US AND THEM

You could argue that any rational person will decide that conspiracy theories are bunkum. Whilst the US government and other organisations have indulged repeatedly in conspiracies - Bay of Pigs and Watergate come to mind - it is unrealistic to think that a large organisation could get away with even credible ones, never mind the alien and satanic conspiracies. Basically, big organisations leak like a sieve. So why do we believe so much in conspiracies?

US CONSTITUTION

Maybe because SOME conspiracies are more real than we realise. Take, for instance, the US Constitution.
In the mid-1800s, the ultra-individualist Lysander Spooner argued that the American Constitution was dead, and deservedly so. His argument was simple. A document that guaranteed freedom and happiness could not hold people together under a federal government.
Spooner was not believed. But in the mid-20th century, a whole group of conspiriologists began to argue this was, indeed, the case. Their argument rested on the belief that, on 9 March 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt’s declaration of national emergency was never nullified. Just the slightest whiff of a ‘clear and present danger’ allows the US President to automatically suspend rights to anyone he wishes.
Further, bit by bit, dictatorial powers have been passed to the President, to the point that he can now do anything he pleases. He can seize property, send troops to battle, restrict travel and tap all forms of communication without any other authority, allowing presidents to strut the world stage like Roman emperors.

OM

With such a reality - a reality becoming starkly clear following US government powers following 9/11 - it is easy to feel that the US Constitution isn’t worth the paper it is written on.
This feeling of conspiratorial powers is given equal credence by one of the most seemingly ridiculous conspiracy theories ever put forward - that of ‘OM’.
Based around the persistent belief in the East that the universe was created out of Chaos by the sound of ‘Om’, the word has become the most popular mantra. But it has crept into western conspiriology as OM, an acronym for Operation Mindf***.’
The most virulent of supernatural conspiracies, whenever something weird happens, it is OM behind it. Eventually, we began to understand the process with Surrealism and Postmodernism, intellectual pursuits that make the world chaotic and ridiculous. In the modern world, it is often impossible to distinguish what is OM and what is not, so absurd has much of the world become.
The conspiracy of OM undoubtedly came out of Discordianism, thought by some to be the first true religion, based on the worship of the goddess of Chaos. It offers true reality of religion as a joke.
The founder of Forteana, Charles Fort, that irrepressible collector of weird tales and happenings, put the strangeness of the world down to a being known as the Cosmic Joker, and such events generally require a degree of passivity, due to our non-understanding.
This passivity is the purpose of the force to mess with our minds. Indeed, Dlscordians cope with this stupidity with mantras such as: ‘We Discordians must stick apart.’
This is the beauty of postmodernism, an idea and way of life with no purpose, no meaning, no identity. And within this swirl of negativity and seemingly over-powering forces, we all become conspiriologists of sorts.
And even more important to the conspiriologist’s trade is the simple fact that, in less media invasive days, conspiracies DID occur. Consider, for instance, the conspiratorial history of Britain.

DEMOCRACY

Modern, democratic government can find its roots way back in early Anglo-Saxon Britain. In order to rule, a king had to have a council usually made up of local leaders and bishops to discuss issues and assist him in ruling.
As the centuries rolled on, this became known as the Witan, meaning ‘moot’, or meeting. Dealing with such things as land grants, defence and taxation policy, the Witan soon discovered that it could prize authority from a king by refusing to collect taxes. This form of justifiable blackmail is conspiracy.
One king who often abused his power was King John. In order to bring him into line, a conspiracy was hatched by some barons. This conspiracy led to the signing of the Magna Carta on 15 June 1215, guaranteeing a council of 25 barons to watch the monarch, and guaranteeing human rights that form the basis of a free society. Lauded as a great moment in history, the Magna Carta was nonetheless the product of conspiracy.

THE TUDORS

By the time of Henry VIII, Europe had settled down to centuries long turmoil where the power of Catholic Rome was under threat as Protestantism allowed the first stirring of national government.
Under the excuse of divorcing his first wife, Henry severed links with Rome, creating the Church of England, and formulating a national government in England free of Catholic interference. In other words, he was the leading player in a huge conspiracy that reversed for ever the centre of power in England.
By the reign of his daughter, Elizabeth I, the battle was to seize England back for the Catholics. With the English defeat of the Catholic Scots, their Queen, Mary, Queen of Scots, threw herself on the mercy of Elizabeth, who had her confined. However, this did not stop Mary attempting to conspire against Elizabeth through the now famous Babington Plot and others, leading to her execution.

THE STUARTS

With no Tudor heir, Mary’s son took the throne following Elizabeth for the Stuarts, with, of course, their Catholic leanings. However, James I was obviously not Catholic enough for the Gunpowder Plotters.
Led by Robert Catesby, they hatched a plot to blow up king and Parliament during the State Opening of 5 November 1605. The barrels were discovered in the cellars below the House of Lords before the gunpowder could be ignited, and today 5 November is celebrated as a famous conspiracy with bonfire, fireworks and burning the effigy of the conspirator, Guy Fawkes.
Charles I WAS more Catholic in his leanings, and constantly conspired to subvert the Protestant integrity of England. To counter this conspiracy, Oliver Cromwell and other Parliamentarians conspired against HIM, resulting in the English Civil War and eventual beheading of the king.
This immense period of conspiracy and counter-conspiracy eventually led to the Barebones Parliament at the beginning of a brief flirtation with Republicanism. Throughout this Parliament, its members conspired to erode English freedoms by imposing a dictatorial Puritan ethic upon the population. Eventually, Cromwell conspired against his own Parliament and assumed dictatorial control himself.

