File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2001/postcolonial.0110, message 564


From: "Richard Knox" <knox-AT-scvnet.com>
Subject: RE: Not your usual conspiracy theory
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 12:14:53 -0700


This is a multi-part message in MIME format.


Re: Not your usual conspiracy theory Conspiracies etc.
    R ichard Knox



    Some thoughts on conspiracies – starting with something that will seem
to be unrelated but which in fact matters – at least to me.

    It seems to me that my life is best analyzed by dividing it into phases
depending on my position in the family tree. (1) Child, (2) Young Adult, (3)
Parent, (4) Grandparent, (5) Great Grandparent. My observation is that
intellect stays pretty much the same – declining somewhat with time, but
that emotional responses to events and as a result what one believes and /
or is willing to believe changes considerably.

    As a child we trust our parents and everyone their age or older.

    As a Young Adult we’re pretty sure that those older than us are hopeless
wrong – but we trust them to let us feel this way and ultimately we trust
them to run things. They get to run the system we complain about.

    As a parent we start to have our first experience with the feelings of
love (as compared with narcissistic desire) and as our kids become teenagers
we develop a little empathy for what our folks went through. At this age we
still relate to older people as if they were parents – for example we may be
willing to be members of hierarchical employment situations with people we
call the boss, Department Head, President, Chairman of the Board, etc. We
are prepared to trust them – we also are frequently somewhat insulated from
the boss of our boss’s boss so we don’t really see those at the top with any
detailed clarity.

    As a grandparent – watching our kids struggle with their kids – we
really empathize with what our parents went through because now we are old
enough to remember our parents when they were the age of our kids. We
forgive our parents their confusions in the same way we forgive our kids
their confusions. At this age we start to see people in public office who
are the age of our kids. We see these people as more fallible than we did
before – less worthy of our trust.

    By the time you become a Great Grandparent you see people in very
powerful offices with a different perspective. Some of them seem wise and
noble and good. Some seem venial and unworthy. Some look like marionettes
without much understanding of the lines they’re asked to deliver.

    People your age or younger are easier to gauge than those older than
you. After a while you recognize public figures as “the guy I wouldn’t buy a
used car from” or ”the guy who I’d expect to be selling vacuum cleaners door
to door” or “the rich kid who only understands what is good for rich kids”,
etc.

    As you pass through these phases your trust may go down. At the start
you trust people in public office about the same way you trust your dad.
Things happen which in retrospect you see as unworthy of your trust – which
at the time they happened seemed acceptable.

    NOW AT THIS POINT I’LL SHARE SOME REACTIONS WHICH WOULD HAVE SEEMED
PARANOID TO ME WHEN I WAS 35.

    For example – I remember December 7th 1941. A President I trusted spoke
about the evil Japanese – a “day of infamy”. The Japanese attacked and so we
immediately declared war on Germany! Seemed reasonable because a President
who I trusted said it was reasonable. All the Japanese in my neighborhood
were rounded up and taken off. The movies showed the Japanese as sub human
creatures. Now that the information that was classified at the time has been
published, it seems likely that Roosevelt provoked the attack and knowingly
left us wide open to it, to allow him to go into the war in Europe, to
protect England. He had been elected on the promise that “No American boys
will set foot on European soil” and he needed a way to get out from under
that. Roosevelt didn’t fly the Japanese planes and he didn’t direct the
Japanese pilots – yet he may have been the cause of the event.

    For example – I remember when Jack Kennedy was killed. And then the next
day the guy who was blamed – who said “I’ve been set up as a patsy” was
killed – and in the next few months lots of people on the periphery were
killed – and then the official commission finally gave us a report that didn
’t seem to fit the facts and sealed the detailed records for 75 years. And
you know what? At the time it all seemed reasonable because people the age
of my parents said on TV that it was reasonable. And anyway I was busy
raising kids and calculating trajectories to the moon.

    I remember 1985 – when oil prices dropped thru the floor – and didn’t
come back till a President who was an oilman declared war on the country
with the world’s second largest reserves. By this point I had less trouble
recognizing what probably was going on.

    Now to the question of whether there are people in the US power
structure who were in some way responsible for what happened on 9/11.

    First – I have absolutely no knowledge on this subject and have
absolutely no basis for speculating on this subject.

    I do have a reaction to the idea.

    First with respect to the moral character of people in power.

    Do I believe that there are people in power in the US who would have
allowed this to happen? Yes.

    Do I believe these people planned and directed this event? I doubt it.
Not because it violates their morals but because they couldn’t cover it up.

    Did they allow this to happen by failing to take reasonable precautions?
Your guess is as good as mine – I won’t make a guess. I would feel better if
some questions were answered.

    Were they waiting for some blatant act of terrorism to happen? Yes – I
do believe this.

    Would we have triggered this attack on Afghanistan with something less
dramatic? Yes I believe so.

    Did they benefit from this more dramatic event? They sure did. The Bill
of Rights is being thrown away – never to return – which benefits those in
power. Even more tax breaks are in store for the hyper wealthy.

    Things I find bothersome. My paranoia would be put better to rest if
these were very thoroughly ventilated – with reports that are not locked up
for 75 years.

    The Government has actually asked the networks to censor what we are
allowed to hear.

    When I was in the USAF – there were fighter planes in position in many
of the major US airports – hangers at the ends of the runways with planes
and pilots standing by like firemen – waiting in case they might be needed.
What has happened? Where were they? There was a USAF base right across the
river from the Pentagon – you would land there and take a boat across the
river to the Pentagon. Is that base still there? With all the gazillions we
spend on defense, were there no fighter planes there? Does the Air Defense
Command still exist? Is our defense money only for contracting with big
corporations?

    In regard to the above – old F 86’s and F100C’s would be enough to track
passenger jets. You do not need hyper expensive new fighters.

    Immediately after 9/11 Bush II promoted the top USAF general to chairman
of the Joints Chiefs of Staff? What is that all about? I have nothing
against Myers but he presided over the biggest Air Force defensive failure
in history. So he immediately was promoted?

    The concept of directing a passenger plane into the twin towers is old
news. For years I’ve seen calendars with Arabic writing that show a painting
of the event. It has been discussed in the anti-terrorism literature. It has
been raised in one terrorism trial. How is it that we did not have a plan?

    I have not seen a detailed report on the demographics of the people
killed in the twin towers versus the people who have offices there but were
not that there that day. I think this should be made available for everyone
to study. Name, Employer, title, position in the hierarchy of wealth,
religion, political party, citizenship, if naturalized – original
citizenship, so forth. This should put certain kinds of conspiracy theories
to rest – and might also give us some new insights.

    Parenthetically – in most countries of Europe I believe the Prime
Minister would be forced to stand for re election in a mess like this.

    Copyright 2001 – Richard Knox – All rights reserved – Feel free to
circulate for non-commercial purposes.


HTML VERSION:

Re: Not your usual conspiracy theory
 Conspiracies etc.

ichard Knox

 

Some thoughts on conspiracies – starting with something that will seem to be unrelated but which in fact matters – at least to me.

It seems to me that my life is best analyzed by dividing it into phases depending on my position in the family tree. (1) Child, (2) Young Adult, (3) Parent, (4) Grandparent, (5) Great Grandparent. My observation is that intellect stays pretty much the same – declining somewhat with time, but that emotional responses to events and as a result what one believes and / or is willing to believe changes considerably.

As a child we trust our parents and everyone their age or older.

As a Young Adult we’re pretty sure that those older than us are hopeless wrong – but we trust them to let us feel this way and ultimately we trust them to run things. They get to run the system we complain about.

As a parent we start to have our first experience with the feelings of love (as compared with narcissistic desire) and as our kids become teenagers we develop a little empathy for what our folks went through. At this age we still relate to older people as if they were parents – for example we may be willing to be members of hierarchical employment situations with people we call the boss, Department Head, President, Chairman of the Board, etc. We are prepared to trust them – we also are frequently somewhat insulated from the boss of our boss’s boss so we don’t really see those at the top with any detailed clarity.

As a grandparent – watching our kids struggle with their kids – we really empathize with what our parents went through because now we are old enough to remember our parents when they were the age of our kids. We forgive our parents their confusions in the same way we forgive our kids their confusions. At this age we start to see people in public office who are the age of our kids. We see these people as more fallible than we did before – less worthy of our trust.

By the time you become a Great Grandparent you see people in very powerful offices with a different perspective. Some of them seem wise and noble and good. Some seem venial and unworthy. Some look like marionettes without much understanding of the lines they’re asked to deliver.

People your age or younger are easier to gauge than those older than you. After a while you recognize public figures as “the guy I wouldn’t buy a used car from” or ”the guy who I’d expect to be selling vacuum cleaners door to door” or “the rich kid who only understands what is good for rich kids”, etc.

