Flags Of Ireland
Conspiracy Theory 1A6
An Overview of the Conspiracy Theories about Those Who Wield the Power in the World
This article discusses some of the most prevalent of the conspiracy theories, and their reasonableness. To this end, it starts with a definition of the term, and then surveys various real and virtual geographical entities for their various theories about which group or groups supposedly control the world - Sections I to VII deal chiefly with real areas, are treated as the essential regions from which controlling groups come. Section X primarily has to do with places from which conspiracy theory originates, while Section XI gives extracts of conspiracy-related material from fictional material that the present author has read. Once all the appropriate images have been added, it is hoped that an Escherian wordscape representing the mindset of conspiracy theory will have been created. If not, may this page at least be unlike any other on the subject!
Note: New material is being added from time to time, which will require that this page eventually be revamped. It cannot be done at one go, due to limitations imposed at the internet cafe where this work is done.- PKM
Introduction: Scope and Terminology
Welcome to Conspiracy Theory 1A6. This "course" is designed, not for individuals who wish to plumb more deeply the depths of any specific topic, such as the responsibility for 9-11, but to save time for those who are looking for their first taste of this "plate". Because detail on many of the hundreds of conspiracy theories is beyond the scope of the present article, readers' attention is drawn to some of them, by putting them in green font. The present author's personal interpretations of such theories is in red font, with yellow background, while any theories deemed to be personal speculations by others are marked in green font with yellow background.In the absence of a proper definition of "conspiracy theory" in common dictionaries, the two words will be considered separately.
Let us first, from the 1913 Webster's, consider the definition of "conspiracy": "anagreement, between two or more persons, to commit a crime in concert, " or, more legally, "An agreement, manifesting itself in words or deeds, by which two or more persons confederate to do an unlawful act"[1] - which implies secrecy -else the crime would have no chance of being committed. That element of secrecy renders the scheme difficult to discover.
A simplified definition of a theory is that it is a quite complete explanation of something based upon a voluminous amount of evidence collected through scientific methodology - implying observation, testing, and falsifiability, and hence, probably not in need of further modification, and useful for prediction in analogous situations.[2]
Given the combination of the above two ideas, conspiracy theory should be the scientific explanation of unlawful acts committed by more than one person. Facts do not bear this out: the only scientific theory which could be involved would be something like the psychological evaluation of the conduct of the accused, or the sociological interpretation of the factors which caused the conduct. [Note: Ironically, sociology is a science condemned by some writers on this topic. The word "theory", applied this way, gives status to the theorist who propagates an account of an event. At best, conspiracy theories are spread by commentators, anchorpersons, or "talking heads", at worst, by the equivalent of soap-box orators, hence, it is seen that "theory" is used as a synonym of "opinion", or some such word.[3] The individuals just referred to construct their cases on some tenuous argument, rather than on proper scientific methodology. When speaking of these people's opinions, therefore, the term "theory", if understood in the scientific sense, aggrandizes the non-expert, although the intention of the critic of the latter's idea is to use the term as one of opprobrium. Words encountered in the titles of the academic works in the accompanying "Bibliography" bear this out: Voodoo, apocalyptic visions, troubled imagination, anxiety, paranoid, and hatred. Nothing positive is to be found, although within some of the cited works, as shown below (in "Encore!"), some praise, even if muted, does exist.
As some of the terms in the previous paragraph already suggest, there are individuals who hold that belief in conspiracy theory is a sign of a mental problem: "All paranoiac patients [...] have certain pet themes, the Jews, the Freemasons, the Communists, and the Catholic Church.";[4] or "conspiracy theory is the fear of a nonexistent conspiracy";[5] and "... we may regard conspiratorial thinking as a pathological effect of the dissolution of social recognition, a paranoid form of non-knowledge caused by the rise of political ideologies which foreground the rights of the individual at the expense of those of all others."[6] The Name of the Rose author Umberto Eco, without explaining the necessary group of symptoms, refers to a syndrome.[7] Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman offers an original take, saying that "for the last few years, the term ... has been used primarily to belittle critics of the Bush administration."[8] Perhaps, tolerance should be conceded to the believer of a conspiracy theory, because by definition, a theory is unproven.
Yes, unproven, unscientific, and therefore pretentious in its claims. When the State charges someone with conspiracy - outside of the confines of a kangaroo court - it provides proof, not theory. Whether e=mc2 is true or false will not much affect the welfare of most people, but to be sentenced for some intrigue has grave consequences for the accused. Indeed, these theories, strictly speaking, libel the individual under discussion.[9] Only the progressive loosening of strictures upon the press has allowed an ever-increasing amount of fiction to be presented as fact, that being the case in so much of the media.
The solution to this problem is to take anything in oral, visual, or written media as fiction, unless good cause exists to accept the veracity of the information perceived. Unfortunately, taken to its final consequences, this measure would militate in favour of buying decent works of fiction in place of wasting time with sources of dubious fact. However, as a corollary, a conspiracy theory can become interesting reading - if the limitations of the subject matter are recognized. Lines can become interestingly blurred - consider the case of the fictional account of a conspiracy theory in the homonymous movie, wherein the subject matter of the cab-driver-writer's ranting and writing happen to coincide, perhaps humorously, but most terrifyingly, with events in the real world.[10]
This article uses "conspiracy theory" in three different ways: (1) according to the usage of the person stating the existence of such a theory as understood in modern times, and popularized by the media; (2) as used in the media at least as late as the second half of the Nineteenth Century; and, (3) as interpreted by the present author (if not by others) with respect to some of the reading he has done during his life. Lack of proper library facilities in the country of his residence do not allow access to some of the works which one would probably expect in the attached bibliography, but his many purchases of used books, and on-line resources, should allow for a certain originality of presentation.
I. The Middle East: Scripture and the Jewish People
Now to the subject proper, if one takes the three essential elements of a conspiracy, we have the most well-known example, though not necessarily labelled as such, presented in the first book of the Torah, (), or Genesis. The serpent secretly conspires with Eve to defy the Divine prohibition against eating of the forbidden fruit. It may be noted that this story is read as fact by some, and as fiction by others.
The Gospel stories relate a supposed conspiracy to get Jesus out of the way. Depending on one's personal reading of these accounts, this is as close as one can get to an actual theory - but only if the reader neither believes literally, nor disbelieves entirely. This allows for the conspiracist's interpretation that a cabal was responsible for the death of Christ, and may be considered seed material for the 2000 years of anti-Semitism, which have led to innumerable deaths - the snuffing out of life being a fate not even meted out to the fratricidal Cain.[11]
So it is that a major group has just been presented as being responsible for some conspiracy: Whether it is called economic hegemony, or the power of making and destroying regimes, an irony of ironies is that even among Christians, those whom are designated in their own Holy Book as the Chosen People are chosen as sacrificial lambs. While the accusations never cease, the most representative work purporting to show a conspiracy is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, generally held to be of East European origin, although based on a French text with different protagonists as the conspirators.[12] Failure to acknowledge Montesquieu's work therefore shows ignorance or willful malice.