END GAME

By 1660 the Stuart dynasty had been restored, providing a rich source of conspiracy as Parliamentarians conspired to retain their power, and the monarch conspired to take it away.
And, yes, return the country to Catholicism.
In particular, at one stage James II had a newborn baby placed in his chamber, declaring it the rightful heir. This obvious attempt at conspiracy to guarantee a Catholic line of succession led to a number of Parliamentarians writing to the Dutch Stadholder, William of Orange (husband of James’s Protestant daughter, Mary) offering him the throne of England.
Wllllam wasn’t particularly interested in the throne, but he DID require the English army in order to guarantee victory in his latest war. And thus, through conspiracy built upon conspiracy, did the Glorious Revolution of 1688 come about, guaranteeing human rights through the Bill of Rights, and, with William and Mary on the throne, instituting the modern democratic form of government we know today.

CONSPIRACY

We can see from the above that conspiracy is endemic to democracy, and did, infact, lead to modern western freedoms. So where does this leave the conspiracy theorist? Does it give credence to his imaginings?
Sadly, not at all. Conspiracy DOES occur. All governments do, in one form or another, conspire against their electorate. But this is nothing special, and certainly nothing sensational. Indeed, we don’t even call it conspiracy any more. Rather, it is called, simply, politics.
But it is a fact of life that, being endemic to the society we class as free, we will continue to have conspiracy theorists to tell us it is far worse than this. The politicians actually like them - they divert us from looking at what is really going on.
Indeed, if conspiracy theorists didn’t exist, governments would have to invent them.

(c) Anthony North, February 2008

Click It’s Under Control for more conspiracy posts

TONY ON POSH OLD MEN AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Diana and ‘Dearest Pa’ – posh old men are not nasty … PLUS … Brit troops hand over Basra – and are still there! More hot air as Bali finishes.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world.

DIANA AND THE DUKE

So now we know. Diana, Princess of Wales, and the supposed ‘murderer’, the Duke of Edinburgh, were actually quite close and had a good relationship, with Diana sending letters to him beginning ‘Dearest Pa’.
This revelation at the Diana Inquiry will come as a shock to those who are certain the Duke detested her and is implicated in her death. But it doesn’t come as a shock to me. This is because we often mis-judge those from the ‘old school’.
Yes, they’re posh, outspoken and appear uncompromising. As such, political correctness has little difficulty in making them villains we can do without. But tell me, where do ideas such as free speech, democracy, individuality and human rights initially come from?
I’ll give you a clue. It all began with aristocracy in 1215 …

© Anthony North, December 2007

BASRA PULL-OUT

This Sunday British troops handed over control of Basra to Iraqi forces. After four and a half years, southern Iraq is back under Iraqi control. It is the beginning of the end of one of the most shameful periods of British history …
… read more …

BALI IS OVER

So the global warming conference at Bali is over. Agreement has finally been made, following the United States’ agreement to allow green technology for developing countries. But what have they actually agreed …
… read more …

Click Diary of a Writer. Meet me, up close and personal.
Have you tried North’s Encyclopedia? Funny and factual.

KING ARTHUR

Click Diary of a Writer. Meet me up close and personal.

Most people have heard of King Arthur, but how many really know what he really was? We know of a character half mythological in his existence, but is there more to King Arthur than meets the eye?
Indeed, in understanding King Arthur, can we grasp a better understanding of other icons, such as those of the present day like Elvis Presley, or Marilyn Monroe, or Diana, Princess of Wales? I think the Arthurian Legend speaks volumes.

CAMELOT AND CO

The story is a simple one. A questioning boy realises his destiny when he pulls a sword from a stone, guaranteeing him invincible powers. This is the beginning of the story of the greatest of British heroes, King Arthur.
And what we see is a representation of spiritual action leading to a form of charisma, as if young Arthur has transformed himself from a doubting wreck to a potentially great man. It is the story of all mythological heroes.
Arthur goes on to establish Camelot and his Knights of the Round Table, assisted by the magician Merlin, and wife Guinevere. Slowly, a deeper spiritual quest manifests, imbuing each knight to transform himself.
This is the quest for the Holy Grail, which will bring purity. And the search consumes them, puts them all on their own heroic path. This form of transition is vital to Arthur and the Knights, but also to society as a whole.
For as the quest for the Holy Grail continues, the story of Merlin, the great pagan wizard, fades into its final outcome, as he becomes entrapped by his own magic. This is not only a story of the mythological character, but also the story of the times. For the story narrates known history, with a tranformation during the Dark Ages from paganism to Christianity.
Merlin is that paganism, guaranteed to die out, whilst the Holy Grail represents the purity of the new Christian ideals arising. Eventually, Arthur is killed, and in his death a transformation appears in society, changing from a wasteland to the Medieval world.

