Lightfolk's Conspiracy Theory of Everything
Introduction
According to reliable sources, a close friend and confidant of president Barack Obama -- one who is frequently mentioned as a likely Obama appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States -- co-wrote a paper in 2008 that suggests steps be taken by the government to discredit and silence members of the public who discuss "conspiracy theories." According to the paper, a conspiracy theory is, "an attempt to explain an event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role." In other words, the expression of any belief that more powerful people do things they don't want us to know that they do should be stifled by powerful people in our government. Of course, suggesting that powerful people would do such a thing would be a conspiracy theory in itself; therefore, we would not be permitted to question whether such a thing was happening if it were.
The term "conspiracy theory" was coined in 1909 but did not carry the negative connotation associated with it today until the 1960s. We can probably narrow this further to after 1963. That is the year when theories concerning the death of a president surfaced and held sway in the public mind in spite of the pronouncements of a federal commission called to settle it once and for all. Those who spoke against the conclusions of the Warren Report were labeled conspiracy theorists, and the term "conspiracy theory" began to take its current familiar meaning. Defining the term this way conditions the public to dismiss into the dustbin of absurdity any explanation of events that does not align with the official account. Upon hearing the term, "conspiracy theory," disbelief and ridicule will be attached to the idea and the person presenting it.
Popular Conspiracy Theories
Most people are familiar with various theories surrounding the 1963 assasination of president John F. Kennedy: lone gunman vs. grassy knoll, single bullet vs. magic bullet, random tragedy vs. planned coup. Fewer people are aware of the motives ascribed to the assassin(s). One is that the president was against a troop build-up in Vietnam, so the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) had him murdered. Another popular notion is that the Mafia had him killed because he and his brother were cracking down too hard on their operations.
A third popular motive about the assassination of JFK is less widely known. This theory suggests that the president was murdered because he refused to sign off on Operation Northwoods. Operation Northwoods was a series of false-flag operations that would be covertly blamed on Cuba. The intent of this was to curry American opinion for an invasion of the island nation. Some go so far as to argue that Operation Northwoods continued in another form without presidential approval, culminating in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 -- another conspiracy theory.
One of the wildest conspiracy theories is the moon landing hoax. A twist on this one is the suggestion by Richard C. Hoagland that the idea of a moon landing hoax was introduced by NASA to keep us off the track of what really happened on the moon.
A Conspiracy 'Theory of Everything'
With so many conspiracy theories floating around, some are certain to conflict with the others. Therefore, all of them cannot be true. Even those that do not conflict seem to lack a common theme pointing to any sort of master plan. The notion of a grand conspiracy does not hold together without a conspiracy "theory of everything."