As you pass through these phases your trust may go down. At the start you trust people in public office about the same way you trust your dad. Things happen which in retrospect you see as unworthy of your trust – which at the time they happened seemed acceptable.

NOW AT THIS POINT I’LL SHARE SOME REACTIONS WHICH WOULD HAVE SEEMED PARANOID TO ME WHEN I WAS 35.

For example – I remember December 7th 1941. A President I trusted spoke about the evil Japanese – a “day of infamy”. The Japanese attacked and so we immediately declared war on Germany! Seemed reasonable because a President who I trusted said it was reasonable. All the Japanese in my neighborhood were rounded up and taken off. The movies showed the Japanese as sub human creatures. Now that the information that was classified at the time has been published, it seems likely that Roosevelt provoked the attack and knowingly left us wide open to it, to allow him to go into the war in Europe, to protect England. He had been elected on the promise that “No American boys will set foot on European soil” and he needed a way to get out from under that. Roosevelt didn’t fly the Japanese planes and he didn’t direct the Japanese pilots – yet he may have been the cause of the event.

For example – I remember when Jack Kennedy was killed. And then the next day the guy who was blamed – who said “I’ve been set up as a patsy” was killed – and in the next few months lots of people on the periphery were killed – and then the official commission finally gave us a report that didn’t seem to fit the facts and sealed the detailed records for 75 years. And you know what? At the time it all seemed reasonable because people the age of my parents said on TV that it was reasonable. And anyway I was busy raising kids and calculating trajectories to the moon.

I remember 1985 – when oil prices dropped thru the floor – and didn’t come back till a President who was an oilman declared war on the country with the world’s second largest reserves. By this point I had less trouble recognizing what probably was going on.

Now to the question of whether there are people in the US power structure who were in some way responsible for what happened on 9/11.

First – I have absolutely no knowledge on this subject and have absolutely no basis for speculating on this subject.

I do have a reaction to the idea.

First with respect to the moral character of people in power.

Do I believe that there are people in power in the US who would have allowed this to happen? Yes.

Do I believe these people planned and directed this event? I doubt it. Not because it violates their morals but because they couldn’t cover it up.

Did they allow this to happen by failing to take reasonable precautions? Your guess is as good as mine – I won’t make a guess. I would feel better if some questions were answered.

Were they waiting for some blatant act of terrorism to happen? Yes – I do believe this.

Would we have triggered this attack on Afghanistan with something less dramatic? Yes I believe so.

Did they benefit from this more dramatic event? They sure did. The Bill of Rights is being thrown away – never to return – which benefits those in power. Even more tax breaks are in store for the hyper wealthy.

Things I find bothersome. My paranoia would be put better to rest if these were very thoroughly ventilated – with reports that are not locked up for 75 years.

The Government has actually asked the networks to censor what we are allowed to hear.

When I was in the USAF – there were fighter planes in position in many of the major US airports – hangers at the ends of the runways with planes and pilots standing by like firemen – waiting in case they might be needed. What has happened? Where were they? There was a USAF base right across the river from the Pentagon – you would land there and take a boat across the river to the Pentagon. Is that base still there? With all the gazillions we spend on defense, were there no fighter planes there? Does the Air Defense Command still exist? Is our defense money only for contracting with big corporations?

In regard to the above – old F 86’s and F100C’s would be enough to track passenger jets. You do not need hyper expensive new fighters.

Immediately after 9/11 Bush II promoted the top USAF general to chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff? What is that all about? I have nothing against Myers but he presided over the biggest Air Force defensive failure in history. So he immediately was promoted?

The concept of directing a passenger plane into the twin towers is old news. For years I’ve seen calendars with Arabic writing that show a painting of the event. It has been discussed in the anti-terrorism literature. It has been raised in one terrorism trial. How is it that we did not have a plan?

I have not seen a detailed report on the demographics of the people killed in the twin towers versus the people who have offices there but were not that there that day. I think this should be made available for everyone to study. Name, Employer, title, position in the hierarchy of wealth, religion, political party, citizenship, if naturalized – original citizenship, so forth. This should put certain kinds of conspiracy theories to rest – and might also give us some new insights.

Parenthetically – in most countries of Europe I believe the Prime Minister would be forced to stand for re election in a mess like this.

Copyright 2001 – Richard Knox – All rights reserved – Feel free to circulate for non-commercial purposes.

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