OF FOLKLORE PAST

The story of Arthur has a folklorist beginning in the many tales in ancient Britain of the Fisher King, a wounded hero who transforms society by searching for his own cure - a cure that requires his death for society to change, thus encompassing all aspects of the modern icon, who changes society best if he dies young and tragically.
However, Arthur is thought, also, to be based on a real person - a Roman general who stayed in Britain after the Roman Empire collapsed, helping the Celts to fight the Saxon invaders.
A 6th century manuscript by a monk called Gildas mentions a great victory by the Britons at Mount Badon, an unknown location, but does not mention a leader. A later ‘History of the Britons’ by the Welsh cleric Nennius lists a further eleven earlier battles all won by the commander-in-chief, Arthur.
Appearing in the early 9th century, it also mentions a certain miraculousness about him. In the poem, ‘The Spoils of Annwn’ a century later, he is going overseas in search of a magic cauldron, a similar concept to the future Grail.

MEDIEVAL ROMANCE

By the 1130s Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ appeared, Arthur portrayed as a weak character, but the centre of Medieval romance, elements of the Fisher King making a definite appearance.
We also find here the mystery of Arthur’s birth and youth, the known infidelity of Guinevere with his knight Lancelot adding a touch of scandal, his defeat by Mordred and his mortal wounding and burial on the Isle of Avalon.
Glastonbury was then to become the centre of Arthurian legend when, about 1150, the ‘Life of St Gildas’ appeared, detailing how the Abbot of Glastonbury once helped Arthur. In 1180, the monks of Glastonbury confirmed the importance of hoax in such stories, when they claimed to find Arthur’s grave in the Abbey’s Lady Chapel - the bones of a large man and a woman.
A cross by the grave said: ‘Here lies the famous King Arthur in the Isle of Avalon buried.’ At the time, Glastonbury was separated from the sea by marshes, so could appear to be an island. Twelve miles away is an ancient fort on Cadbury Hill, often thought of as the home of Camelot.
Over the couple of centuries following, other elements entered the story, including Excalibur, his sword, and the Round Table itself, the whole myth as presently told coming together in Sir Thomas Malory’s 15th century ‘Morte d’Arthur’, or Death of Arthur.
Malory’s main source was the writings of 12th century Frenchman, Chretien de Troyes, which included the myth of the Holy Grail. Chretien himself was influenced by Christian mystic Bernard of Clairvaux, the force behind mystical chivalry and the Knights Templar, embodying what the Medieval world stood for.
Hence, we find in Arthur a forever re-formulating story - a conspiracy, if you like - with the man being a reflection of his society; an embodiment and force-for-change in society - the ultimate icon.

SOCIETY-CHANGING ICONS

King Arthur is therefore an early template for the icon today. Whilst such icons may not be particularly religious, nor political in terms of what they do for history, the similar life pattern – going from average child, to questioning soul, to charismatic, and finally to icon - nonetheless results in similar social change.
At a societal level the processes are identical. For instance, Presley invented modern youth, with all the consequent social changes involved. Diana embodied the new touchy-feeliness of society and validated it.
The cultural interpretation may change and be very different, but the psychological and social mechanisms involved are timeless.
Such concepts tie the psychology of an icon to the sociology of followers. And nowhere is this more obvious than in fashion.
In a real sense a follower subverts his life to echo the life of his icon. He wears similar clothes, adopts similar language and follows similar traits. Although secular in nature, the followers of an icon are partially taken over and become devoted in the same way as a cult disciple or a Christian who follows the ways of the Bible.
In other words, the process is identical to age-old religion, and represents a real mechanism of social control. The icon becomes a real expression of a Jungian archetype, literally getting under the skin of society, the process becoming almost unconscious in the way it affects us.

CHANGING REALITIES

Of course, the really great icons are those who die young and tragically. And it is here where conspiracy theory seems to play an important part in the process of iconography. In nearly all cases of modern icons - King, the two Kennedys, Monroe, Presley, Lennon, Diana - death was tragic, but the result of accident, over-indulgence, suicide, or assassination by a loner.
But this is insufficient for the creation of a legend; the process by which immortality is assured. A legend must have mystery and a touch of the fantastic. Hence, just as Arthur’s life and death have been changed and embellished over time, an icon’s death must be changed.
Facts must go out of the window, and the event becomes relative to interpretation after the event. The event, and its later perception, conspire to produce an event which rises the icon above normal humanity. The icon is turned, through mystery, conspiracy and a re-telling of the story, into a god.

© Anthony North, December 2007

If horror fiction is for you, click my Fiction Page and scroll down
Click Mysteries for more unexplained

CONSPIRACY AND SUPERSTITION

Click Diary of a Writer. Meet me up close and personal.

Conspiracy theories can be like the more malign aspects of cults. The success of such a process is that it can invoke so many beliefs in demonic forces out to get us that we flock to the guru for protection and salvation.
This is the defining point of the success of the good – or bad - of a religious creed. Frighten enough people into believing in the Devil and they’ll buy anything you say. Conspiracy theories do this exact process, but in reverse.

