A short observation during you know what month.

©2005 M. Bennett Hooper

Having survived the tumultuous 1960’s when any form of Black liberation was labeled communistically inspired by the government, i.e. J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, as well as, the many southern White Citizens Councils I find myself still tainted by a conspiracy mentality. My conspiracy mentality has evolved as the result of watching governmental and private institutions manipulate for their varied advantage the general public at a moronic level.

It is my opinion, however, flawed that our institutions of power are not overly concerned with the welfare of society at large. Many people in the United States especially Black people have looked to government as our savior to address our social ills. During the periods that our ability to vote freely was constrained we along with the support of others saw voting privileges as our passport out of the ranks of second class citizenship. While the 60’s efforts for increased Black suffrage is admirable it did not solve our problems. Many saw this movement by the government as progress and a harbinger of better things to come. Blacks became addicted to a flawed process which granted political rights because it was expedient but few economic rights.

Affirmative action in the workplace and educational institutions became the next placebo given by government to placate the newly vocal then minorities and women , the other second class citizenry , and the race was on. A few people were recipients of this largesse. More women and minorities entered mainstream American society and social progress became the mantra of the day. It has been 40 years since the 1960’s , J. Edgar Hoover is dead. Affirmative action is being dismantled, and a new generation of young people think voting has little value. I have to believe that the ultimate dumbing down of our citizenry is a planned action as I watch the ascendancy of the new idols of power in the form of a false religious fervor which is being bolstered by and equally false campaign of fear.

It is unfortunate that some of the darkest hours of western civilization occurred during the alleged Christian church’s most powerful reign; and if anything is to be learned from history it is in this writers’ opinion the beginning of more perilous times. The religious conspiracy is non-denominational unlike the historical past when Rome ruled the Christian world. The major players this time are once again Christianity and Islam. Some leaders of each group teach their followers that there is one God all mighty and powerful and that their way is the only way. The voices of love, tolerance, and compassion are muted as the march backwards to the alleged middle ages begins anew.

The new age crusades are being played out in the middle east, the mid-west, and the southernmost parts of the United States. Functional illiteracy is at an all time high while physical public educational institutions are bursting at the seams. As the planned march towards idiocy continues newer more sophisticated and deadlier weapons are emerging. Technological fear is the new pandemic as the manipulators of global power discard their mantle of protectiveness. What sane people would knowingly feed domestic livestock which will enter the food chain feed made from the carcass and blood of other dead animals, especially when those animals naturally and historically are not meat eaters. The cows are not the ones mad.

Perhaps conspiracy is not the best definition of the mentality of the confused who see society’s degeneration as a planned accomplishment of the new emperors. Perhaps there is no formation of a new monarchy. Perhaps those who write for those who will not read are the true conspirators as they flounder and splash away in their own neurotic sea of discontent and always thinking there has to be a better way.

Perhaps conspiracy theories are our combined attempts to delay our entry into the arena of problem solving by defining complexities because simplicities can, must, and should be addressed by those of us who egotistically consider ourselves sighted , if only minimally. Are we not in the end partners in the conspiracy?