II. The Middle East - Non-Israeli Actors
There is a variant on this, not quite as common, but with an almost equally-respectable academic veneer. It denies the essential Jewishness of the people living in Biblical Israel, suggesting that Moses, for example, was the son of a Pharaoh. Looking around on the internet, one finds theories that suggest that the present-day conspirators had their origin, therefore, in Egypt, or Babylonia, or Persia. One of the strangest stories this author has found, connects the fraternal society known as the Shriners to Turkey, mixing in the star and crescent theme, and the Grand Mufti of British-mandate Palestine's visit to Adolph Hitler.[13] Other stories mix in the original assassins - a word derived from the same source as hashish - tales of fearless killers formed by their master-controller's feeding them the opiate that gave them their name.[14] Thus, government demonizing of so-called Arab or Muslim terrorists could be considered a respectable conspiracy theory (because of its champion). More explicitly, the production of weapons outlawed internationally requires secrecy, a group of individuals, and self-evidently, illegality. Consequently, the accusation that a certain country is engaged in such behaviour, when non-concocted proofs are unavailable, constitute government, or think-tank-created conspiracy theory, and a defamation of the accused. However, if any country has been guilty of entertaining such a proposition, the error would not be quite as bad as that of fabricating outright falsehoods for political expediency. |
| (Precise Copyright Status Unknown: Cropped, with debased quality, fair use for educational purpose assumed) Taken from: Gabriel Hanotaux, Histoire Illustre de la Guerre de 1914, tome seconde. (Paris: Gounouilhou, 1915), p. 43. Picture Caption: L'Entre de l'empereur Guillaume II a Jrusalem (1898). [Entry of the Emperor Wilhelm II into Jerusalem]. (1898). Note the Star and Crescent on the top right corner. Connecting this event to the present, click here. See complete image here on the Internet. |
III. All Roads Lead to Rome
The reader, if he so desires, can now help develop a conspiracy theory, and in so doing, will see how such thought germinates and grows. Let him take an early decade of the Christian era. Let him choose one of the two main Middle-Eastern groups mentioned above. Let Rome be imagined as the seat of the next operative base of the world's power brokers. Who is next, historically speaking? Christianity, specifically, the Papacy, or the Vatican, or, some prefer, the group headed by the so-called Black Pope - the Jesuits. However the mix is made, the accusation remains, the Vatican is rich, it is in league with Israel, it is in an unholy alliance with certain Muslims, it has deformed the message of the Gospels, and yea, verily, is the Anti-Christ. The kernel of a truth in any of these accusations does not, however, constitute full-blown evidence of anything. [There is a kernel of corn on my plate - ergo, there is a cornfield here.]IV. While Romans Go to London ...
Leaving aside the Middle East, and the lands that are most identified with Roman Catholicism, the inventor of a conspiracy theory can then bifurcate from Rome to one of the two future Protestant world powers of Europe. It is seen that only ten years after Christ was crucified, Claudius Caesar started to pacify England with an army of 40, 000, after the failed attempt around 55 B.C. by Julius.[15] No one has gotten around to accusing these emperors of foisting Mohammedanism or Catholicism upon the islands, but, somewhere, we will find that all men of import were interrelated, specifically to precursors in the Middle East, whether demonic members of one or another Semitic tribe, or of its neighbours. Finally, we come to Henry VIII, who, even if he had not been related, still had the fame of making the break with Rome (supposedly!), because, like Hitler, he wanted to give a legal veneer to actions which were not countenanced by the law of the time - in this case, that being his setting aside of his wife from Spain, in favour of Anne Boleyn. The Church of England became the official one of that nation, with its head being the holder of the royal crown. The eventual might of the British Empire meant that eventually both the British monarchy and the church it protected (consequently, as rich as, or richer than the Vatican - since the Empire created wealth) would be accused of being responsible for various machinations around the world. It would not do solely to accuse this nation of colonialism.The most fantastic story that this writer has seen suggests that the British Crown controls the government of the United States through its proxy, the former colony, the Dominion of Canada.[16] Some of these opinions are probably the result of misunderstandings about the kinds of government found in the former British Colonies. The author has met individuals in Latin America who simply refuse to believe that Canada is independent of Britain. Sloppy history adds to the problem, i.e., misunderstanding the meaning of the British North America Act (precursor of Canada's Constitution Act), probably confusing it with British colonies in general. has surely added to the problem. A German textbook of 1933 refers to Canada precisely under the title "Britisch-Nordamerika", mixes in the U.S. state of Alaska, and only names the cities, Halifax, Quebec, Montreal, and Ottawa, with a reference to Winnipeg as the centre of the wheat-growing district, thus completely omitting Toronto and anything west of the province of Manitoba - L. Kahnmeyer and H. Schulze. Realienbuch. Edited by E. Borchers, A. Gieseler, G. Niemann and W. Wurthe. (Bielefeld: Velhagen & Klasing, 1933), 150-152. The reality of Canada as a colony had terminated two years before Kahnmeyer and Schulze's work was published. An earlier German book postulates that [England] created for itself a new route to East Asia with the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. (...[England] hat sich durch die Kanadische Pacificbahn einem neuen Weg nach Ostasien geschaffen.) - Otto Kaemmel, Illustrierte Geschichte des Neuesten Zeit. Von der Grndung des zweiten Napoleonischen Kaiserreichs bis zur Gegenwart. (Leipzig: Otter Spamer: 1902, Zweite Auflage.) This assertion is based on the assumption that rail costs would be lower than those for shipping on the oceans, even at a time when the Panama Canal did not yet exist.
V. All in the Family
This author has always sustained that the First World War never should have happened. Over 90 per cent of the Russian nobility was of German descent, [17] and Queen Victoria and Tsar Nicholas II were related to Kaiser Wilhelm II. Queen Victoria's consort was a German; the present royal house - before the name change to that of Windsor . was the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. That, though, was not the only German influence in England - George III - whom America rebelled against, was of the House of Hanover, and Victoria was the last of that line. George I did not even speak English, and spent most of his time in Germany.[18]
 (Exact copyright status unknown, fair use presumed, images were re-sized and cropped.)Notice the similarity in the facial features of these gentlemen. Top: For the uncropped image, click the number: 1 Caption: Les Deux Cousins (The Two Cousins). Left: Tsar Nicholas II. Right: King George V That the Kaiser was well-received in England is in this report: click the asterisk: * Source: Hanotaux, (see previous image), Tome Premiere, p. 21. Bottom: For the uncropped image, click the number: 2. Caption: Le Tzar et le Kaiser (The Czar and the Kaiser) Source: Hanotaux, I, p. 95. The Czar and the Kaiser went as far as wearing the uniforms of each other's armies. |
Now the link of conspiracy theories is almost complete. We proceed from the theory that the British and the Germans are, and have been, working together to control the world. Since Germany lost its colonies as a consequence of the Grand War, it must be understood that Teutonic power is in the commercial field. There are some ideas here which would seem to defy all credibility, since, if England controls the United States, and Germany works together with England, it can be seen that even more oddities must perforce arise. There are accusations that American companies put Hitler into power[19]. There is talk of the tremendous muscle of the Central European country's corporations.[20] (Consider, for example, that during WWI, the Bayer Company in the U.S. was confiscated as belonging to the enemy, and has only in recent memory been returned to its original owners, and in the meantime, has absorbed several other pharmaceutical makers). Standard Oil is a name often seen in connection with the chemical companies, especially I.G. Farben.[21] In this case, the conspiratists have tied the name of the Bush presidents to that of the Nationalist-Socialist regime, [22] suggesting that conservative elements in the United States were interested in copying some of the perverse plans of the Hitler government.[23] It is not necessary, though, to tie this thinking solely to the Republican Party, as the book Fatherland pointed out in an appendix, a John F. Kennedy' ancestor had written a letter in which he claimed to understand the attitude of the corporal's government toward the Jewish people.[24]
 |
| Princess Victoria Louise, the Kaiser's daughter, wearing this threatening hat associated with the Jolly Roger (the British and French), and through the Skull and Crossbones with various armies before even World War I (a symbol even now used by some military groups, in spite of its infamy through German SS death squads), and with the presidential-incubator known as the Skull and Bones. The wedding of this princess improved relations between the Hohenzollerns of Prussia, and the Hanovers of England. Her later titles, through her marriage with the Duke of Cumberland, included H.R.H. Princess Ernest Augustus of Cumberland, and H.R.H. The Duchess of Brunswick. Exact Copyright status unknown, fair usage rights assumed. Taken from this [click here], Hanotaux, Tome I, p. 89. Caption of original, uncropped picture: Guillaume II et sa famille en uniforme de hussards de la mort (Wilhelm II and his Family wearing Uniforms of the Hussars (of Death). |
Studies of Hitler suggest an entire new range of conspiracy theories - about his long life, and an eventual stay in Argentina, or about a Nazi base under the South Pole, [25] complete with the technology which the uninitiated see as UFOs.[26] Some claim he had Jewish blood, [27] other claims are even more insulting to the people that were exterminated during the Second World War. If the author can be accused of glossing over such ideas, it is to avoid opening old wounds - or creating new ones.
VI. Lest We Forget
It has already been mentioned that important families are considered related by marriage. The links are not only to royalty, but can be seen extending to the presidents of nations and captains of industry. It should not be forgotten that in the West, the chief military leaders also came from the aristocracy or other influential families. This will make it easier to understand, from the conspiracy theorists point of view, how American and German interests may have coincided even during war-time. Further, these powerful people come together in various secretive societies, of which Freemasonry is probably the most-oft accused. Here one must mention the Council of Foreign Relations, which has chapters in other countries, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderberger Group.[28]VII. The Missing Link, and Associated Conspiracy Theories
One step is left now in the most fantastic conspiracy theory that this author has ever read, and any other can be seen as a child or stepchild of the same. It is this: The Jews - financiers of the Vatican, or the Catholic Church - work together with their proxies, in Modern Germany, and with its similarly religiously-aligned sister nation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, using Canada in turn to manage policy in the United States, including the running of the Federal Reserve Bank. The reader will find many variants of this theme, most of them not so convoluted. In the context of the United States, the conspiracy theorists would suggest that American has cloned Nazi ideas ensconced in these groups, such as the Fhrer-principle, depopulation, concentration camps, torture, and, believe it or not, environmentalism. Add any other theory known to be out there, save in the case that power groups are fighting against each other, basically, these lesser theories are all based on the premise that the mighty take actions to limit the freedom of the ordinary masses.[29]VIII. A Rose by any other Name ...
Are all the conspiracy theories false - are there not reasonable hypotheses of official shenanigans? Well, let the concept be changed slightly - instead of saying that Group X is involved in a conspiracy, which, as has already been pointed out, would potentially be libelous, assert that Group X has an agenda. If the accusation is not far-fetched, in fact, if it were true, then the change of wording eliminates the legal accusation, and a sense of exaggeration. It does not so readily raise the hackles of the listener, and can be more readily assimilated.IX. "We Are Not Amused"
Some of the conspiracy theorists hold doctorates, so, there would seem to exist cogent reasons for believing them. Again, though, the author gives the caution: read as fiction. The wheat may be being separated from the chaff. Suppose one or several of the theories were true. Would anything in the world change? For what level of improbable belief would the reader risk being entered into a data-base as a prospective ward of the State?The State, or parts thereof, are surely responsible, in part, when communication is not what it should be. It may be asked if the following paragraph is about planning or plotting (and it must be pointed out that p. iv of the text from which this is taken states that "views or opinions expressed are not to be construed as representing the official policies of the Department of Defense):
The introductory volume of this series referred to the increasing identification of modern warfare with Government controls over the operation of the economic system.. Even in a democracy, it was found, the mobilization of the national resources for a major war required planning, direction, and control by the central government. ... ... Controls are not limited to a mobilization economy. - Harry B. Yoshpe. National Security Management: Emergency Economic Stabilization. (Washington, D.C.: Industrial College of the Armed Forces, 1964), 1.
But personally, "We are not amused". The more any of the theories are mere suppositions, the more the author's intelligence is insulted. He is tired of having his Queen, his religion, the countries of his birth and his citizenship, people and traditions he respects, and even corporations, (of which, according to his fate, he may be an owner, a director, or even a humble worker), unjustly accused. If only the charge were purely political, one could shrug his shoulders, and consider it as an attack by the opposition. That said, he will admit to believing any argument based on reasonable fact, even if then antagonists do libel, via an argumentum ad hominem the disputant as a "conspiracy theorist".[30]
"The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave."[31]
X. All the World's a Stage Spacialtemporal Geography of Conspiracy Theories.
i. Hell: By Jove! The Devil Made Me Do It! or, Jove the Devil Made me Do It!
...It was God who conspired with Satan in that Garden
When, lowering the snake, he sent words to prove the Fall.
Brian Higgins, "Genesis". Faber Book of 20th Century Verse. 3rd edition
It has already been seen above in The Middle East: Scripture and the Jewish People, that the serpent, i.e., the Devil, could be seen as conspiring with Eve, who then induced Adam to continue violating Divine Fiat. Eve, then in effect, defended herself by saying, "The Devil made me do it!." From the viewpoint of Manichism, she may as well have said "God made me this way, " i.e., that the Creator Himself was at fault. Karl Popper points out a similar phenomenon in the one-time existence of a "belief in the Homeric gods whose conspiracies explain the history of the Trojan war ...".[33]
![Part of cover of Love the Tyrant.! [isic/i]](http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/3pj5r6n3uurvd/54ytej/luvtyrtj.jpg) |
| Top Half of 1905 Book, Correctly Titled Love, the Tyrant, mislabeled, Love the Tyrant Message to the Colonials, not to follow in the footsteps of the Thirteen Colonies? Had this book been published later, one could assume that a subliminal message was being transmitted to readers. |
 |
| A World Carved-up. If the author of this article on conspiracy theory is not in a British Colony or India, what will the ramifications be? Two books bought in a Spanish-speaking country. |
 |
| This, similar to the above, but with a Map on the Cover, which may be understood as a mission statement. Walter Jeffery. A Century of Ours Sea Story. Murray's Imperial Library. (London: John Murrary, 1900). |
a. Cyberspace: If this article were to limit itself to conspiracy theories found on the Internet, it would seem that these theories abound principally in the English-speaking countries, beginning with the United States, Great Britain, and to a lesser degree, Canada and Australia. Modern browsers, however, allow some tricks with foreign alphabets, which prove the bias towards Anglo-Saxon nations. A quick check of some major languages gave the following approximate results for the topic: English - ca. 8, 890, 000, German - 371, 000, French - 349, 000, Russian - 202, 000, Spanish - 63, 400. Chinese possible gave 2, 800, 000, but this author can vouch neither for the accuracy of the translation forthis language, nor for that for the Arabic, which had 224, 000 results.[34]
b. Canada: An article in what used to be called "Canada's National Newspaper", Toronto's Globe and Mail, written by Michael Posner, states that "conspiracy theory seems to be nowhere more fashionable than in Toronto". It timidly suggests three conspiracy theories which have turned out to be "true": that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the sole actor in the Kennedy murder, that the Mafia exists, and that the Manhattan Project existed. A reasonably sober series of articles on 9/11 has been presented by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Fifth Estate Programme, Conspiracy Theories: Uncovering the Facts behind the Myths of September 11th 2001. On a lighter (or should that read "sinister"?) note, the same broadcaster has co-produced a mini-series showing British and Canadian moral superiority vis-a-vis the United States in a fictional G-8-meeting environment. It may please American-baiters, but from the perspective of a conspiracy theorist, it would be to deflect negative opinions that are held about these two Commonwealth members. (A similar Anglo-Canadian attitude is found in the mini-series, Burn Up.)
c. Germany: It would be difficult to add much that is new to studies on the conditions that allowed the incubation of anti-Semitic paranoia. For the moment, this document will limit the reader to reflection on the following thoughts of a Prussian count writing before his death in China, in 1900.
 |
| Plot before one's very eyes: Argument for preservation of traditional forms. Extract from Graf Yorck von Wartenburg's Weltgeschichte in Umrissen: Federzeichnungen eines Deutschen. [Achtundzwanzigste Auflage (28 edition)] Berlin: E.S. Mittler & Sohn, 1925, pp. 18-19. Linked is the 1897 edition. |
The above text reads as follows: "... Die englische and den eigenen, ob auch veralteten Formen unentwegt festhaltende Dickkpfigkeit zwingt aber schlielich sogar die Fremden, sich englischen Formen anzubequemen und wird so hervorragend praktisch. "Wer fest auf dem Sinne beharrt, der bildet die Welt sich."
