The Powers That Be

The Powers That Be. I see people hurl this cliché around as if it was candy at a parade. This banality of an extremely abstract and enigmatic grouping of words is now used to serve a purpose. Like the terrorist is to the War on Terrorism, The Powers That Be—or TPTB—is the enemy of the crusaders here on this forum. It is, for conspiracy theorists, the hidden hand behind the economy, the government, the NWO, chemtrails, moon bases, HAARP, religion and reptilians. For others, it’s The Man, or whichever perceived authoritarian is present at any given situation.

When we don’t understand the cause of what we perceive as a conspiracy, as something we feel is out to get us or is constantly against us, we as diligent conspiracy theorists are left to deduce with all of our combined brainpower that the root cause of all evil in the world must be this phantom-like group, TPTB—which, in most cases, is represented by a collection of highly ruthless and very powerful men. These zionist-reptilian-masonic-bankers spend their time behind locked doors conceiving of brilliantly sinister plans to control the masses through methods of mind-control, chemical warfare and financial instability. They exist to disrupt the harmony of mankind and to throw us into various states of chaos for the purpose of gaining a profit—a profit which is sure to sustain them even after they’ve destroyed the earth. Here, the term TPTB is useful as something to fill in the holes, to temporarily put an answer to what we are unable to answer; and it’s utility is to set the mind at rest until that time comes when we are handed the truth. In this sense, this cliché at least serves its purpose well.

If the conspiracy theory is a patchwork of various other conspiracy theories, The Powers That Be are its glue; and without it these ideas would only show that mankind, at its worst, is an extremely chaotic and destructive species. This, for some reason or another, doesn’t fit with our outlook on mankind, because we as individuals are, for the most part, peaceful and caring beings. But are we not modest enough to understand that humanity as a whole is chaotic? Are we bold enough to disregard what is immediately apparent?—that when humans are involved, s**t does indeed happen?

If we ponder what we are and eliminate the intangible aspects of what we consider real, the things we fight for—society, social hierarchies, the economy, religion etc.—what are we left with? We are left with glaring fact that The Powers That Be—the idea that there is some sinister force guiding the events which serve to control mankind like a herd—is mankind.

This ship is rudderless and without a captain. There is no conspiracy to control our lives. There is no sinister group out to get us. There isn’t a war on humanity. There is only the war on the individual; and as mankind struggles to turn itself into a herd, or a school of fish, the individual has only himself to fight back against it.

Cries of IT'S A CONSPIRACY should be taken with a grain of salt.

Is one really saying I DON'T WANT TO DO JACK CRAP?

Originally posted by socialist
Cries of IT'S A CONSPIRACY should be taken with a grain of salt.

Is one really saying I DON'T WANT TO DO JACK CRAP?

How would I know?

reply to post by LesMisanthrope


No sinister groups, no conspiracies, et al ? What are we going to witter on about ? Be off with you, sir, and your wild talk ! As I type this, suited men in dimly lit offices in a building that does,nt exist, are debating your future !

reply to post by LesMisanthrope


Where's your proof? How can you prove that there is no conspiracy?

Just because you can't see the wolf, doesn't mean there isn't one on the other side of the hill.

Or, the PTB is an easy way to point to whatever group happens to be in charge of certain sectors, or have a great deal of influence over these sectors.

Not so different from using the term CEO, which is supposed to represent some great contributor to the world economy, and given god like status by many.

Now there are many who see the PTB as a specific group, Reptilian blood line, Catholic Church, CFR, Bilderbergs, and other such groups, many see the PTB as various people in positions of power, from a local judge and or crime syndicate to the Oil Industry, ICBs, or any other group that seeks to gain power and control over others.

There are various families who have succeed in controlling enormous fortunes over several centuries, and it is only reasonable to consider them to be among the PTB, as well as major central industries.

Overall, it is a nice convenient acronym with a reasonable meaning.

reply to post by LesMisanthrope

It's likely to be a cop-out if the person doing the crying does not offer any solutions.

For example I might say that fractional reserve banking is a conspiracy to take all our stuff. I could offer solutions on how to keep the stuff in our own hands, or I could just whine.

reply to post by poet1b


There is only one group of TPTB. These are the richest people in every country, the inheritors and gatherers of wealth through connections and talent, the ones who can blow $50,000 on a single plate and not bat an eye.

