(Today's earlier entry is here.)You don't live this long among conspiracy theorists and not have some of it rub off on you. Jack mostly kept these beliefs to himself, as does the Hubs, but the truth is, just because it sounds far-fetched, doesn't mean it might not be true.
First, Marn referred to kung-fu monkey, but I didn't read it until cosmic told me that I had to. She also said I had to read the Washington Post's article on the subject. You have to read them now, if you haven't already.
.
.
.
Okay, so it's pretty clear that what he's trying to do is promote his conservative, Christian agenda, blah blah blah. We also know that he's a great proponent of free speech, as long as you agree with him, which is another tenet of the conservative agenda in general; it's not specific to him. Monkey was pretty on-target, too, with his analysis that this dumbing down of America, this encouraged decline in the belief in the scientific process, will ultimately result in tangible benefits for those countries such as India and China that have already begun to usurp America's technology industry. Except for one thing:
I don't think that this is a by-product of the president's plan. I think that it actually is his plan. Because
- I believe that despite everything he says, the only thing that truly motivates him and his crowd is money, and the acquisition therof, and the power that goes hand-in-hand with it.
- I believe that they would enslave the American people, if that's what it took, to achieve this. However, literal enslavement is unnecessary, because the gradual erosion of civil rights, individual freedoms, and the American character will accomplish this without the use of actual chains.
- Because he is not as smart as he thinks he is, he may believe on some level that he's doing the "right" thing, conservatively speaking, because he has some personal beliefs in this area, but that those who advise him have convinced him that it's right, regardless.
The title character in The Manchurian Candidate, you may recall, was not the former war-hero who had been brainwashed to assasinate liberal politicians, but his senator-step-father, publicly a rabid anti-Communist who was in fact a Communist himself whom the Chinese hoped to put in the White House, where they could control him. Is it really that far-fetched to imagine that someone could be working for those who would bring down this country, transferring the seat of power elsewhere for a few pieces of silver, and doing it all under the guise of traditional conservative values?
Do I believe that he is a pawn of a foreign government? Nothing that simple, actually. Like Michael Moore, I think it's all OIL. I think our side let Bin Laden slip away because it was in the best interest of the powerful oil people to let international terrorism continue. I think we're not working to win the war in Iraq because continuing it puts money in people's pockets, and anyway, they know that Iraq's not where the real war should be anyway, it's only the decoy war, to get people all patriotic and jingoistic so they won't notice that the terrorists -- the ones we should be fighting -- don't even come from there.
It's all a smoke screen: anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion, the Patriot Act and its insidious anti-American ways in the name of the Greater Good. It's all a cover -- Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! He's the one who's selling out you and your birthright for oil money. They're just hoping that no one wil notice.
My father would be appalled to know that I have actually put this into words where other people can read it. As a child, he assured me that if I wrote to a foreign government for pamphlets for a school project, my name would be put on "the attorney general's list" as a subversive, something I should avoid. I laughed when he said it, but you know, Nixon did have an enemies list, so maybe it wasn't so out there.
On the other hand, when Edward R. Murrow delivered his television report on Senator McCarthy, exposing his evil for all to see, Jack was one of the many Americans who immediately telegraphed Murrow his support. Sometimes, you got to take the stand.