Ein abschreckendes Beispiel des Gegenteils ist das bei uns sich geltend machende Bestreben, unsere berlieferte deutsche Schrift der lateinischen zu Liebe aufgeben zu wollen aus sogennanten Zweckmigkeitsgrnden, weil die letztere einige praktische Vorteile bieten soll, und oft geradezu mit der Begrndung, da wir dadurch den Fremden den Zugang zu unserer Wissenschaft und Literatur erleichten. Quieta non movere, wie erst krzlich die Weisheit unseres groen Staatsmannes uns wieder eingeschrft hat, und den Fremden das Unsere zugnglicher zu machen, das ist gar nicht ntig, es war 1870 ein Vorteil Deutschlands ber Frankreich, da es von letzterem so wenig gekannt war; es ist eine Strke Rulands, da es so schwer ist, Einblick in sein wahres Wesen zu gewinnen." (In an interesting twist, the expression, "Quieta non movere" is the negation of "quieta movere" (third line from bottom at the link): "Let sleeping dogs lie, " originating with Sallust's, Bellum Catilinae, mentioned further below. [Wartenburg, ibid., p. 535, notes by Dr. Hans F. Helmolt.]) Basically, Maximilian Graf Yorck von Wartenburg argued that conservatism in writing can protect a nation from its enemies. From Germany also, in a handwriting happily rendered obsolete, the following extract from a postcard is provided, from which the "enemy" would surely extract very little:
outlandish theories. Here a few are considered from his Weltgeschichte der Gegenwart [see footnote 12].
Modern conspiracy theory rails against fiat money, Wirth against money itself:
Die malose Herrschaft des Goldes verflschte die Sitten, verflschte die ganze Lebensgebarung, verflschte die Kunst, namentlich der Schaubhne und die Architektur. Sie konnte nicht verfehlten, auch auf die Schichtung der Gesellschaft einen ungnstigen Einflu auszuben.
The boundless power of gold distorted morals, falsified financial administration, and distorted all of life, the arts, including the stage and the Architecture. She could not avoid to exercise a bad influence even upon the stratification of society. [p. 400]
This emphasis on money is found in other German texts, the following is from Dr. E. Wilmanns, Deutsche Geschichte vom Wiener Kongress bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1930, p. 80:
In dieser Entwicklung der Fabriken machte sich mit steigender Strke eine neue Macht geltend: das Geld ... Nicht mehr Tchtigkeit und Flei allein sicherten den Erfolg, auch das Geld gehrte dazu, wie man sage, das "Kapital".
In this development, factories made a new power's strength effective: that of money ... No longer did drive and hard work alone ensure success, money, or as it is said, "capital", now had to be added to the equation.
As was natural at the time, Wirth dedicates a few pages to the Jews. If the contrary were not known, he could almost be considered equinamous: imperialism is considered to have two halfs: the Jewish and the German. The former is high finance, industry and talk, or plutocracy, factories, and mines. The latter is a policy of colonization and large agricultural estates, [p. 409], which was clearly to be the policy of Nazism a few years later. Since Wirth, in the first pages of his book, considers the European races to be a bulwark against the Mohammedans, among others, and elsewhere, criticizing England and the Vatican, he is the quintessential conspiracy theorist, according to the first paragraphs of this article.
d. United States of America: The bibliography of this essay gives several titles which suggest the popularity of conspiracy theories in the United States. The Knight tome lists approximately 300 such American-held notions.[35] Conservative website HumanEvents contributor Jack Langer echoes the sentiment, in a confused manner, jumping between "Russia's popular conspiracy theories" and the Bolshevist conspiracy and "wild conspiracy theories like those told by the late [Alexander] Litvinenko".[36] If Leo Tolstoy were alive today, his Then What Must We Do? would certainly be considered as presenting a conspiracy theory. He attributes a devious design to the rich man: "He feeds his servant well lest her saliva may not flow at the sight of his food." He argues that money and power (and their precursors) were obtained by the sword, by direct slavery, by the hunger of the poor provoked through control of food supplies, and finally by taxation - and also by a mix of these three methods.[37]
e. Asia: An article in the Australian purports that conspiracy theories are not rare in Asia, the emphasis being on the Chinese, who supposedly got their ideas (antisemitic) from the Japanese, partially as a result of Jacob Schiff financing the Japanese victory against the Russians - (so the twisted logic suggests that the person who helped you financially controls the strings). Passing reference is made to Malaysians and Filipinos.[38]
f. Africa: While Egypt is rightly part of the Middle East, geographically, it is in Africa. An article by the Head of the Regional Security and Arms Control Program, Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, gives an overview of conspiracy thinking, and intelligently debunks it in an original way, quite differently from the manner in the following paragraph.[39]
g. The Middle East , perhaps due to the prevalence of crises there, and due to a certain paranoia, gets undue attention. Daniel Pipes has written a work described as "the first full-length study of conspiracy theories in the Middle East".[40] Lest that author be considered biased, consider this quote direct from the founder of a Gulf State newspaper: "The Arab addiction to conspiracy theories is notorious".[41] Similar claims have been made by the former editor of the Egyption weekly Al-Ahram, [42] and an Egyptian intellectual whose name is known in Western circles.[43] Finally, the Stalinsky article gives a Jewish viewpoint on this question. The number of web page results for Arabic in the preceding paragraph would seem to belie the authors that have just been referenced.
