!”
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME…SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—”
MY POINT EXACTLY.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
History and evolution are amoral. Bringing morality into the world of human affairs, well, that’s our job …
Since organised crime is a conspiratorial activity any theory which proposes its presence is a conspiracy theory. The conspiracy is motivated by the class interests of the conspiritors and so is created and driven by class forces.
Here’s an excellent analysis of the relations between Wall Atreet, CIA and Mafia in the mid 20th century.
https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/free/lobster83/lob83-wall-street-supermob-cia.pdf
You’ll likely appreciate this take from Patrick Armstrong:
https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2021/12/18/3914/
“it should be made clear from the outset of this discussion that there are two different kinds of conspiracy theories – unacceptable ones and acceptable ones.”
A good piece Dave. I especially like his applying Popper’s principle of falsifiability to any particular conspiracy theory. The bad ones – which we can describe as subgenres of paranoia – are not only resistance to counter evidence but actually feed on the stuff!
Thanks Johnny. I will get to reading this in due c. It’s a long read but I am mooting a more in-depth piece to back up my now frequently aired claim that we are ruled by criminals. The Lobster piece might sit alongside this long piece (23k words), on the West’s use of salafism in Syria.
On a similar theme, Glen Greenwald has just published this piece on the now blatantly open use of former spies in the corporate media:
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/nbc-news-uses-ex-fbi-official-frank
“This new argument pushed by NBC News and its former FBI operative Frank Figliuzzi — liberals should cheer Assange’s prosecution because we can squeeze him once he is here to turn on and implicate Trump — seems like a barely disguised political ploy to protect the Biden White House from criticism. NBC News knows that liberals crave Trump’s prosecution above all, so trying to convince them that Assange’s extradition could advance that — as false as that obviously is — would likely benefit the White House which NBC serves, by fortifying support among Trump-obsessed liberals or at least diluting opposition.
But taken on its own terms, the argument now being promoted by NBC to justify Assange’s extradition is deeply disturbing. What they are essentially arguing is that the entire prosecution is a pretext. Though justified based on Assange’s alleged lawbreaking in connection with the 2010 publication by WikiLeaks of the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, the real benefit, according to NBC, is the opportunity to pressure Assange to turn on Trump in connection with the 2016 election. ”
That’s right, the security run and controlled US Corporate Liberal media are telling the Democratic base that getting Assange to the US will get them proof, via a plea bargain, of the Russiagate narrative.
Glenn’s is an important voice. One reason I promote other political commentators on this site is that it lets me upload more content than I – though fairly prolific for a solo blogger – otherwise could.
More importantly, I’m on a mission to get people to drop the idea, less tenable with each passing day, that they can gain reliable understandings of what drives our world from Guardian, WashPo, Al-Jazeera, HuffPo, BBC etc.
(I find the worst cases to be those who can lecture night and day on corporate media bias but seldom look to alternative sources themselves. On matters vital to ruling class interests, the demonising of China in particular, such (self-servingly) credulous people offer what it pleases them to deem more ‘nuanced’ versions of dominant narratives – “China is just as bad” – which we could call confused but are more accurately read as excuses for a comfortable passivity whose phony moral equivalence lets the criminals off the hook while allowing a facade of sophisticated radicalism.)
It is quite impossible to understand a world ruled by the criminally insane through media which, as repeatedly evidenced on this site and others, is systemically tied to that criminal class. We need to turn to a far wider range of sources. Of which Glenn’s output is one.