The Problem with Conspiracy Theory

     Here are three youtube videos I watched today, thanks to the suggestion of one of my blog subscribers.  They are not unintelligent pieces of journalism, but they promote a theory about the country and the world that doesn't appeal to those of us who have been steeped in fantasy about what America represents and how the world works.  The older I get the more I realize I don't know much of anything about our country--or what I thought I knew happens to be wrong.  My personal experience with the government, our lawmakers, and our justice system has made me exclaim, along with Aaron Russo:  What if it's our own government we have to be afraid of? What a terrifying thought!

Conspiracy Theory, Jesse Ventura

Freedom to Fascism, Aaron Russo

Reflections & Warnings, Aaron Russo

     In the first of these films, Jesse Ventura tells the story of his visit to a 70,000 square-foot fortress-like building being constructed in the Ozarks, a building that's connected to an enormous network of underground tunnels big enough to accommodate 18-wheelers, and likely, he says, to be a place the Illuminati, or world-elites, plan to hide out during a World War III of their own making.  While the rest of us are killing ourselves in battles staged by this powerful group of billionaires who control world politics and public opinion, or while we're suffocating in fumes from massive nuclear explosions, these privileged few are going to be eating caviar and playing cards in their mountain bunkers, protected from fallout.
     Aaron Russo's documentary and interview paint a picture of America as a country that started being taken over by the Illuminati in the early part of the twentieth century, people who figured out how to seize power by controlling money, first by inventing the Federal Reserve which could make money whenever they wanted it, then by pulling off the biggest hoax in history by convincing Americans to pay federal income tax--a "requirement" that isn't supported by law and could be challenged (and won) by any one of us who wants to stop paying taxes on wages and who feels like going to court with the IRS.
    Russo's final interview, "Reflections and Warnings," portrays a sensitive and good-natured guy, Russo himself, as a rare person who has dared to publicize questions about how our system really works, uncovering ignorance, lies and corruption within the DOJ, and making another case for the existence of a few wealthy individuals who control international politics and the marketplace, and are in the process of remaking everything, the so-called "new world order" with them, no doubt, at the helm.
     The problem with all this is:  Why?  Why would a privileged few who already control the world want to destroy that world and plunge us into another version of Animal Farm?  Why would anyone want to live in an underground city while the rest of the world is being blown up?  What could this elite group of people be planning to do after everything settles down, with dead bodies everywhere, and so much stench, ash, fallout, smoke, and rubble?  Who will shine these spoiled brats' shoes or fix their meals?  Which of them is planning to install toilets, write books, mend eyeglasses, and fix their cars? Who will even build those cars, or grow apples, or make their diamond rings?
     I see the elite of the world crawling out of their tunnels like hibernating animals after a long winter, scrounging around for food and things to do, recreating the same pecking-orders that existed before their absurd war.  The slaves and masters would sort themselves out soon enough, like that band of kids stranded together in Lord of the Flies.  the social order they created mirroring the one they destroyed.   The same dynamics among people would reproduce themselves, and give rise to the same sort of world.
     Who would want to be down there with the elite, anyway?  Not me.  The elite are still human, after all, and would not have defeated death.  Every one of them would be slated to die.  As for continuing a world order, does this mean the wealthy survivors plan to hand down power and wealth to their children and great-great-great grandchildren, like old British aristocracy?  They don't even know those kids;  they might not even like them, so why bother?
     I don't doubt that some multi-billionaires, who have nothing better to do, might want more power than they already have, and might imagine they're controlling the minds of their underlings.  But they need those underlings, without whom there would be no one to control.  After World War III, who and what would be left for them to control?
     People are obsessed with outliving themselves--none of us truly believes we're going to die.  Bomb shelters and secret tunneled cities like the one in the Ozarks might fuel a fantastic belief that any one of us could survive anything, if only we were "the chosen."  The resentment that springs from such fantasies is a waste of emotional energy.
     There is corruption and oppression everywhere, whether we see it, in our minds' eye, in terms of secret societies or blatant totalitarianism.  Instead of subscribing to notions that a secret group of arrogant, self-designated rulers-of-the-world are organizing themselves for a more insidious and global take-over than Hitler's, we ought instead to be doing all the things the German people--if they hadn't been lulled into the torpor of indifference, material acquisition and faith in their leaders--might have done, en masse, to stop Hitler's takeover.  Right now, we can identify corruption, prejudice, and injustice wherever we see it, even in our interpersonal lives, when prejudice and unfairness show their ugly faces;  we can tell everyone what we see, and we can gather together to fight it.
     Subscribing to conspiracy theories is like belonging to a cult:  the decision to think in such terms absorbs your brainpower and your legitimate rage, the very resources that might fuel change.  Every little alteration in the way people feel, think and act matters.
     We must change the world, it's true, but we can't wait around for other people to do it, idling away our time like voyeurs in hushed gossip, pointing fingers, accusing, acquiescing, turning over our rights, by not exercising them, even our right to fight injustice.  Governments thrive on intimidation and fear, says Russo, and propagating theories about mega-conspiracy for subjugating the masses (who, in most places, have chosen to be subjugated) is a way of perpetuating intimidation and fear.
     "In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act," Russo says.  What is the truth, as you see it, in your everyday life?  How have you been wronged, how have government peons violated our constitution, how have the rights of people you actually know been taken away?  Don't hide behind "conspiracy theory," which probably can't be proven, which you can't even point to, any more than you can point to invisible devils and gods.  Don't waste energy grumbling about how bad the world is getting, and whose fault it is.  It's our fault.