As I write this the United States is in the process of drumming up
support for a Strike on Syria Iraq
The truth is that almost none of us
understand what goes on behind closed doors in affairs governing world
politics. The issues themselves are certainly more complex and
inter-related than the reasoning provided in the casual
conversations I've been privy to. One thing does strike my as very
relevant to the themes being introduced by this blog, that aspect is that many
people appear very certain in their world view and align their pride and ego
with a particular position. Once the line is drawn in the sand the views
and strong opinions invariably need to be defended and eyes are no longer open
and free to process information clearly. We become politically or
ideologically aligned and begin to confuse our issues once we commit to a
“side”.
I’m incredibly disappointed by this
because I feel that the issues are not dealt with in a satisfying manner and
the reporting via the already heavily politically aligned news networks
reflects this polarizing stance. Western political lobbying systems and
corporate/political interchangeability have inherently built this element into
the system even though no particularly sinister puppet master is required to
pull the strings.
On the opposite side of the spectrum we
have a collection of thematically interesting maverick perspectives that are
either fervently supported or vehemently written off as crack-pot conspiracy
theorists. Many of the people or groups to get it wrong in the sense that
they often claim to have all the answers or draw conclusions from incompletely
formed or half true essential facts. What has sent a chill down my spine
is the fact that for every idea that turns out to be false, there is one that
turns out to be true. I have been following many of these theories for
some years now, and while I am not a follower or supporter of many of these
perspectives in the true sense, I have been struck by how much of it is
verifiable or predicted in advance. I lost a frustrating long argument in
this vein recently with a well informed friend who predicted the “US Empire
builders shopping list” as Afghanistan – Libya , Egypt and Turkey
I’ll be getting stuck into some of these issues in my next post, but I’ll be following public attitudes closely to see if there is any maturing of public assimilation and processing of these ideas, and whether any balance or even perspective is appreciated over the taking of contrary positions without having all the information available to us.
I’ll be getting stuck into some of these issues in my next post, but I’ll be following public attitudes closely to see if there is any maturing of public assimilation and processing of these ideas, and whether any balance or even perspective is appreciated over the taking of contrary positions without having all the information available to us.
As far as dismissing people wholesale
as “crack-pots” or “conspiracy-nuts”, I do not, because for me some of these
people do not have to be 100% on the money, just a kernel of truth is worrying
enough. There are those that have elements of such truths and the
evidence is overwhelming yet pitted more often against spin and propaganda that
evidence to the contrary.
In the meantime here are some links;
each has something to offer, even in those cases where some have been exposed
to varying degrees (often by unscrupulous attempts to discredit the sources due
to the inherent agendas). Add the awareness's to your mental
arsenal without committing to them. Use them
as consideration points if you must, disagree if need. I do not
advocate subscribing wholesale to any of them, but believe me, there is an
important message in most of them if you are free to read and process without
emotional reaction. I must confess, have included one or two more extreme perspectives, just for fun: