Why I Have Become a Conspiracy Theorist

Over the past 10 years, the formerly derided fringe group collectively called "conspiracy theorists" has slowly started to be taken seriously and its numbers are swelling appreciably. As the current administration gears up for the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, apparently they've decided to take a low key approach to it. Not so, I'm sure, for those of us conspiracy theorists still asking for investigations into 9/11 to be reopened. We would like to know what exactly we are commemorating, Was it an evil deed done by a ragtag bunch of Saudi Arabian junior pilots under the authority of Osama bin Laden or were forces even more sinister behind it?

I'm not going to present the arguments here: that's been done very well by groups such as Pilots for 911 Truth and Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth, to name just two. I'm just going to take you for a short journey down my own path of disenchantment with America.

I started university in 1966, at the height of the Flower Power era and the Vietnam War. As a left-leaning hippy, I was against the war, but I thought it was an aberration. I blamed a right wing, paranoid government, but believed that thanks to our basically democratic government, a correction would take place and we would learn from our mistakes and move on.

I still believed this in 1969 when some classes I took at UC Santa Cruz introduced me to the 19th century American Transcendentalists. To me, they represented the true spirit of religion in America. At the time, I thought the symbol of the eye on the pyramid on the dollar bill reflected their views about spirituality and religion. What it boiled down to was that the various religions were divisive, but at the same time they embraced at heart a common spirituality. The logo on the dollar and the words, "In God We Trust" summed up the wisdom of the Founding Fathers.

In 1971, I had a great job working in a great independent bookshop. Either/Or was the Los Angeles version of San Francisco's City Lights. My interest in metaphysics landed me the coveted position of being in charge of ordering all the books for the metaphysical section of the shop. It was then that I was introduced to the theories surrounding the occult symbolism on the dollar bill. At the time, I thought those books were a little spooky and maybe even "Satanic." At any rate, I dismissed what they had to say about the Great Seal of the United States as "crazy."

Flash forward 30 years:

I heard about 9/11 on the radio. I used the radio as my alarm clock, but on that morning (Australian time), the usual all-music station I woke up to was announcing the attack on the Twin Towers. I jumped out of bed and turned on the TV. I didn't have to switch channels: it was everywhere. Naturally, I was disturbed, but as the news unfolded, I became disturbed in ways those who presented the news probably didn't want me to be. All I knew was that the pieces they were putting together didn't fit. The question I asked myself was, "Why?"

This question led me to the internet, where I discovered that others were asking themselves the same question. Those "others" were largely the conspiracy theorists. From them I learned about a frightening document called the Project for a New American Century, signed by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, amongst others. The original 1997 document did not call for a "Pearl Harbor" style incident, but a later revision did, as well as stating that:

'New methods of attack -- electronic, 'non-lethal', biological -- will be more widely available ... combat likely will take place in new dimensions, in space, cyberspace, and perhaps the world of microbes ... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool'

Can you spell Mein Kampf?

Over the past ten years, I've reluctantly joined the ranks of the conspiracy theorists as their "paranoid" predictions have come true. Included in these predictions has been the erosion of American domestic freedom and the establishment of a global elite. Many of those conspiracy theorists cite events throughout American history that suggest that this has been the plan all along.

Now when I look at that all seeing eye on top of a pyramid on the U.S. dollar, a chill goes through me. I think back to 1971, to those early books that discussed the symbolism on the dollar. I can't remember the titles or authors exactly, but the names I remember are Aleister Crowley and other self-proclaimed Satanists who were gloating about its real meaning, not issuing warnings. I may be wrong, but that's how I remember it now, in retrospect.

My point is not that I'm right or wrong. I'm not even trying to suggest that I'm not paranoid or worse. My point is this: until we know the truth about 9/11, the numbers of those who grow suspicious of the United States are just going to grow. The official version simply doesn't add up and the events that have transpired since that day only serve to support the conspiracy theorists.

The Bush administration is long gone, leaving our leaders a way to gracefully distance themselves from what many of us believe to be the real truth about 9/11. I for one would like to think of the United States as a force for world peace and prosperity again, not as a ruthless dictatorship with no regard for human life or dignity. That's not going to happen, though, until it starts replacing rhetoric with truth.