Conspiracies/Secret Societies
 

As this came up in the terrorism thread, I thought it might be fun to discuss conspiracies, secret soceities and the like. Considering my name, I'm obviously interested. Try to keep it as serious as a discussion about conspiracies can be, and yeah...

I am, by nature a paranoid. I have looked into much of it, and find paranoid fiction to be quite interesting. The secret society that scares me the most right now is Skull and Bones, because where other secret societies have attempted to take over the world, Skull and Bones is succeeding and no one is doing a damn thing about it. Since both John Kerry and George W. are bonesmen, if they have any malign designs, we can't really avoid it.

Of course, as we all know, all secret societies are ultimately linked by the Illuminati. The Skull and Bones, like the Masons, are only a gateway...

Of this I am not sure. The truth of the Illuminati, as revealed in that treasury of facts: Folcault's Pendulum, was that it was essentially a simple anarchist movement. The reason they provoked such a widespread awe is that they masked themselves as acting behind other notible secret societies, usually the masons. Their well known symbol was spread about as an Masonic symbol. Now there is no denying that they helped shape the US in its revolution, and had influence behind every other major revolution up untill they were disbanded by the Bavarian Government. Technically the Knights Templar and Masons both predated them by a long shot.

Ah, but that's just the Bavarian Illuminati. Didn't you read Angels and Demons? The Illuminati extends back much farther than May 1, 1776.

OK, no using works of fiction as sources for intellectual discussion. It's just... wrong.

There are some connections between the fraternity I am pledging and the Masons. Some of our alumni have become Masons. It's not that big of a secret. Not like it used to be (I've read) when no one in the order ever told anyone about it.

MY reference to Angels and Demons was only marginally serious. That's about as good as I can do with a subject as tenuous as this.

conspiracies theories are great fun... but I can't take them seriously.

any ONE conspiracy theory very well may be right on. The connections between Lee Harvy Oswald and the Soviet Union's miltiary through his wife MAY be important. and the fact that the State Dept let Oswald back in the country after he denouced his citizenship MAY be important.

But it also may NOT be important.

the theories rely on taking bit of information, and filling in vast swaths of details which are completely guesswork. you might guess right, but chances are, you won't.

http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp

Read it. Learn.

I find that Conspiracy Theories themselves (and I mean the syndrome and not conspiracies in general) seem to come from a belief that the universe is absolutely ordered, things are linked together by rational planning. That's what serves as filler to what we don't know. It's much less scary that a chaotic universe filled with several conflicting conspiracies.

Otherwise, conspiracies do exist... pinning them on someone without actually knowing is suspect, though.