These are the Moneymen...the silk-dressed wine-sipping connoisseurs of the modern economy. They have their hand stuffed up to the elbow in every cookie jar. The bigger the jar, the deeper they have their hand in it. They use the economy to control the government, and the government controls us because we control the corporations that feed the Moneymen.

It's all one giant cycle. TPTB are very real...but they are untouchable. Nothing is more invincible than money.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Obviously by your own definition there are many PTB.

You think these indifferent, greedy, arrogant hypocrites all get along so cozily, working in harmony?

No one group has total control. It is a lot of weak alliances, which are defeated often by various groups who come together to establish justice. The history of our civilization is a long tale of the increasing liberty and rights of the average person. We are winning, and the PTB are losing.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


I didn't say there was no conspiracy. In fact there's so many conspiracies, that we couldn't keep track of them all. Its completely chaotic and uncontrollable. Show me one group that controls every aspect of our lives, and I will show you that it's still the nature of humanity.

Originally posted by socialist
reply to post by LesMisanthrope

 

It's likely to be a cop-out if the person doing the crying does not offer any solutions.

For example I might say that fractional reserve banking is a conspiracy to take all our stuff. I could offer solutions on how to keep the stuff in our own hands, or I could just whine.

Absolutely, but it would still be a cop-out if the person never did anything with those solutions.

reply to post by LesMisanthrope


Half right. The Illuminati uses various corporations utilizing psychology to convince people to act in flock movements, going to the same stores, buying the same clothes, and even joining the same banks.

We are very easily trainable...even more so when our own instincts are used against us, triggered to their fullest extent to make money and power their goals.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by LesMisanthrope

 

Half right. The Illuminati uses various corporations utilizing psychology to convince people to act in flock movements, going to the same stores, buying the same clothes, and even joining the same banks.

We are very easily trainable...even more so when our own instincts are used against us, triggered to their fullest extent to make money and power their goals.

If one allows themselves to be trained by someone else, then they would be the other half of the problem. The idea of a small shadowy group, subversive enough to undermine the entirety of mankind—billions and billions of people—is ridiculous. We're undermining ourselves, a few of us are merely taking advantage of that fact. All we can ever see is the effect that mankind as a whole is having on our individual selves.

reply to post by LesMisanthrope


Have you ever heard of Neuro Linguistic Programming?

There's no preventing the problem if you don't know it's happening. Besides, people feel more safe in taking the blue pill, instead of the red.

You have a very high opinion of human will power...or the will power of today's people, at least.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by LesMisanthrope

 

Have you ever heard of Neuro Linguistic Programming?

There's no preventing the problem if you don't know it's happening. Besides, people feel more safe in taking the blue pill, instead of the red.

You have a very high opinion of human will power...or the will power of today's people, at least.

Yes you are right. And this is also my point. Man is reducing himself to a herd, maybe even on an evolutionary scale.

I am only aware of my own will-power, but I through this, I am also aware of the potential in others.

Originally posted by poet1b

Or, the PTB is an easy way to point to whatever group happens to be in charge of certain sectors, or have a great deal of influence over these sectors.

Not so different from using the term CEO, which is supposed to represent some great contributor to the world economy, and given god like status by many.

Now there are many who see the PTB as a specific group, Reptilian blood line, Catholic Church, CFR, Bilderbergs, and other such groups, many see the PTB as various people in positions of power, from a local judge and or crime syndicate to the Oil Industry, ICBs, or any other group that seeks to gain power and control over others.

There are various families who have succeed in controlling enormous fortunes over several centuries, and it is only reasonable to consider them to be among the PTB, as well as major central industries.

Overall, it is a nice convenient acronym with a reasonable meaning.

You are right. I just find it very vague. It doesn't produce any answers. This is of course an opinion and should be regarded as such.

...the root cause of all evil in the world must be this phantom-like group, TPTB—which, in most cases, is represented by a collection of highly ruthless and very powerful men. These zionist-reptilian-masonic-bankers spend their time behind locked doors conceiving of brilliantly sinister plans to control the masses through methods of mind-control, chemical warfare and financial instability. They exist to disrupt the harmony of mankind and to throw us into various states of chaos for the purpose of gaining a profit—a profit which is sure to sustain them even after they’ve destroyed the earth.