An interesting parallel thinking to that found in the U.S. (Who really killed Kennedy?) propagated by Barry Chamish, whom Daniel Pipes has referred to as "Israel's foremost conspiracy theorist". The former has claimed that his opinion on the death of Yitzhak Rabin, according to a Voice of Israel poll, is shared by 29% of the populace, with an equal number unsure.[44]
h. South America has a theory making the rounds in Argentina is that the United States wishes to take away the fresh water of the former country.[45] The original versions of this rumour include Paraguay, and perhaps Brazil, as the claim is made that the so-called Triple Frontier region which these countries share has the third largest fresh-water aquifer in the world. The Wikipedia article on the Guaran Aquifer includes Uruguay as part of the system, and the tenor of the piece found there, after stating that it may even be the largest, suggests that this is a 200-year supply of potable water. The Argentine magazine Cabildo tends to have articles on European or U.S. schemes against Latin America, and as a nationalistic publication, often mentions Uruguay and Brazil as the pawns of foreign Masonic groups.[46] A more proseletyzing presence can be found by followers of Lyndon Larouche - the web page shows a presence in Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Mexico, as well as some countries of Europe, plus the Philipines and Australia.[47] Going back to 1955, a book which was published just 60 days after the ouster of Juan Domingo Pern in 1955, summarizes in the flaps of its cover, issues of concern on some of the Selected Web Sites listed above: "Seala [este libro] como, mediante maniobras, .. se crean y organizan estamentos de esclavos mientras se aniquilan los verdaderos ciudadanos. Esa finalidad la alcanzan los gobiernos fuertes mediante la degradacin de la personalidad humana y procurando desviar de su cauce el espritu vernculo de cualquier nacin. De donde se conspira desde arriba y armnicamente, para destruir la libertad en sus manifestaciones primoriales: la prensa, ..., la universidad, la justicia, la iglesia, la historia, las mujeres.[48]
i. The Lost World was somewhere in South American in a Conan Doyle novel, and can also be considered as a place for the fertile mind of writers who have the impossible dream of seeing conspiracies even in pre-historic places. Time Magazine has used a complete misnomer in its title, "The Dinosaur Conspiracy Theory". One's first impression would be to think that dinosaurs conspired to something, but it is worse. it is suggested that an asteroid and volcanoes plotted to destroy the terrible lizards.[49] Darwin's competitors get in on the act, a Roy Davies, who penned The Darwin Conspiracy, and supporter of Alfred Russel Wallace, accuses the author of Origins of Species of having copied Wallace's ideas.[50] Google Search Timeline gives accusations of conspiracy theories back to 2500 BC, where an article on the Sphinx refers to what should more accurately be called alternate theories, if not something worse. The unstated conspiracy is that the construction date the world has been given is false. The same piece, on a related matter, mentions that when when further investigations were made at the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt partnered with National Geographic to televise everything in order to avoid more nonsensical ideas. Conspirationists, however, maintained their doubts about the transparency of the procedure.[51]
j. The Ivory Tower: Conspiracy theory is dealt with by serious authors. Karl Popper came up with what he called "the conspiracy theory of society", that "social phenomena consists in the discovery of men or interest groups interested in the occurrence of [the phenomenon under question] .. who have planned and conspired to bring it about. ... a mistaken theory ... that, happenings ... which people as a rule dislike ... [are] the result of direct design by some powerful individuals and groups" who have taken the place of the gods which have been abandoned.[52] While his context is different, without using the word "conspiracy", Sigmund Freud had his idea of psychological projection, and in this context, one may find stated that Hitler accused Winston Churchill of wanting to conquer Europe. This author is also reluctant to find conspiracies in writings which has been translated into English, as the word in the other language may have the idea of a sole individual at work. In fact, there is a tendency to confuse the concept of a conspiracy with a conspiracy theory.[53]
ii. From Sherwood to Hollywood: (Pulped) Paper to Motion Pictures (Wordplay on the etymology of Sher (related to "shear": cut, (finally, "pulped") + wood, hence, the print media made therefrom.)
Encore! Serious writing tends to be sceptical about conspiracy theories, as has been seen. Yet, all is not lost. There is sanity among the inanity. One researcher has stated, "This essay attempts a methodological rehabilitation of conspiracy theories on the ... assumptions that [they] offer valuable insights ..."[54] It has been stated that "They have appealed to both the Left and the Right, both the undeducated and intellectuals, and have been told both by and about those at the very heart of power .... They are sometimes ... beyond doubt", [55] The sentiment is apparently echoed in the review of a book by a UCLA professor of history.[56] A journal of philosophy states that "Conspiracy theories, as a general category, are not necesssarily wrong."[57] The author goes on stating defects, from the viewpoint of epistemology, but then, contrary to all expectations, declares, "In favor of conspiracy theorists, it should be noted that ... unfalsifiability is not as ad hoc as it might initially seem ... My claim here is that unfalsifiability is only a reasonable criterion in cases where we do not have reason to believe that there are powerful agents seeking to steer our investigation away from the truth of the matter."[58] The philosopher has downgraded science, but will an innovative legal precedent ever be made for his argument? Nixon and Oliver North are his proofs.
Of the principal bibliographical material used, which specifically referred to conspiracy theory, the breakdown of contemporary writers, their education, and their profession, is as follows.
| Author | Academic Credentials | Profession[s] |
| Aaronovitch, David. | ? | Columnist, London Times |
| Barkun, Michail | Doctorate? | Professor of political science |
| Coward, Barry | Doctorate? | Emeritus Professor - History, Classics and Archaeology |
| Donskis, Leonidas | Doctorate? | Philosopher, historian of ideas, political commentator, and critic, Member of European Parliament |
| Furedi, Frank | Doctorate? | Professor of Sociology |
| Knight, Peter | Doctorate | Senior Lecturer in American Studies |
| Makow, Henry | Doctorate | Former professor of literature; inventor |
| Olmsted, Kathryn S. | Doctorate? | 20th century U.S. cultural and political history |
| Parish, Jane | Doctorate | Professor of Sociology |
| Pipes, Daniel | Ph. D. | Columnist, writer. |
| Posner, Michael | ? | Reporter, Globe and Mail |
| Schoenfeld, Gabriel | Doctorate | Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute |
| Swann, Julian | Doctorate? | Professor - History, Classics and Archaeology |
| Thompson, Bruce | ? Historian, ? Doctorate | Literary History |
Note: There is close to 100% certainty that all professors (including lecturers) have a doctorate, but unless proof was found, the fact is marked with a question mark. (The present writer once had a university professor with only a Masters degree, furthermore, other countries may have other conventions.) It may safely be concluded that a good portion of writers on this subject have very solid academic backgrounds.
Some Writings on Conspiracies Predating the Twentieth Century Latin literature has De coniuratione Catilinae, also named Bellum Catilinae, by Sallust, while the German has Die Verschwrung des Fiesco zu Genua. The Great Conspiracy: Its Origin and History by ex-soldier turned politician John Alexander Logan, was written in 1886. A Conspiracy of the Carbonari, by Louise Mhlbach, translated into English in 1896. As an exception to this article's eschewing of finding conspiracy by inference, there is the 1886-published and already referred-toWhat To Do? (What Then Must We Do?) by Tolstoy, included here because of the surprising number of ideals strewn about which parallel contemporarily-held beliefs.[59] "Conspiracy" as a word in the title of a work is found in William Makepeace Thackeray's The Bedford-Row Conspiracy, which first appeared in 1840. More sinister is Professor of Natural History and Secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, John Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe Carried on in the Secret Meetings of Free Mason, Illuminati, and Reading Societies, Collected from Good Authorities. His work is a prototype of the scheme presented in Sections I to IV, above: "King James, with many of his most zealous adherents, ... took Free Masonry with them to the continent ... At this time also the Jesuits took a more active hand in Free Masonry than ever. They insinuated themselves into the English Lodges, where they were caressed by the Catholics, who panted after the re-establishment of their faith, and tolerated by the Protestant royalists, who thought no concession to great a compensation for their services. [p. 15] A few years later, [1853, 1858] a Protestant Minister, Alexander Hislop, in his The Two Babylons, published the idea that Catholicism, and some of Protestantism, was in fact the continuation of Middle Eastern rites.
