Why I Don’t Believe In Conspiracy Theories
By: BJ Lawson
There are some who are convinced that Ron Paul cannot win because there is a massive, centralized conspiracy against him and his message of a Constitutional federal government and individual liberties. I assert, however, that there is no conspiracy — only pessimism that doesn’t believe a groundswell of concerned citizens can change the trajectory of our nation at this critical time.
Why am I so confident that conspiracy theories to shut out Dr. Paul’s ideas are bunk? Just look around you — the truth is everywhere! If there was truly a conspiracy, you would not have access to the following books:
- The Fed, by Martin Mayer
- Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt
- Economics for Real People, by Gene Callahan
Additionally, you would not be able to use your favorite search engine to instantly locate:
- The United States Government’s annual financial report
- The Treasury Department’s “Debt to the Penny” web application
- The Treasury Department’s Interest Expense on Debt Outstanding
- The Grandfather Economic Report, endorsed by none other than Milton Friedman
- The Defense Department’s reports of active duty troop strength by location (What? You mean of our 1.4 million troops, 400 thousand are overseas? And we have 100 thousand in Germany? Why?)
- A Heritage Foundation summary report of the same troop deployment information over time
- The Constitution
Finally, how about this article from yesterday’s Financial Times:
David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.
These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.
Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.
Mr. David Walker is our Comptroller General with the Government Accountability Office, and he’s issuing a cry for help. Were there truly a massive conspiracy, would his warnings have made the papers?
August 15th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Why does every conspiracy have to be massive? Ideally I think if I were a bad guy I’d want to keep it small so as to concentrate the power amongst the few trusted co-conspirators. In any case, I’m not sure how you can reconsile non-belief in any conspiracy when you have so many ex CIA and other intel agenst spilling the beans about various unsavory ops they’ve been involved in and stuff like Carl Bernstein blowing the lid off the fact that the CIA has placed upwards of 400 agents inside of various news and media companies in order to control and spin ‘the message’.
August 15th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
We are now at the point of having a population so dumbed down that they don’t understand that the problems we face cannot be fixed by government, much less understand that they are CAUSED by government. To be sure, people have been co-conspiarators against themselves, trading their liberty for the pottage (Garet Garrett) of nonexistent “security”. It is hardly a risk that these resources are out there, how many have the cognitive ability left to read and understand them?? The massive indoctrination, stripping of traditional values and beliefs by the “molders of minds” and animal behaviorists in the govschools have done their job of reducing human beings to obedient herd animals very well. This is NOT a “conspiracy theory”. This is very well documented by Charlotte Iserbyt (worked for the Reagan Dept. of Ed.), John Taylor Gatto, Samuel Blumenfeld, among others. Education was never the true purpose of government schooling. You tube Charlotte Iserbyt, Google John Taylor Gatto.
August 15th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
tsoldrin, sb — good points, well said. I learned a lot reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (John Perkins) among other books, and we indeed have a history of unsavory things with respect to a sound doctrine of non-interventionism.
My point with this post was simply to point out that the resources to educate are out there, and easily available. Government education may have failed, but each of us knows people who respect us, and with whom we can engage in respectful dialog.
Let’s not think we can’t help other people overcome the barriers that have been placed in the way of true understanding!
BD
August 15th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Barry, you’re very naive. All one has to do is monitor the mainstream media for a few weeks and you’ll clearly see the conspiracy of the two party system as well as the hidden agenda of the fed and banking controllers.
***
ronpaulmania — thanks for your comment. You are right about media bias. I am just trying to point out that the information that can set the record straight is freely available. It’s up to us to engage in meaningful conversations with folks so that these “complicated” issues can be demystified. Should be good dinnertime conversation for Monday night!
One of my favorite pieces of economic misinformation is this Business Week article. How about these quotes:
Sounds like fun! Can’t wait to be around when that happens…
BD
August 16th, 2007 at 1:51 am
Um… just because information is readily available does not mean one should dismiss conspiracy. These “guys” that are behind a lot of these real conspiracies don’t really care if the information is out there. In fact, the more arguing about it the better. The more people argue the less they focus on the actual issues (conspiracies).
I agree education is the most important asset we have.
August 16th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
That Businessweek article is full of eco-nonsense. It is looking like we are being engineered into a financial crisis in order to impose global rule through the monetary system. The scary thing is that otherwise reasonable people are going to read that article and believe that propaganda. The information is out there, the truth is out there, but first folks have to wake up to the facts that they are being herded, lied to, robbed, managed, etc., etc. instead of believing whatever is served up in the daily “financial news”.