From: LeoCasey-AT-aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 18:05:31 -0500
Subject: Black Helicopters and Blue Berets


                  Black Helicopters and Blue Berets:
    Why Conspiracy Theories Are More Than Incorrect Social Analysis.

It has been suggested on this list that the militias specifically and the
populist far right more generally are just misunderstood white workers, and
that the conspiracy theories which are prevalent in both circles are simply
forms of incorrect social analysis. With the introduction of a little left
wing social analysis sympathetic to the goals of these movements, it is
suggested, all will be made well. Both of these contentions are misleading in
terms of the claims they make, I suggest, but revealing in terms of what they
say about those who put them forward.

Let us take the fascination of these conspiracy theories with finance
capital, a point which -- as Rakesh noted, drawing upon Franz Neumann's
classic _Behemoth_  -- has been characteristic of fascist movements. There is
a discursive logic to this obsession which, when unpacked, tells a great
deal: the obsession with finance capital is integrally linked with
anti-Semitism. A classic anti-Semitic stereotype, dating back to the medieval
Christian canon law ban on usury and prohibitions on the admission of Jews to
the emerging guilds which forced many Jews into the field of commerce and
trade, has been the Jew as financial exploiter. Classic anti-Semitic
conspiracy tracts, such as _The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_, have made
much of the "international Jewish bankers" who manipulate the economy, using
fraud and cunning in order to exploit the "people"; similar arguments have
been found among anti-Semites of the left, such as the anarchists Proudon and
Bakunin.

Right wing American populism has always had at its core this obsession with
finance capital and its supposed "domination" by a Jewish. This is true not
simply of the Klan and the American Nazis, but also of Henry Ford and Father
Coughlin, of the John Birch Society and Joe McCarthy, and of the various
interlocking and overlapping anti-tax, property rights, 'constitutionalists',
 gun owners and militia of the contemporary populist far right. It is true of
Lyndon LaRouche and his group, which -- we should not forget -- began in SDS,
and of the Christian Right, and is present, in no small measure, in the
rhetoric of Pat Buchanan. Right wing American populism has always been
primarily a rural movement, rooted in small family farmers, and the economic
troubles of its base have always related more to the ups and downs of
commodities markets and the costs of transportation and marketing than to
direct production: and so an obsession with urban, financial power has a
certain logic. Moreover, as a rural phenomenon, right wing American populism
has always been primarily based on a white and Christian population; C. Vann
Woodward's portrait of Tom Watson points out how one of  the very few
attempts to break out of that pattern in the South gave way to the dominant
racist, white Christian forms. There is a certain logic, therefore, to
picking up classic themes of anti-Semitism in Christianity, and applying them
to that paradigmatically urban ethnic group in the US -- Jews. The result is
an nostalgic, reactionary, even anti-modern ideology.

Conspiracy is not simply a misguided social analysis; it reduces social power
to the machinations of a scapegoated group which is held responsible --
contrary to all logical and rational argumentation -- for all wrong. It can
not be overcome by simply posing a "more comprehensive" analysis; a way must
be found to confront the scapegoating discourse which gives it its
explanatory power. Does anyone not think, for example, that this obsession
with the United Nations, with the black helicopters and blue berets, which
mark the militias and other groups of the populist far right, is not rooted
in a perception that the UN is controlled by nations of people of color? What
sense does it make to talk about imperialism and international relations of
power, if one does not confront the scapegoating pschology which gives this
absolutely bizarre and irrational fear its strength?

It is interesting that a refusal to romanticize and celebrate the violent
rebellion and anti-federal government ideology of the contemporary populist
far right is now characterized as an attack of white workers. Interesting
because it is has been the Noel Ignatievs of the world who now want to
embrace the militias, despite the fact that for three decades he and his
small following has dismissed white workers because of their "white skin
privilege." In the logic of 'white skin privilege', the racism and white
supremacy of the far right populists is no different than the racism of all
whites, and one can put it neatly to the side. Interesting because it is
group like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has been in the forefront
of anti-racist and anti-fascist work in the United States, opposing the Klan,
the skinheads, the Aryan Nations, the Nazis and the militia, which is now
attacked. Other may choose whatever side they want, but I have no difficulty
choosing the side of those who have the credibility of decades of struggle in
the field in which they have put their lives on the line. (It is impossible
to know how to respond to the posting Sally Ryan put on the list, since the
accusation that I support the very thing I was clearly criticizing -- the
idea of 'white skin privilege' -- makes the whole thing unintelligible.)

A number of months ago my brother sold me his used car, and since I expect to
have it for some time, I installed one of those bensi-box portable car
radios. (A permanently installed car radio in New York City is simply an
invitation to have your windows smashed and your dashboard torn up.) With a
radio I have many opportunities to listen to WBAI, the New York listener
supported radio station on which Doug Henwood has a program. As I heard some
of the bizarre concoctions of New Age medicine and conspiracy theories which
are broadcast from the station, I began to feel some previously unthinkable
sentiments of sympathy for Doug: vulgar Marxism seemed more understandable
and even preferrable in comparison to some of this lunancy. Now that I have
read his postings on the subject of the populist far right, with its attacks
on those "liberals" (including the Southern Poverty Law Center and myself, no
doubt) who criticize the conspiracy theories of the militias and populist far
right, attacks which impute to us a hostility to "white workers", I think
that maybe his surroundings have done something to form his judgment. My
sympathy is on the wane.

IMHO, the attacks on white (and other) workers on this list involve the
ultra-left rantings which attack every existing trade union those workers
have ever built to defend themselves. But then I'm not looking over my
shoulder for black helicopters and blue berets.



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