A specific search for the word "conspiracy" using the Google Timeline option, and the English, French, German, and Spanish options, gives the oldest use of that word (excluding synonyms) with the search for the old English spelling, "conspiracie". In April 1376, the merchant class of London worked against the interests of foreigners, in "The Bill against the Lombards", and making the accusation that "tous sont d'une accorde et d'une covyne d'anienter les Marchants d'Engleterre par leur fauxe covyne et Conspiracie avaunt dites."[60]
The specific concept "conspiracy theory" has so far been traced back to 1875 by this author; first, in a legal case involving Henry Ward Beecher.[61] After that, the frequency of the expression slowly increases, and the U.S. media applied it to an attempted assassination of President Garfield in 1881.[62] In 1893, it was applied to a bank robber.[63] Similarly, it was used to describe an attempt on the life of French President Faure in 1897.[64] This shows that the Wikipedia contention that the term dates from 1909 is either mistaken, or liable to misinterpretation.[65]
XI. Dj vu
There are many books supposedly outlining, whether intentionally, or accidentally, elements of conspiracy theory as related to the Twentieth Century. No guarantee can be made for the supposed intentions of the writers, so, as mentioned previously, such books are read as fiction. The following books, published more than 50 years ago, are a random pick of what the present author has read for entertainment, and these have found to have a bearing on some supposed conspiracies.
21st Century Sub, a.k.a The Dragon in the Sea. By Frank Herbert. New York: Avon, 1956. On page 11, he presents what could now be the RFID chipped individidual:
"One of the othe conditions would be they have secret psychological monitoring, " said Ramsey, " ...
"Security has a new type of detector ... A speaker-pellet is surgically imbedded in the neck and tuned to wave scanners which are similarly imbedded beneath the armpits. Micro-instrumentation would permit us to include with the the speaker the recorders you need."
The Ninth Wave. By Eugene Burdick. New York: Dell, 1957. This book could easily be based on the tradition of Montesquieu's Dialogues in Hell. On page 361, there is the press taking down a politician, from the wording, a conspiratorial situation is evident:
[Robert Grover, a political reporter] was completely trustworthy[:] he usually knew more about what was happening at a political meeting than any single participant. One of the keenest thrills, the thing that made the job worthwhile, was to listen to the boastful, extravagant talk of a politicialn who did not yet know that his throat had been secretly cut by more powerful people.
The Day They H-Bombed Los Angeles. By Robert Moore Williams. New York: Ace, 1961. This is one of many examples of the government attacking its own population:
"Why would army troops be shooting our own citizens as they try to flee from disaster?"- - p. 35
"Patience while they tell the country and the world the biggest lie in human history. This city was deliberately bombed. It was no accident!" p. 51
The ___ War (formerly, The White Widow, (original name not in full to prevent filtering of this page). By Sam Merwin, Jr. New York: Galaxy, 1960, is rich in ideas - a fight between feminism and machismo. Given the times, the latter wins out, but the central idea can appeal to feminists:
If Larry retained any lingering doubts as to the fact of the Amazon conspiracy, they vanished before such thorough documentation. (p. 139)
Mohammed was a major disaster, with his complete subjugation of women, Genghis Khan another savage blow although the conspiracy itself was, according the records, partially responsible for his rise .. (p. 140)
Viewed as conspirators, dedicated to a single purpose throughout their lives, even such figures as Catherine de Medici and Lucrezia Borgia, to say nothing of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Elizabeth I, acquired new perspective. (p. 141.)
In Tomorrow!, by Philip Wylie. New York: Popular Library, 1957, a rich lady has followed the advice given in Montesquieu's Dialogues in Hell - she owns different newspapers for opposing editorial lines. (p. 47).
[The managing editor of the "Green Prairie Transcript, in which she was a majority stockholder"] pointed out that it was Transcript policy to back up C[ivil] D[efense] in Green Prairie, that she had her River City paper in which to condemn it.
Forty years ago, The Simultaneous Man, by Ralph Blum, New York: Panther, 1970, published a book with the not-so-new mind-control idea, but taken to new heights. He also predicted something similar to the pleasure-enhancing blue pill of our day, and he used the word perestroika before Gorbachev brought it to world attention. Prisoner numbers 233 and 232 remind one of the Skull-and-Bones number 322. One of the main characters, Horne, works at the Coffin, reminiscent of the Skull-and-Bones Tomb. Another slight reversal of facts: this Horne went to Harvard, instead of Yale. Blum does seem to be teasing the reader.
Four years later, there appeared the expos, Strike from Space, by Phyllis Schlafly and Chester Ward. Alton, Ill: Pere Marquette Press, 1965. Depending on one's personal political stance, the writers are either believers in a conspiracy by the Soviets, or they reveal an actual conspiracy, not so much through the Communists as by "... gravediggers [who] are all defeatists, and ... do not believe that anything is worth dying for." - p. 154. Elsewhere, it is shown how they create policy, copied by the liberals. These two groups thus are held to help leave the United States defenseless against Communism's plan to take over the world. Most of the arguments are taken from mainstream media, such as an observation by Roberta Wohlstetter in the Council of Foreign Relations Foreign Affairs, ("Cuba and Pearl Harbor: Hindsight and Foresight, " July 1965, 701) that all the [unpleasant national security] surprises against the U.S. are "inexplicable except perhaps as criminal folly or conspiracy". - p. 61.
The Invisible Government, by David Wise and Thomas B. Ross, New York: Bantam, 1965, originally published in 1964 by Random House, cites its authors, on the page opposite the inside cover, as follows:
"There are two governments in the United States today, one is visible. The other is invisible.
"The first is the government that citizens read about in their newspapers and children study about in their civic books. The second is the interlocking, hidden machinery that carries out the policies of the United States in the Cold War."
One can go back all the way to Sir Walter Raleigh with these ideas of "[W]ho rules the trade of the world rules the wealth of the world and consequently the world itself". Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, writing in an 1852 book on fellow British politician, George Bentinck, made some observations about politics, conservatism, communism, and the membership of secret societies. Much is made of George Orwell's novel, 1984, and quotes such as"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past". Much more sinister is Edward Bernays, who said, for example, "we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons" and who had some frightening ideas about manipulation of the masses.
The first of the three references in the preceding paragraph, strangely, is found in a text on Canadian economic history. The second was quoted in a book by Noam Chomsky, Profit over People. The third quote is in a book from 1931, called Business Administration.The Power Elite, by C. Wright Mills, Oxford: New York, 1956, seems not to be aware of this previous literature: he clearly states in several places that there is no conspiracy. "The truth about the nature and the power of the elite is not some sort of secret which men of affairs know but will not tell.... they are often uncertain about their roles ... " (from page 4, cf. 16 and 18, but on page 95, he suggests a clue to the imputations against the rich, Gustavus Myers through a possibly misquoted Balzac, though the original is close enough: "Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oubli, parce qu'il a t proprement fait.")
A couple of other novels recently seen tie in closely with what has been said above. (It will be another 7 days before this part can be properly edited.) Marie Corelli, a popular British author of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, wrote Temporal Power in 1902. It has a high percentage of the ideas found in conspiracy ideas, about the Mid-East, about royalty, about press-ownership, about the Church and the Jesuits.
John Buchan, in Greenmantle, [1916], presents the German Kaiser this way:
...the Kaiser proclaims a Holy War and calls himself Hadji Mohammed Guilliamo, and say the Hohenzollerns are descended from the Prophet ...
John Buchan, Greenmantle, London: Pan, 1947.
[link to Project Gutenberg version above]
The truth, however, is in a different Buchan work:
... wiser brains in Constantinople had long before the war contemplated trouble with Arabia ... But the new masters [there] were less alert. They contented themselves with vapouring about a jehad, with christening the Kaiser Hadji Mohammed Guilliamo, and proclaiming the descent of the Hohenzollerns from the Prophet ...
John Buchan, Nelson's history of the war ([1914-1919]), Vol. 15. (London: Nelson, 1914), 116.
Related material can be found at the following links:
Germany and the Arab Question in the First World War
Issuance of Ottoman Fetva by Essad Effendi, Sheik-Ul-Islam
German policy toward the Sharif of Mecca, 1914-1916.