Something along this order, yes. Except that it's not about the money for them. It's about ownership. Of everything. Even us. We are no more than cattle to them. Property to be owned. And the "profit" you're speaking of, as in money, is nothing more than a method of control. It's a tool in their toolbox.

reply to post by LesMisanthrope


I didn't really read all of your thread... but I know this: there is a conspiracy to control our lives, and there an organized force planning and implementing that control over our lives. It's called the corpocracy controlled by the aristocrat banking cabal families.

Network Analysis Reveals ‘Super Entity’ of Global Corporate Control
Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban
Almost Everything Is A Crime In America Now
Internet Users Have Been Defamed by the Anti-Defamation League
The Fed Audit ($16 Trillion in Secret Loans)
Man Loses $22,000 In New 'Policing For Profit' Case
I think I may be on to something.......HUGE!!!
FBI: Paying Cash For a Cup of Coffee a 'Potential Indicator of Terrorist Activity'
FBI Linked to Yet Another Domestic Terrorism Plot
FDA Deletes 1 Million Signatures for GMO Labeling Campaign
Blatant Corruption Exposed as EU Blocks France's Ban on Monsanto's GMO Maize
A brief look at water fluoridation and the insanity of it
Citibank physically drag women into bank (video)
The Truth About Syria & The Truth About Libya

That is just the TIP of the iceberg - a few random threads which I happened to recall. If you really want to know how this world works under the hood you need to be willing to research it, and research it hard. Simply coming onto ATS with just over 300 posts and trying to claim it's all in our heads is quite frankly insulting.

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
reply to post by LesMisanthrope

 

I didn't really read all of your thread... but I know this: there is a conspiracy to control our lives, and there an organized force planning and implementing that control over our lives. It's called the corpocracy controlled by the aristocrat banking cabal families.

Network Analysis Reveals ‘Super Entity’ of Global Corporate Control
Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban
Almost Everything Is A Crime In America Now
Internet Users Have Been Defamed by the Anti-Defamation League
The Fed Audit ($16 Trillion in Secret Loans)
Man Loses $22,000 In New 'Policing For Profit' Case
I think I may be on to something.......HUGE!!!
FBI: Paying Cash For a Cup of Coffee a 'Potential Indicator of Terrorist Activity'
FBI Linked to Yet Another Domestic Terrorism Plot
FDA Deletes 1 Million Signatures for GMO Labeling Campaign
Blatant Corruption Exposed as EU Blocks France's Ban on Monsanto's GMO Maize
A brief look at water fluoridation and the insanity of it
Citibank physically drag women into bank (video)
The Truth About Syria & The Truth About Libya

That is just the TIP of the iceberg - a few random threads which I happened to recall. If you really want to know how this world works under the hood you need to be willing to research it, and research it hard. Simply coming onto ATS with just over 300 posts and trying to claim it's all in our heads is quite frankly insulting.

edit on 27-5-2012 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)

Its not my aim to be insulting, but you have every right to be offended. An opinion is just that—an opinion. If in any way my words have shaken your dogma, that is not my problem. You could disregard all of this just as easily as I've expressed it.

I don't know how my post count matters, but I'm aware of the usefulness of ad hominem and commend your attempt to discredit me for something so superficial.

Every link you've shown displays the madness of humanity, and because you didn't read what I wrote, you've taken the route of jumping to conclusions. I don't mind this at all—in fact it is what I expect. And though it would be nice to be proven wrong in this case—that there is some shadow conspiracy to enslave billions of people to do the bidding of a few—it doesn't excuse us from the fact that mankind as a whole is destructive and chaotic, and we allow such nonsense to happen.

Blame whoever you want. Blame the banks, as they force you to put your money there. Blame the pharmaceutical companies, because they force you to take their drugs. Blame the mass media because they force us to watch television. Blame the corporation for forcing you to buy their toys and eat their McDonalds. How are they the problem when it is us who keep up the demand?

Only the individual has the power and potential to end this madness.

Robert Anton Wilson, who spent a long time studying conspiracy theories for his books, may offer a more credible explanation: