The Conspiracy of Conspiracies: What Makes Us Tick?

Conspiracy and conspiracy theory are overused and misused terms now so we should define them first:

# S: (n) conspiracy, confederacy (a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act)
# S: (n) conspiracy, cabal (a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot))
# S: (n) conspiracy, confederacy (a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose)

Source

"Conspiracy theory" is then theory about some particular plot or about general mechanisms of conspiring. Many (but not all) actions of intelligence agencies are thus typical conspiracies for example.

Noam Chomsky is not conspiracy theorist but many of his substantial notions are in accord with many conspiracy theories. Only difference is that Chomsky explain phenomena on basis of impersonal and unintentional social and cultural powers (class interests predominantly) while typical "conspiracy theorist" is explaining phenomena on basis of hidden and intentional personal interactions. Both concepts are valid IMO and truth is somewhere in between.

One thing is also important - many "conspiracy theories" are only "conspiracy hypothesis" because:
a) it is not possible to falsify it
b) it is not possible to do meaningful prediction on its basis

Why are "conspiracy theories" more and more popular? Because:
a) governments and corporation use "SECRET" stamp more often then anytime before and what is secret must be interesting
b) because Internet
b.1) what required earlier to travel to many distant locations (archives, libraries) is now available by mouse click so we can connect more dots and gain better image
b.2) governments, corporations and MSM are convicted of lying on daily basis so they are losing credibility - space formerly occupied by "official notion" is empty and need to be filled

Originally posted by InertiaZero
reply to post by dragonsmusic

 

No reply in the form of a rhyme, this time?

Those are both very thought provoking books. That also brings up something I left out of our main post. I forgot to mention that rarely are the people on this site idiots. Most of us know how to write well, we are well read. Intelligence certainly isnt a lacking factor.

"The distance between genius and insanity, is only measured by success".

What truth have you found, over time? Certainly not all the paths to truth you have taken have ended in a "road closed" sign.

I will share mine: The more I research our current government, the more I have realized how much it is connected to our previous government. All of our leaders are like one big incestuous pool, that we continue to re-elect. There is no conspiracy in this, but there is misdirection. It is also not information that you attain casually, it is info you must seek out. Like the Tri-Lateral Commision, for example.

No reply in the form a rhyme this time
The truths I have found over time are that love is the most powerful force on the planet, I was born free ,and I live free and I will die before I live any other way.
The corruption within the present administration is definitely linked to the corruption in the previous one and it goes back beyond our collective memories.
Misdirection is indeed the tool of choice when the tools who are in power decide to make any kind of move.
They really ARE an incestuous bunch.
They are often related and it baffles me how they could be intelligent enough to rule the world through so many generations.
The majority of us here are smarter than the world leaders.
We are awake and aware.

reply to post by zeddissad


I've been working on writing "A definition of conspiracy", and wanted to add just a few points. One definition could be: "A conspiracy exists when two or more people or organizations engage in an activity THEY WISH TO CONCEAL, from everyone else." A conspiracy is not always the same as co-operative behaviour. But all conspiracies require co-operative behaviour at some point. It is not possible to have a conspiracy happen by accident. When events take on the appearence of order, but are not directed that is coincidence. As humans, we have an inate biological need to seek out patterns. Be it in an image, a sound (such as music), or behaviour (when people we know don't act the way we expect them to, we sense somethings "wrong") The reason conspiracies are by their nature so appealing to us, meaning why so many see them every where, is they provide answers to questions/events that are confusing, or go against our point of view. As the Borg queen would say; "I bring order to chaos" It's not surprising governments fear uncertainty and loss of public faith more then every thing else combined.

The difference I see between what I will call a basic criminal conspiracy (even a big one), and one that involves the manipulation of a groups perspective/perception, the kind we talk about on ATS, are the objectives and tools used to get there. A criminal enterprise will try to hide its existence (duh), and usually react to percieved threats. But governments or some corporations, don't want to have to react, they create the perception for a target group. On a criminal level the movie "The Sting" was an excellent example of this. When organized crime takes over a legit company they operate with in it. In the movie the target was one person. It's often a lot harder to manipulate one persons perspective then a group. IMO, a major, even planet wide MIC/government conspiracy would have some of the following charecteristics.

First, you must have the support of people who have no idea who you are or what your doing. Works like this. A really big conspiracy, in theory the suppression of evidence of ET is going to require one hell of a lot of over head. Personal, material, communications intra-agency operations, security, intelligence, and the phrase I love, population management, etc. In my society (US) some of the best studies on human behaviour in the last 100years were not done by any branch of the government, but by advertising agencies. They know what appeals and what turns different types of people off. People expect the government to do secret stuff. Feeling "I know a secret" is very intoxicating. People and agencies play on that. Thats why disinformation works. Our society has a lot of information flying all over the place. The good the bad and for most, mind-numbing-boring. A simplistic way is to just "lock all the really neat stuff up" While the super secrets, sources and methods are as secure as possible, the government has so much information, that involve so many people it can't. Oh it can store mountains of data, but information gets out. Often when people "go public"And at the core level, that dosen't upset the powers that be at all. Most of the time. I've heard it said, I don't know if its true that the amount of classified data the government has exceeds all other government data combined. (Very scary, have you seen the tax code?)

As has been stated information release both true/kinda true, and rubber room stuff is filtered to people of variable credibility. Want it believed? Get a respected professional to "reveal" it. Just like advertisers always want the star athlete. The reverse of course also happens. This is an example of a society willingly participating in perception manipulation, or the publics version of "Nixon bugging himself". Propaganda in a suit and tie. We eat it up. Why? Because its cool, far out ,not boring. Or we get our 21st century religous fix this way. You have heard of the expression; "Give the people what they want"? If you want to manipulate a person or country I would use the phrase; "Give the people what they expect to get" Looking at supporting something really big, at an (there is no one) official level, you need international finance. I mentioned above that organized crime will try to get their hooks into something legitimate. But the thing is still legitimate, thats the point. I think something a bit more complex, truly conspiratorial may work like this.

An international bank will have access to markets and capital all over the world. Their name alone opens doors, if not having people genuflect. With all the things that have to be quietly paid for they need an audit trail, for the regulators who don't know whats really going on. Yes an example of one hand of government not knowing what the other is doing. So its not just acting like, or infiltrated into a bank, it is a bank. It has real honest-to-God customers, from companies, governments, and of course us. When we deposit our paychecks, all the "normal" stuff a bank does it does, because IT IS a bank. I mentioned a serious conspiracy must have the co-operation of the public? Were co-operating, funding them, and we never know it. But we do get a calender. Before they do anything else, they need a lot of cash, but we all know that. Another identifyer of a large operational conspiracy is it must manipulate perception both ways. In other words, it can't just hide or blend in. That static or passive approach is fatal at some point, things events and people change all the time. The more complex something is supposed to be, the more critical it is, and just doesen't look like that thing. A simpler example is a pizza shop, instead of a bank. They better damn well make and sell pizza and it better be good! To many people start asking, "how do they stay in business, that pizza really sucked", and you got a problem kid. The last part of two way manipulation is how is the public percieving us so we can adapt TO THEIR expectations.? Clearly our alien "expectations" have changed in sixty years, don't you think?

You can sample book sales, library check outs of books, on a subject. Hire Gallop to do a poll. (It woulden't be the first time) Check what people are watching on TV. Evaluate how a population reacts to everything from raising taxes to a tornado taking out a town. And no, thats not part of the conspiracy. Thats just talking to people after s*** happens. The reaction to super stress is actually well known, and would apply to a populations reaction to the alien thing. 9/11 changed every ones perception of security. One reason I'm not interested in the 9/11 conspiracy stuff is thats a perfect example of the very LAST thing ANY government would want it's population to percieve. They diden't protect us. Above all maintain the illusion of control if you can't do it for real. Sorry gang for the rant, very interesting topic, and too much coffee.

reply to post by arbiture


I should clarify. 9/11 was the mother of all conspiracies, I just don't think it was run by the US government.