If a search is made for the following terms: "Prince Charles" descended Prophet, a similar claim will be found for the British Royal family. No decent site has been found to allow any credence to this.
On the other hand, the aristocracy would not want to go down without a fight. Otto Kaemmel, op.cit., 647, believed that only a genuine aristocracy could govern the world, and that democracy would fail. Franz Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, in Durchluchtiger Welt: Frstenhuser und Herrensitze in Hessen und am Main. (Mnchen: Prestel Verlag, 1959), p. 302, pretends to explain the duty of the nobility to follow the tradition of knightly virtues. This is in the context of a supranationalism, which some may wish to consider as globalism. - p. 289ff. In this context, he mentions the connections of his own family, with old nobility of Russia, and the new nobility of [Napoleonic] France. pp. 297-298
Updated April 30, 2010.
Selected Web Sites ...
....... which present, or may be accused of presenting, conspiracy theories. One of these is actually quite serious, but some of its columnists, Rep. Ron Paul, and Pastor Chuck Baldwin, have recently come under attack:
www.etherzone.com www.henrymakow.com www.infowars.com www.lewrockwell.com
www.newswithviews.com www.prisonplanet.com www.propagandamatrix.com www.rense.com
Note: Mention of these websites is neither a criticism or an endorsement, but most (if not all), are an embarrassment to one's intelligence - if not for the articles, for the comments that readers submit. Not all columnists on some of these sites subscribe to conspiracy viewpoints. For news, the author prefers British sites, which are, of course, accused by the conspiracy theorists of providing false information, but the American media does not escape similar accusations.
Appendix: Pictorial Representation of a Unified Theory of Conspiracy Theory
(This section remains to be expanded, or will form a new page of this project in the future, depending on how well the page loads in older browsers.)
| This sunstone | can be represented by this: |
 |  |
| Image in the Public Domain, according to: Wikipedia. Renehauron, "File:025- Pedra do Calendrio Solar.jpg", 2006-09-24/2007-09-03, . Acc.: 20100220. | Sun Symbol: See below, for more on this. |
| The image found here goes by various names, Aztec Calendar, or Sun Stone, which would be the translation of Sonnenstein, or the surname of Cass Sunstein. He has recently been accused of wanting to ban "conspiracy theorizing". (Reference at right.) A few days later, more accusations were made against him. (Second reference at right.) A third story (of many), appeared the following day. (Daniel Tencer reference at left.) These last two pages link with an original document, written by Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule, both of Harvard. (Fourth reference at left.) Unfortunately for the authors of the articles purporting what might be called an anti-conspiracy-theory conspiracy, the Sunstein-Vermeule document, by comparison, is, at a minimum, quite balanced. | Aaron Klein. "Presidential adviser wrote about crackdown on expressing opinions". WorldNetDaily webpage. 20100114. . ........ Paul Joseph Watson. "Obama Information Czar Outlined Plan For Government To Infiltrate Conspiracy Groups". PrisonPlanet webpage 20100114. . ........ Daniel Tencer . "Obama staffer wants cognitive infiltration of 9/11 conspiracy groups". From Raw Story website on InfoWars Website. 20100105. . ........ The Sunstein-Vermeule document can be obtained at: . All documents seen on dates of their creation. |
| Description: Though it just seems to represent a circle with centre point, or, disc with hub ... |
... the above symbol occurs on some web sites which discuss conspiracy theories in relation to the Middle East, Masons, or some religions. This is an undocumented introduction to what is hoped will be a more nicely-illustrated chapter in the near future. In all its representations - listed below - it should be understood that this is the two-dimensional representation of a circular object, viewed from directly above centre, appropriately coloured light and dark, spinning rapidly to hide spokes or superficial defects, and saved, as it were, as a two-colour black and white bitmap. It could also be a regular two-dimensional geometric object, spinning rapidly on its axis, in effect showing the lines circumscribing the points farthest from centre, and the midpoint of the same, i.e. the 5 points of a pentagram.
Symbolism: Broadly, discs, wheels, round covers, supposed variant of Greek letter theta (possible result in converting image of that letter to an icon.
Disc symbols:
The Sun (Greek Helios); Sun disc (Egyptian); Sun god, giving rise to Greek letter theta; symbol for the sun (cf. American Heritage Dictionary, 1981, "Symbols and Signs" table by "symbol" entry.
Relation to this article: The Middle East
disc of disc plough (disk of disk plow, or harrow)
Relation to this article: (relative to "occupation", superordinate for (stone-)mason), homonym of mason as Freemason.
Wheel symbols: spinning wheel, potter's wheel, bicycle wheel, water wheel, millwheel (spinning rapidly)
Relation to this article: (relative to occupations, see above)
Covers, (protective covering): Circular shields, bucklers, tops of vessels (pots, ciboria): cupolas
Relation to this article: (relative to occupations, see above; shields used by armies of Rome and Middle East, ciboria used in Anglican and Roman Catholic worship, hence, relative to Rome and England., cupolas are found on the houses of worship of all the relgions mentioned in this article, examples are Cathedrals of St. Paul, Anglican, London, England, St. Peters, Roman Catholic, the Vatican; the main synagogue in Budapest, the Dome of the Rock Mosque in Jerusalem. On the secular level, it is a feature of the the U.S. Capitol Building, and the German Parliament - the Reichstag, either as the top of the dome on the original one which was destroyed, or the new one. Not mentioned in the above article is Russia, or the Soviet Union, in which case the Orthodox Church would be mentioned, )
Circumscribed points of various polygons: The polygons, such as pentagons, pentagrams, and hexagrams are found on the flags of some areas of the world mentioned in the above article.
Pure Symbolism: All Greek letters, in the manner of the Roman letters C, D, I, L, M, and V, have a numerical value. It has been pointed out the the Greek words theta () - the word for the letter (used in mathematics), and helios, , have the same value, 318. Readers may make a web search of the two words plus the number, and find a perhaps a dozen thousand results. This can be understood as gnostic knowledge. Searching for "mason" and "gnosis" or "gnosticims" will yield between three to 4 times that amount of results. If the symbol is a theta, (this author has seen no verification of the claim), its value is 9. Seeing mystical values in numbers is another supposed gnostic science. Ironically, the famous Carl Gustav Jung seems to have attached some significance to numbers, in the same way as the Greek Pythagoreans.[32]
Select Bibliography
(Authorss note: The Dean book is recommendable for presenting some legal case histories in which are found direct or indirect references to certain characters often mentioned in articles on conspiracies. It has a chapter, "Black Magic", referring to Aleister Crowley, a name associated with the more fantastic side of conspiracy theory. In its "Winston Churchill and the Battle of Jutland", one finds an account of a libel that Winston Churchill planned to lose a nay battle for personal gain The Livingstone work is, all in one place, a remarkable presentation of conspiracy theory, listed here only as illustrative of the genre, the slant can be surmised by this quote, "Livingstone studied history as an undergraduate but dropped out in 1992 when he realized he was being indoctrinated."[66]) Conspiracy Theories in American History: An encyclopedia, lists about 300 theories, all articles written by scholars. A similar work on the European side was written by Barry Coward and Julian Swann. A publishing house has recently published the work by the journalish David Aaronovitch, again, not a book for those who wish their ideas proved. A scholarly review of truly outlandish theories, recommended by Daniel Pipes, is the Barkun book. A seemingly outlandish view, - more precisely either a colourful metaphor, a proof of the misuse of terminology, is the Lemonick piece. The Daniel Pipes web page has more material. For the sun symbolism marked in Appendix I, see Jung. On a related matter, see Stone. The final suggestion is a newspaper article by another professor, Furedi, who points out just how influential conspiracy theory has become, suggesting that Hillary Clinton, too, is a believer. The book by Wirth is not considered by the present author as good history - but it is an instructive example of an individual who sees threats on all sides, except that of his own racialist group.Aaronovitch, David. Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History. London: Random House. 2009.
Barkun, Michail. A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press.Continetti, Matthew. "Conspiracy Theory: Meet Mike Ruppert, the man who discovered the "truth" behind September 11". The Weekly Standard. June 18, 2004. . Acc.: 20110618.
Coward, Barry. Swann, Julian., editors. Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe: From the Waldensians to the French Revolution. Aldershot: Ashgate. 2004.
Dean, Joseph. Hatred, Ridicule, or Contempt: A Book of Libel Cases. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.1964
Donskis, Leonidas. "The Conspiracy Theory of Society: From Sir John Mandeville to the Modern Troubled Imagination." Forms of Hatred: The Troubled Imagination in Modern Philosophy and Literature. (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003)
Furedi, Frank. "On the Hunt for a Conspiracy Theory". Christian Science Monitor. 16 November 2005. . Accessed 20 June 2009.
Graziano, Walter Gustavo. Hitler gan la guerra. Buenos Aires: Debolsillo, 2005.
Graziano, Walter G. Nadie vio Matrix. Buenos Aires: Planeta, 2007.
Knight, Peter- Conspiracy theories in American history: an encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2003
Hunt, H.E. "The 30 greatest conspiracy theories", Telegraph website: . Accessed 6 December 2008.
Jung, Carl G. (ed.). Man and His Symbols. Specifically, see Jaff, Aniella. "Symbolism in the Visual Arts"
Jung, Carl G: Sobre cosas que se ven en el cielo Translated into Spanish by Alberto Luix Bixio from the German: Von Dingen, die am Himmel gesehen werden. Mexico City: Editorial Nilo-Mex. 1993.
Lemonick, Michael D. The Dinosaur Conspiracy Theory. Time. 8 November 2007. . Accessed 19 June 2009.
Livingstone, David. Terrorism and the Illuminati:: A Three Thousand Year History. Available online at http://www.terrorism-illuminati.com/book/toc.html or downloadable at http://www.terrorism-illuminati.com/book/Terrorism_Illuminati.pdf. (Accessed 6 November 2008).
Olmsted, Kathryn S. Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11. (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Parish, Jane, and Parker, Martine, ed. The Age of Anxiety: Conspiracy Theory and the Human Sciences.
( Wiley, 2001)
Pipes, Daniel.
Posner, Michael. "Are conspiracy theorists infiltrating the media?" Globe and Mail webpage. Accessed 28 Feb. 2010.
Schlafly, Phyllis, and Ward, Chester. Strike From Space: A Megadeath Mystery. Alton, Ill: Pere Marquette Press, 1965.
Schoenfeld, Gabriel. "The Punch-Card Conspiracy". Review of IBM AND THE HOLOCAUST: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation, by Edwin Black. New York Times, Books Section, March 18, 2001, . Accessed 6 November 2008.
Stalinksky, Steven. "Top Ten Arab and Iranian Conspiracy Theories Ending 2004". Jewish World Review. 3 January 2005. . Accessed 20 June 2009.
Stern, Karl. The Third Revolution: A Study of Psychiatry and Religion. New York: Doubleday Image Books, 1961.
Stone, Brian. (trans. and ed.). "The Pentangle and its Significance" in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Penguin.
Straker, David. "Conspiracy Theory". . Accessed 6 December 2008.
Thomas, Evan, and Conant, Eve. "Hate: Antigovernment Extremists are on the Rise - and on the March, " Newsweek International, April 19, 2010, 26-29.
Thompson, Bruce (?). "Canceling Hypotheses (Conspiracy Theory)".
Is it okay for me to display my flag of Ireland, so long as I have the Stars and Stripes highest on the pole?
Also, wouldn't it be wrong for a non-citizen to wave their homeland's flag in PROTEST of their host country's laws?
I believe I can fly my flag of Ireland on a separte staff at equal height. Both flags must be equal in size.
http://www.bcpl.net/~etowner/flagcode.html
Thanks everyone!
Get the answers...
Plzzz help need help with project.?
What are the major crops of Ireland?
and i need facts about the crops...plz
I need history on the flag of Ireland.
I also need more information about the People of Ireland...
Also any links that you give me would be very helpful tooo...thanks
Get the answers...
What are the official colours of the tri-colur flags often seen at celtic park?
Green, white and ORANGE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ireland
It would seem this display at the football is an attempt to encourage harmony with their better educated rivals in Govan.
Rangers have also entered in to the spirit by allowing the green and white of asda to be raised nearby.
Get the answers...
Proposals for new Northern Ireland flag (improved)
5 Jan 2012 at 6:03am
LARGE QUALITY FLAG OF IRELAND SHAMROCK IRISH FLIGHT EU TOUR TRIP RUGBY OLYMPIC
9 Feb 2012 at 4:39pm
 | $4.51 (0 Bids) |
FLAG OF IRELAND Full Size 3' x 5' Irish Tri-Color NEW
9 Feb 2012 at 4:39pm
 | $5.00 |
Irish Flag 3x5 90x150cm 3x5' 100% Polyester Republic of Ireland Banner
9 Feb 2012 at 4:39pm
 | $4.00 |
Ireland Irish Eire Flag Cocktail Sticks (pack of 100)
9 Feb 2012 at 4:39pm
 | $6.31 |
Mens NWOT Black FLAG OF IRELAND Long Sleeve T-Shirt Medium St Patrick's Day
9 Feb 2012 at 4:39pm
 | $8.99 (0 Bids) |
Next page: Flags Of Ireland Orange
Bookmark/Share This Page:
|
|
|
|
Flags Of Ireland News
Bondi Rescue helps launch Backpacker safety campaign - NEWS.com.au
9 Feb 2012 at 7:20pm NEWS.com.au Bondi rescue's Bruce 'Hoppo' Hopkins chats with backpackers from the US, England and Ireland during the launch of the Backpackers Guide to Local Safety & Health 2012 at Bondi Icebergs today. (L to R) Kirstin Gail, Bruce Hopkins, Ed Jones-Bateman and ... and more » |
Read more...
First Hour: Presented by Rachael English and Cathal Mac Coille
9 Feb 2012 at 6:00am Rehiring of retired staff can make sense - Finance Bill uses tax measures to encourage growth and jobs - The investor who's betting on Ireland's recovery - A day of two halves in English football - Greencore news - Community Employment SchemesRead more...
First Hour: Presented by Rachael English and Gavin Jennings
8 Feb 2012 at 6:00am Teenage girl shot dead in Tallaght - Sinn Féin comments on HSE retirements - Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland on measures to reduce alcohol misuse - Young Americans tour - latest on SyriaRead more...
See how the Irish papers covered Wales' famous win over Ireland in Dublin - W...
7 Feb 2012 at 3:08am WalesOnline Technically, Stephen Ferris' untidy 79th-minute tackle on Ian Evans cost Ireland a precious victory. It looked a needlessly careless act. Actually, in the context of this rivalry, it seemed stupid on a molecular level. Sam Warburton's World Cup ... and more » |
Read more...
Regimental reunion to honour our servicemen - This is Grimsby
7 Feb 2012 at 2:34am This is Grimsby He said regimental flags, including their own with the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment's sphinx over the Northamptonshire Regiment's Battle of Honour Talavera, will adorn the venue along with national flags of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. |
Read more...
