Sunday, May 22, 2016 – Those Obvious Conspiracies
It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, the most self-conscious people in the world, and the most addicted to the belief that the other nations of the earth are in a conspiracy to undervalue them. ~ Henry James
The de facto censorship which leaves so many Americans functionally illiterate about the history of US foreign affairs may be all the more effective because it is not official, heavy-handed or conspiratorial, but woven artlessly into the fabric of education and media. No conspiracy is needed. ~ William Blum
Many journalists have fallen for the conspiracy theory of government. I do assure you that they would produce more accurate work if they adhered to the cock-up theory. ~ Bernard Ingham
The media, far from being a conspiracy to dull the political sense of the people, could be viewed as a conspiracy to disguise the extent of political indifference. ~ David Riesman
The popularity of conspiracy theories is explained by people’s desire to believe that there is some group of folks who know what they’re doing. ~ Damon Knight
Politics is the conspiracy of the unproductive but organized against the productive but unorganized. ~ Joseph Sobran
Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretenses. ~ John Buchan
If we are on the outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme. Silent nameless men with unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It’s the inside game, cold, sure, undistracted, forever closed off to us. We are the flawed ones, the innocents, trying to make some rough sense of the daily jostle. Conspirators have a logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act. ~ Don Delillo
“A Conspiracy!” cried the delighted lady, clapping her hands. “Of all things, I do like a Conspiracy! It’s so interesting!” ~ Lewis Carroll
The wronger a conspiracy is, the better it is. ~ Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy
As a coping mechanism, or as a way to make a little hard count by shilling demons in the shadows, I try not to belittle the thought process of the conspiracy theorists. As a cocktail waitress in Vegas once schooled me, never get down on anybody else’s hustle. ~ John Ridley
Society is one vast conspiracy for carving one into the kind of statue it likes, and then placing it in the most convenient niche it has. ~ Randolph Bourne
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. ~ Frederick Douglass
Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most requisite is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
A conspiracy is nothing but a secret agreement of a number of men for the pursuance of policies which they dare not admit in public. ~ Mark Twain
Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government. ~ Jeremy Bentham
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. ~ Adam Smith
In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America there are factions, but no conspiracies. ~ Alexis De Tocqueville
The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the rest of the nation. ~ George Savile
The search for conspiracy only increases the elements of morbidity and paranoia and fantasy in this country. It romanticizes crimes that are terrible because of their lack of purpose. It obscures our necessary understanding, all of us, that in this life there is often tragedy without reason. ~ Anthony Lewis
Anyone who knows how difficult it is to keep a secret among three men – particularly if they are married – knows how absurd is the idea of a worldwide secret conspiracy consciously controlling all mankind by its financial power; in real, clear analysis. ~ Oswald Mosley
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the [public] is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ~ Edward Bernays
Those who believe that major world events result from planning are laughed at for believing in the “conspiracy theory of history.” Of course, no one in this modern day and age really believes in the conspiracy theory of history – except those who have taken the time to study the subject. When you think about it, there are really only two theories of history. Either things happen by accident neither planned nor caused by anybody, or they happen because they are planned and somebody causes them to happen. In reality, it is the “accidental theory of history’” preached in the unhallowed Halls of Ivy which should be ridiculed. Otherwise, why does every recent administration make the same mistakes as the previous ones? Why do they repeat the errors of the past which produce inflation, depressions and war? … If you believe it is all an accident or the result of mysterious and unexplainable tides of history, you will be regarded as an “intellectual” who understands that we live in a complex world. If you believe that something like 32,496 consecutive coincidences over the past forty years stretches the law of averages a bit, you are a kook! ~ Gary Allen, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, 1971
The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining super-capitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control… Do I mean conspiracy? Yes, I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent. ~ Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976
We must rid this nation of the United Nations, which provides the communist conspiracy with a headquarters here on our own shores, and which actually makes it impossible for the United States to form its own decisions about its conduct and policies in Europe and Asia. ~ John T. Flynn
The United Nations is the greatest fraud in all History! Its purpose is to destroy the United States. ~John Rankin
Judaism is a conspiracy against all races. ~ Tom Metzger
The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. ~ Edgar J Hoover
In fact one thing that I have noticed… is that all of these conspiracy theories all depend on the perpetrators being endlessly clever. I think you’ll find the facts also work if you assume everyone is endlessly stupid. ~ Brian E. Moore
The biggest conspiracy has always been the fact that there is no conspiracy. Nobody’s out to get you. Nobody gives a shit whether you live or die. There, you feel better now? ~ Dennis Miller
I’m not a conspiracy theorist – I’m a conspiracy analyst. ~ Gore Vidal
Decency is indecency’s conspiracy of silence. ~ George Bernard Shaw
Nobody creates a fad. It just happens. People love going along with the idea of a beautiful pig. It’s like a conspiracy. ~ Jim Henson, creator of Miss Piggy
Men are not suffering from the lack of good literature, good art, good theatre, good music, but from that which has made it impossible for these to become manifest. In short, they are suffering from the silent shameful conspiracy (the more shameful since it is unacknowledged) which has bound them together as enemies of art and artists. ~ Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1958)
America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy. ~ John Updike
Just Above Sunset 