SCARING KIDDIES TO DEATH

They tell you the good guys are really demons and the only person to trust is yourself. Hence, instead of creating strength through meaning, they produce paranoia of unimaginable degrees. And by the time they’ve finished, there is absolutely nothing in the world to trust, for evil is all around, and you should be fearful.
We’re conditioned for conspiracy from childhood. At school, kids form into gangs. The gangs have a secret, an initiation, and become a closed club. People outside the gang are suspect and cannot be trusted.
At home, parents threaten the bogeyman. You want to go out? Well be careful of the pervert. Watch he doesn’t get you. Don’t take sweets from strangers. Don’t talk to anyone you don’t know.

THERE’S A CHANCE

We live in a mad world, made madder by the reality of chance. Things happen in the world that suggest order. Forever, the coincidence will come along and slap you down. When you least expect it you’ll be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and wham! Coincidences produce just as many fortuitous events, but we forget them. Pain is easier to remember than pleasure, and the fates are out to get you.
The result of childhood, of coincidence, the after spill of religion, is a mind-set of insecurity, where the worst is expected, and we’re unlikely to be disappointed. And in this world the conspiracy theorist is king. He weaves his ink-filled wand, wraps his fears about your spine, and chills.
You are his; you are the conspirator’s apprentice and live in a house of cards upon a foundation of sand.

SUPERSTITION

But, you see, this is the normal, historic, human condition. Forces have always been around to get us, as any actor who has been in the Scottish play, Macbeth, will testify.
Performed for centuries in a culture of superstition, accidents and disasters have followed it to the point that you mustn’t even utter the play’s name.
Superstition has been endemic to humanity for most if its history. Supernatural forces lived with us, and everything in life had to be regulated in terms of evil demons bringing bad luck.
For instance, take birth. If the pregnant woman stepped on a gravestone, the child would die; if she met a hare, this was a familiar of a witch and the child would have a hare lip.
Once born, the nickname became popular as a means of hiding a child’s real name before baptism, so as a witch couldn’t take over the child. A woman gave birth downstairs so the child’s first journey would be up, else the last one would be down - to hell. And do not forget to protect it from fairies, who were out to abduct it.

MARRIAGE CAN BE SCARY

Marriage had its own set of superstitious rules. A future spouse could know how their partner would be in life by asking about when, as a child, he/she had had the palm crossed with silver. Held tightly, the person was wise with money; loosely, then generosity was guaranteed; dropped, don’t marry a spendthrift.
The veil and ring were magical symbols which had to be treated with respect. If the groom dropped the ring, he would die first, and vice versa. Wearing something old meant old traditions would be honoured; something new symbolised new life; something borrowed and blue had to come from a lucky person, transferring the luck to the couple. As the bride walked to church, sunshine or meeting a black cat were considered lucky; meet a pig and you might as well go home. And most important of all, make the wedding cake as rich and fruity as possible. This guaranteed fertility.

IT DOESN’T STOP WITH DEATH

And then, of course, there was death, usually caused by the dislocation of the soul from the body. In illness, this separation must not be impeded, or you would delay the soul going to heaven. Hence, in lingering illness, strangulation or smothering was often done. Upon death, all clothes had to be loosened and locks left unlocked so the soul could get out.
Of course, bodies had to be protected from demons, usually with salt on the chest and the practice of never leaving the body alone. When leaving the house for burial, always through the front, and feet first.
Possessions were buried with the person so that they would maintain their status in the afterlife - pretty girls even took mirror and comb so they could do their hair. And always bury corpses with feet to the east. Judgment Day would come from this direction, so the corpse could rise easily on the day of resurrection.

THE POWERS THAT BE

This brief descent into old superstitions tells us something of importance. Powers, it seems, have always been out to get us. Today, we are said to live in less superstitious times, but is this really the case? Or could it be that we have simply moved our superstitions away from the supernatural to the governmental?
Conspiriology seems to be a re-statement of superstition, with paranoid tendencies continuing to affect us. But why should this still be so?

INDIVIDUAL v SOCIETY

When our belief in superstition and the supernatural began to wane, a new mentality arose in us in terms of our feelings of individuality. To be human in the modern world is to be an individual. But individuality is a troublesome thing because it must be tempered by a social awareness of human society to continue in orderly fashion.
If we did not class ourselves as social beings, we would have chaos. Hence, we live in a world of conflict between our need to express our individuality and society’s need to keep us in check.
Society is regulated by government and authority. And it is these powers which have inherited the superstitious mantle with conspiracy theory. Hence, perhaps it is our sense of individuality which will forever keep us suspicious of forces in society out to get us.
This is the crux of conspiriology - an acceptance of powers in the world that are working against our individuality. And these powers can appear sinister indeed.

© Anthony North, November 2007

Click It’s Under Control for my conspiracy sub-domain.

