Spirit of the Age

I've written a bit about 9/11 conspiracy theories, but not for a long time. What I wrote before is on my log of old "Grinnell Plan" posts, here and here. Most of it has to do with the excellent site, Cooperative Research, and some talk about what actually makes a "conspiracy".

But, such an important topic we can hardly allow to lie dormant.

(let's just be clear, the topic is not whether or not the American government is complacent in the deaths that occurred on 9/11/2001, but to what extent they are responsible. The former is as close to fact as exists in this world.)

I've been watching a pretty excellently produced film today, entitled Zeitgeist.

It's range is pretty broad; it begins by discussing some theories about the origin of the myth of the messiah known as Jesus. Some of these are more interesting than others; some, like the basis of many religions on astrology and astronomy, are pretty interesting and cool. Others, like the assigning of blame for the rise of the belief in Jesus on an effort to manipulate the world, are a bit more directed towards the goal of the film.

(Sure, the messiah myth is not necessarily completely based on fact, but the messiah concept is nothing new, and Jesus just happened to be the one that stuck. I just think the rise of Christianity is a bit more nuanced than that.)

But, the point of beginning with this, is to show that there is a lot of history that is ignored (such as the similarities between the Jesus messiah and many other similar figures in cultures around the world) in the effort to maintain a consistent myth that just so happens to keep the big guys in charge.

Then, we start learning about more recent history, that those other than Religious Studies folk may be interesting. And so begins a great recounting of most of the facts that draw heavy suspicion to the "myth of 9/11", and in addition, recounts the history of the American economic and political system in manipulating public opinion in order to get what it wants.

Besides being the best produced video on the subject I have ever seen, it is also one of the best in content, depicted facts, and not falling into rhetoric about new world orders and brave new worlds. On the website, (contained in the link above), there is the promise of an interactive transcript, which will be posted "soon" that will contain links from the facts mentioned in the film to source materials and further readings, which I am very excited to see, because that level of detail and accuracy to sources in often by-passed in videos of this kind.

The video has been viewed on Google video over 3 million times since June, which I think is a testament to its watchability and its accessibility to those who are not typical conspiracy researchers. Actually, it reminded me a lot of the Koyaanisqatsi trilogy, in particular the last film of the three, for it's artful blending of music and images (especially the beginning overture). If only you added to the trilogy a good collection of narrative quotations and factual evidence, you would have this film.

Anyway, the film is two hours long, and I highly recommend it. Regardless of what you "believe" about the story of the world and our lives as told to us, you should do what the creators of the film suggest; look at the contradicting evidence that shows that the official story is anything but true, and then go out, and find out the truth for yourself.

Why Haven't You Learned Anything Yet?

I'm watching Bill Moyers Journal on PBS right now. He's reviewing media coverage of the lead-up to the current war (don't you know there's a war on?) starting since 9/11. (That's 9/11/01, as opposed to the other 9/11's that happen every year. Also, it is different than 9-11, which is the number you call on your phone in an emergency, as I heard a Virginia Sheriff refer to it on the news recently.)

It's a wonderful program, going over a horrible thing. Bill Moyers rarely disappoints. He cites almost every single network, outlet, and paper in how they have stood up and lied along with the government in order to push the case for war. In addition he refers to pundits by name, numbering the times they have flat-out echoed lies.

The sad thing was, I knew all of this before the war even started. Not because I am smart, or because I had done a lot of research, but just because it seemed so obvious that the ideas proposed were full of shit. Neo-cons all of sudden deciding that a country that they had sought to control but had gotten out of hand was a threat and so why not spread a lil' bit of the ol' democracy over the area. I didn't know if there were WMDs or not, frankly, it didn't seem to matter, because Iraq didn't just decide to go out and pick them up in the "post 9/11 world" (that we were reminded so often that we were living in), they either already had them, or they never had them. Same thing with Al-Qaeda. Why would anyone believe that all of sudden "it was revealed" that there was a link. For anyone paying attention, we were tracking Al-Qaeda for years (ever since they stopped being our puppets, ours and the Iranians, that is...) so why, after 9/11 would we all of sudden find out (from people we were paying off no less) that "there the were!" hiding in Iraq. Ridiculous. Yet, presented as the "truth".

[find out more about the history of the United States and our so-called enemies' common causes at the excellent site, Cooperative Research; all sources are from the media; it is amazing that among the lies you can also find the truth, its just on the back pages and nobody connects the dots for you.]

I don't mean to be arrogant, and I don't want to say "I told you so." (Well, at least not very much.) I think the real point is that this idiocy is not going to stop, but just re-cycle. Iran is next. Again, it doesn't matter whether or not Iran has nuclear weapons. What matters is that we want to prevent them from forming an oil burse, we want the oil fields adjacent to Iraq, we want to continue to spread our influence in the Middle East, and we want to counter the influence of the SCO (see my recent post about the building war against Iran, and again, Cooperative Research.) But none of this is in the media, only the specter of the "threat to us". Whoa.

The media is full of tools, and that is why I never trust anything that I will ever read, hear, or watch to be fully ingenuous and conducted under the spirit of actual research and enlightenment; in other words, I expect the media to be completely devoid of truth. That doesn't mean that there are not facts. They are just hidden, watered down, misappropriated, countermanded, and obscured. It requires research of one's own to be able to actually piece them together.

Anyway, you should check out the Moyers piece. Here is the link to the transcript, but it is not up yet due to the show being so recent. I'll check back and make sure the link works tomorrow. And for goodness sake, think about what you are reading! Don't let them lie to you with a straight face! It's like the goddamn Ministry of Truth out there...