ltstanfo said:
Wow! Wouldn't that be something if the "invisible government"
It's not really invisible except in the way that most people either choose not to see it because it is upsetting, don't know to look for it because it is "not relevant" to their daily lives or they are too busy or distracted. In England we were always aware of the class system. In India they have their caste system which is pretty much the same thing. Europe in general has been classist and ruled by kings and their nobles and lords and though we like to think that much of that has gone away, it hasn't. Certainly some money has climbed the ranks, but old families still retain power too. American's like to believe in the myth that they don't have a class system, but they do.
Unfortunately most people do not seem to be aware of the power structures in their own societies which is quite odd to me since humans have evolved all the abilities of introspection, alliance making, deception, etc that make the power structures of human societies possible but can't seem to see it once it becomes large enough to become part of the environment.
that the conspiracy theorists always talk about really had that much power / control?
In European courts the crime that English and US law describe as "conspiracy" is called "common plan". When the perfectly reasonable word "conspiracy" is turned into a pejorative by the people who are accused of "conspiracy" it's kind of indicative of guilt, as is secrecy and cover-up.
However, there is not A conspiracy, there are many often competing conspiracies. If you suspect aliens are broadcasting instructions to your teeth that is likely NOT a conspiracy theory, but a delusion. If you think that powerful people lie about what they are doing to line their own pockets and you can see circumstantial evidence for such a belief then you may have a conspiracy theory - the more evidence that backs it up, the better the theory is - just as in science. A theory is a strong explanation for an observed phenomenon.
One impediment to serious pursuit of conspiracies is peoples lack of knowledge of history, experience of the range of human behaviours and personalities especially at the upper levels of society closer to real power though we can see it in microcosm in small power situations such as small town politics, the mafia, school boards, strata councils etc.
Not only do many fail to see that there are structures and that they may be used by those who understand them, they also fail to see that there are people who are ruthless enough to do things we imagine no-one could do because we cannot imagine ourselves doing them. Who would imagine that a boy could push his brother from a barn roof with the intent of killing him so that he could have his bike. Or how about a man who could rape and murder a three year old girl? Or how about the kind of people who make snuff films? But these people exist, many are attracted to power and a few of them are politically clever enough to get very high up the ladder. They are charming enough that people will even vote for them.
Another property of our society is that we gladly keep secrets under certain circumstances such as if revealing the secret would draw unwelcome attention (the Emperors New clothes is an old tale that never goes out of date because it tells us something about how that kind of power works, and yet despite the tale the power still works because we know that in reality the crowd would have kept their mouths shut in a shocked hush while the guards waded into the crowd to chop the little boy's head off).
Two simple examples of how we keep secrets for other reasons are surprise parties (which involve hundreds of people in on a secret so therefore are theoretically impossible ) and our salaries. For the party we will keep the secret for "the greater good" and as to salaries - well, we don't want to really find out where on the wage hierarchy we are, or rather, we don't want to reveal where we are because it may rock the boat and unsettle our standing/relationships in the office.
Looks like the subject for Dan Brown's next movie.
I hear that it may include the Kryptos sculpture at the CIA.