TONY ON DIANA INQUEST AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Here goes the circus that is the Diana Inquest … PLUS … Cameron and his ‘not good enough’ speech; A look at the world’s problems we are ignoring.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY

DIANA – THE INQUEST

So it has begun. The Diana Inquest is under way and much news will be suspended in UK newspapers for the foreseeable future. On everyone’s lips will be a single question – Whodunit.
No one ‘dunit’. It was a tragic accident. But expect that to be lost in the soundbites and platitudes that will follow.

There will be agendas aplenty.

Mohamad al Fayed will be forever putting the boot into the British establishment. The ‘establishment’ itself will be involved in extreme damage limitation. The Media will be on a mission to absolve themselves of blame. And I’m sure that more than the odd member of the Jury will be making notes for the inevitable book deals that will follow.
And when it is all done – when all the spleen, and all the conspiracy theory, and all the iconography is over – what will be the outcome?
I remind you, good reader, of the Warren Commission that was hoped to put JFK to rest.
Yea, right!

© Anthony North, October 2007

LOOK, NO AUTOCUE

Well isn’t David Cameron a clever boy, then. At the conservative Party conference he did a whole speech off the cuff. Of course, he had to point it out; although he didn’t point out the hours he would have spent rehearsing it …
… read more …

GLOBAL NEGLECT

As the world looks for the missing monks of Burma it is perhaps time to reflect upon the next stage of world history. Burma is reaching a critical point of change, even if, at present, it has stalled. Eventually, China will have to react, and it will do so alone …
… read more …

Have you clicked Diary of a Writer on Blogroll? Meet me, up close and personal.
Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for more current affairs.
If you like fiction, click Fiction Page on Blogroll for my short stories.
Inde-Pol

CULTS AND CONSPIRACY

When we talk of cults we talk of strange, secretive organizations that seem to live separate from society. However, perhaps the reality is that such cults are more an element of society than we think.
Yes, they are secretive, and perhaps strange, but the history of cultish behaviour offers the possibility that they are an actual reflection of what it is happening in mainstream society. The Freemasons and Rosicrucians show this process in action.

FREEMASONS

We have all heard of Freemasons, but what are they? Thought to be born out of the mystical building techniques of King Solomon, ritual is based on the murder of the Biblical architect, Hiram, by three of his workmen because he refused to reveal the Secret Word of God.
Thus enshrining silence in the Masonic code, the organisation was more likely an advancement of the craft Guilds that arose in the Middle Ages to protect building skills, particularly in the Gothic cathedrals.
Masonic lodges, complete with secret handshakes, arose in the 18th century, the Grand Lodge of England forming in 1717. Said to comprise 33 degrees of membership, three of the degrees are open, the remaining thirty descending Freemasonry into supposed darker regions.
The early major politicians of America were Masons, including George Washington, and the dollar bill includes their sign of a pyramid with the All Seeing Eye above it. This is symbolic of the Great Architect of the Universe.
Whether Freemasonry is a cult or simply an excuse for bored middleclass men to have pretend secrets will be forever debated.

THE CULTISH SHADOW

Freemasonry is one of the more interesting cults, in that it is seen as alternative, yet made up of what can best be described as the Establishment. Rumours constantly arise that the cult contains a network of fraternity, where Masons rise up the promotional ladder quicker than non-Masons.
Whether true or not is irrelevant to the fact that, in Freemasonry, we see an alternative reflection of the rise of the middleclass as prominent in society. A society - ANY society - seems to need a cultish reflection of itself.

ROSICRUCIANS

We can see this on-going reflection in the Rosicrucians, a secret occult order supposedly founded in the Middle Ages to turn back the tide of existing knowledge, as imposed on us by the likes of Aristotle.
The cult was, in other words, anti-science and, in particular, anti-Catholic, in that Catholicism had attempted to increase its hold on knowledge by amalgamating much of Aristotle’s theories into mainstream Christianity.
Named after its emblem, which combines a rose and a cross, its founder was said to be one Christian Rosenkreuz, supposedly born in 1378. Almost certainly an allegorical figure, he and his order caused quite a stir in Europe with the publication of three anonymous pamphlets in the early 17th century.
These were the ‘Fama Fraternitatis’ (Account of the Brotherhood, 1614), ‘Confessio Fraternitatis’ (Confession of the Brotherhood, 1615), and ‘The Third Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz’, 1616. In essence, the pamphlets are esoteric and alchemical, dealing with initiation into a new spirituality by embracing quasi-Christian and eastern elements.

PHILOSOPHICAL SHADOW

However, they are also revolutionary as they clearly promote Protestantism, a new ethics, and attempt social engineering to the point of a new politics to establish an ideal commonwealth throughout Europe.
This led to the establishment of a Rosicrucian order in Philadelphia in the mid-l7th century, with the migration to America of fundamentalist Protestants.
Throughout the 18th century further tracts appeared. Several groups claimed Rosicrucian roots from Germany to Russia. Creating much interest in occultism, the mixture of secret societies and political change also led to much paranoia, the Rosicrucians being at the heart of many conspiracy theories of the time.
Christian Rosenkreuz himself gained a biography. At age five he went to a convent to study the humanities, and at sixteen he continued his education in Arabia. Learning
Magic, he went to Spain, where he was greeted by the Moors, and eventually back to Germany.
Beginning the Rosicrucian Fraternity, they built a secret Spiritus Sanctum in 1409, his followers going on secret missions following his death in 1409 at the age of 106.

HOAX AND THINGS

The reality of the Rosicrucians was, however, that it was initially a huge hoax, the writer of the initial pamphlets said to be Lutheran pastor Johan Valentin Andreae, who died in 1654.
But a myth, once established, continues to breed; particularly when there is a need in society for a cultish, if chilling, reflection. In 1604, the ‘brothers’ were said to find their founder’s tomb, surrounded by magical symbols, and his body perfectly preserved.
In 1909 Harvey Spencer Lewis founded the Ancient mystical Order Rosae Crucis, or AMORC, in San Jose, California. Claiming to have been initiated in France, Lewis began an international fraternity based on a system of lodges aimed at increasing human potential, esoteric knowledge and psychic powers.
The brother can rise through twelve ‘degrees’, the last three involving the psychical, raising consciousness. Lewis also devised a new history for the order, founded in Egypt in the 2nd Millennium BC and practiced secretly by the pharaohs. The fraternity survived in the Middle East through Solomon, and the Master Jesus was the last in the initial phase of the Rosicrucians.

IN CONCLUSION

In the Rosicrucians we can see a cultish reflection, born from a hoax, but nonetheless taking into itself the fears and hopes of a society on the change. Initially, it was fuelled by the rise of Protestantism, became the vehicle through which conspiracy theory thrived, and in its later incarnations, reflected the mysticism of the new spirituality of the 20th century which birthed New Age.
Society always needs an inner, cultish reflection of itself, and through it we can understand society better than any sociologist could do.

© Anthony North, September 2007

Click Cult Watch for more on cults.

Have you clicked Diary of a Writer on Blogroll? Meet me, up close and personal.
Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for my current affairs blog.
If you like fiction, click Fiction Page on Blogroll for my short stories.
Check out the pages. Find my Links on Eye On the World.

THE ICON KILLERS

Conspiracies continue to fascinate, and the murder of famous people have become iconic moments that provide a rich harvest for conspiracy theorists. Why is this the case? What is it about these deaths that provide such interest?
The obvious answer is that they WERE famous people, but if this was the case alone, then why add sensationalism to the death. Or is it that the conspiracies are true? We need to analyse these daths and see if it is the case.

JOHN F KENNEDY

Typical was the assassination of President John F Kennedy on 23 November 1963 as his motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas.
Amid several shots, the killer bullet hit just below Kennedy’s Adam’s Apple, going on to split his skull. Accompanied by his wife, Jackie, and Texas Governor John Connally, the image of the event is one of THE iconic moments of the 20th century.
Racing him off to the Parkland Memorial Hospital, Kennedy died just before one o’clock. Meanwhile, just after the event, loner Lee Harvey Oswald walked out of the Texas School Book Depository where he fired the shots from a sixth floor window.
A sniper’s rifle was later found. Arrested shortly afterwards, Oswald was himself shot dead two days later by club owner Jack Ruby, a man with close Mafia connections.
Despite the following Warren Commission which claimed no conspiracy was involved in the assassination, from that day to this, the idea that Kennedy was assassinated through conspiracy has remained.
Organised by either Mafia or Right Wing elements in America itself, evidence of a conspiracy is thought to be in the amateur film footage taken of the assassination by Abraham Zapruder.
For instance, Kennedy’s driver seems to turn round and point a gun at Kennedy. On a summer’s day, a man in the crowd holds an umbrella, lifts it and seems to pump it at the car - a poisoned flachette? Even eyewitnesses are sure there was more going on, such as those stood by a grassy knoll who heard a shot whizz past them.
However, sufficient conspiracy theory exists to put the blame on Oswald himself, although not through his own actions, as we shall see shortly.

MARTIN LUTHER KING

A similar character to Oswald was responsible for the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, shot in the early morning of 4 April 1968 as he took a breath of fresh air on his balcony of the Lorraine Hotel, Memphis.
He died 12 hours later in hospital. Within an hour of the murder the police began looking for petty crook, James Earl Ray, who had been seen with a rifle, found close by. Ray initially escaped, making it to Britain where he was arrested on 8 June. In his subsequent trial he was sentenced to 99 years, found guilty of murder.
Conspiracy theories soon arose that Ray was a patsy, and the man who was really behind the assassination was FBI director, J Edgar Hoover. Clearly, Hoover did not like King, to the point that he had tried to discredit him as a homosexual.
Similarly, King was causing much trouble for the US government with his protest movement. And similar machinations were thought to be behind the assassination of JFK’s younger brother, Robert.

ROBERT KENNEDY

Senator Robert Kennedy was, like his brother and King, a moderate left politician, who particularly stalked the Mafia in his role as Attorney General. Going for president himself, he won an all important Californian primary on 5 June 1968.
Holding a celebration party in the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel, he was being escorted through the kitchens when Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan jumped in front of him, shouted Kennedy, you son of a bitch, pulled out a pistol and fired off a number of shots. Kennedy fell with a bullet in his head. He died a day later.
Sirhan Sirhan was, like Ray and Oswald, a relative non-entity. Were such killers working alone or were they part of a wider conspiracy? For instance, Sirhan’s pistol held eight rounds. How is it that thirteen rounds were fired?
And taking into account the possibility of such murderers being part of such conspiracies, wouldn’t the conspirators have been better off hiring professional gunmen? Let us see if another high-profile assassination of notoriety can tell us anything of interest - the murder of John Lennon.

JOHN LENNON

Lennon was letting himself into his New York flat on 8 December 1980 when a young man called Mark Chapman casually walked up to the ex-Beatle and shot him dead. When the police arrived a short time later, Chapman was stood close by, reading a book.
Making no attempt to escape, he claimed madness at his trial, but the jury decided he shot the star simply to gain notoriety. A loner throughout his short life, Chapman had an unusual defence.
In his own words, he said: ‘ (Lennon) walked past me and then I heard a voice in my head: ‘do it, do it,’ over and over again …’ ‘I don’t remember aiming. I must have done, but I don’t remember “drawing a bead” or whatever you call it. And I just pulled the trigger a steady five times.’

MK-ULTRA

Conspiriologists blame the strange behaviour of inadequate loners such as Chapman and the above assassins on the mind control techniques of sinister US organisation MK-Ultra.
The idea of such mind control became popular following Richard Condon’s book, ‘The Manchurian Candidate’, in which a US soldier was caught by the Chinese in Korea, brain-washed, and sent back to America hypnotically programmed to assassinate a Presidential candidate, even though he was not aware of this fact.
An actual CIA backed MK-Ultra program is known to have been run from 1953-73, which included research on producing such assassins. However, the programme was shut down due to lack of success and over indulgence.
Details of its activities were revealed by the Rockefeller Commission into CIA abuses in June 1975, and by the investigations of conspiriologist John Marks.
Their many experiments included taking prostitutes to safe houses, giving them cocktails of LSD, and photographing the effects. In another test, a Dr Gottlieb, one of the researchers into hallucinogens, spiked the drinks of many of his co-workers with LSD. One of them, Dr Frank Olsen, became psychotic and, in 1953, threw himself out of a window.
Was it suicide, or had his mind been adapted? It is highly unlikely that such experiments could have been successful; and it certainly doesn’t answer the above assassinations. Indeed, what is often forgotten is that the above assassins fit neatly into a definite pattern of behaviour that also arose in the 1960s.

THE FRUSTRATED SIXTIES

These assassinations came in line with a huge rise in the number of serial and spree killers. Rising particularly in America, a whole frustrated generation seemed to produce a large number of frustrated loners who were determined to hit back at society.
Some took out their frustrations with a semi-automatic on a group of people, others chose certain weak members of society to kill one at a time on dark nights. It is therefore reasonable to assume that some of these loners would aim higher, and assassinate major figures.
Blaming organisations such as MK-Ultra seems to be a cop-out. Blame some invisible enemy and maybe we don’t need to look too closely at ourselves and the society we create.

© Anthony North, August 2007

For more on conspiracies click my It’s Under Control on Blogroll.
Have you clicked Diary of a Writer on Blogroll? Meet me, up close and personal.
Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for my current affairs blog.
If you like fiction, click Fiction Page on Blogroll for my short stories.

ELVIS PRESLEY

Okay, he’s in the news again – the 30th anniversary of the death of the King. Forgive the image, here. With all the Elvis look-a-likes I thought it might be sobering to show what those original fans are really like today.
When I was younger I wasn’t an Elvis fan – I was into hard rock – but as I matured I began to understand what this guy was all about. It wasn’t so much music, but rebellion – a move towards counter culture as distinct from the establishment that had led us in so many wrong directions.

This is what an Icon is …

… and Elvis was, above all else, an Icon.
There are a lot of things that fascinate me about him. In particular, the sociology surrounding people like this. For instance, if you take away the ‘culture’ of his life and death, the social processes involved are very similar to a religious icon.
This becomes more obvious when you look at conspiracy theory. Now, I’m very skeptical of such theories myself, but I am fascinated by how they work – the classic good verses evil scenario – and in so many the conspiracy apes the process of Resurrection – after all, so many believe he is still alive.

The inevitable social movement

I suppose it is always going to happen like this. I think religious movements of the past, and cultural progression today, are identical social mechanisms, made different only by the ‘culture’ of the time.
So Elvis is disclosed as a symbol of social progression rather than a man in himself. Which begs the question, if Elvis had never been born, would society have had to find an ‘Elvis’ anyway?

© Anthony North, August 2007

Have you clicked Diary of a Writer on Blogroll? Meet me, up close and personal.
Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for my current affairs blog.
If you like fiction, click Fiction Page on Blogroll for my short stories.
Check out the pages. Find my Links on Eye On the World.

TONY ON NASA AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: The NASA fiasco – it’s been going on for some time … PLUS … Kids and the net; It’s that Diana thing again … and again, and again …
READ THE ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST … from a real voice of Britain and the world.

NASA IN A MESS

Allegations have been made that NASA astronauts have been flying while drunk. Coming in the wake of many other discrepancies, it seems the glory days of NASA are over, the astronauts no longer the great heroes they were once thought.
What could be behind this declining culture in the US space program? The obvious answer is low morale. Rather than spearheading the new frontier of exploration, they are being turned into orbital workmen, whilst machines go out into space.
It was never meant to be like this. The history of human exploration has been a proud affair, with many explorers being household names, but now it is grinding to a halt. And the reason why is this:
Exploration has always been fuelled by trade and backed by business. NASA is government funded, and they have always slowed exploration down. Maybe it is time for big business to realize its historic responsibility, stop fuelling a society on trivia, and get on with the project it is their historic duty to follow.
When this project begins, the astronauts will be too busy to get drunk – and proud.

© Anthony North, July 2007

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD?

A new study has advised that children in the UK will sit in front of a TV or computer screen for 7 hours a day when not at school. Dairy Farmers of Britain carried out the survey to show how our young are becoming disconnected from ‘outdoors’ …
… read more …

WAS HENRI PAUL DRUNK?

The Diana conspiracies are in the news again – this time concerning whether Lord Stevens has added to the problems. The ex-Met Commissioner chaired the recent inquiry into Diana’s death …
… read more …

Have you clicked Diary of a Writer on Blogroll? Meet me, up close and personal.
Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for more current affairs.
If you like fiction, click Fiction Page on Blogroll for my short stories.
Inde-Pol

THE CYBER-STORY

The story has been the most potent force in society and culture, defining who we are and how we should act and think. But could it be that modern technologies have eroded the power of the story, taking away its ability to form us?
A typical example is modern media. Images come to us from around the globe, appearing on our television in the corner. To meet this rush of information, 24 hour news channels constantly bombard us with the ‘facts’ of what is going on.

CAN WE BELIEVE WHAT WE’RE TOLD?

Yet you do not have to watch such a channel for long before a realization dawns. Rather than offering us news, such channels speculate as to what is happening, thus being nothing more than gossip channels. In such a media world, we do not get news, but constantly developing stories, with reality some obscure, ethereal quality which is hard to grasp.
The situation is made worse by the modern political need for spin. Politicians now tell tales to substantiate their positions. This is a further area of fiction, with new stories every day. But as is always the case, this may be simply the story continuing to express the world to which we belong.
As to that world, it is postmodern, with image more important than substance, with high and low culture mingling into one, with information being neither fact nor fiction, but a state which the sociologist Jean Baudrillard called ‘Infotainment.’ Reality has become relative to the storyteller’s skill.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Into this world we must add technologies such as the internet. Once upon a time, a machine was an appendage of man. Increasingly, interaction between computer and mind has formed a new form of consciousness where people can concentrate on more than one piece of information at a time, but also have a shorter overall attention span.
Such a new consciousness is technological in that we are developing a data-processing mind. Now, the mind is becoming the appendage of the machine. The only problem is, with such a small attention span, information is not turned into wisdom, and moral dilemmas are no longer properly understood. The mind is no longer the arbiter of the story, but its passive receptor.

IT’S GLOBALISATION, STUPID

This is an ideal situation for a globalised world, where local cultures are diluted to produce a worldwide sense of sameness. It is a world where the majority do not question the world into which capitalism has taken us. But there is a sting in the tale of every good story, and the sting here could work to the advantage of society in the end.
There is a growing tradition on the internet of the conspiracy theory. In essence, this is nothing more than another form of storytelling. If we analyse what is going on in the conspiracy theory, we realize a strong sense of paranoia and a return to the idea that there are forces out to get us. This new superstition is reinforced by the idea that nothing can be trusted. Even the story itself has become interactive, where the reader can change the story to his own design.

A NEW ANIMISM

It is technology that has allowed this – the interaction of the internet. But what medium is really being manipulated here? It is, of course, that ethereal concept of Cyberspace. But what, in essence, is Cyberspace? It is a new, undefined world parallel to the physical world – a form of techno-supernatural. A new animism.
With the internet, storytelling has come full circle, back to the beginning. We have returned to the anarchy of the camp fire tale. We have subverted history and produced a medium where new stories, new cultures, are being etched. Chaos rules and everyone is on a level playing field. And out of this cauldron of imagination, a new culture will eventually form.

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Personally, I hope this new culture grasps the importance of local identity, for a new world must be better than the last, and vital to our success is meaning and diversity. If people are all the same, they are nothing. Only with meaning and direction can we go on and advance.
But in formulating the new story from a globalised Cyberspace, maybe a secondary quality will be placed on who we are. Today, we live on a shrinking planet where the entire world is at our fingertips. Issues such as the environment and human rights are on the agenda, and I am sure that, as the new story forms, it will include elements of a globalised brotherhood and sisterhood, where we can live together with our differences.
At least, this is my hope. But regardless of how the new world formulates from this ‘supernatural’ Cyberspace, one thing is certain. At the base of it all will be the story.

© Anthony North, July 2007

For more posts in this series, see Story of the Story on the History Page.
Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for my current affairs blog.