Now that the Republican Party controls the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, certain people along the American political spectrum are feeling free to indulge their paranoid fantasies, more so now than at any time since Ronald Reagan was declaring trees cause pollution and announcing we would begin bombing the Soviet Union in five minutes. Many of these people have my e-mail address and think nothing of sharing their conspiracy theories with me. Don’t they know the FBI monitors that stuff?
Their evidence is compelling, if circumstantial. George W. Bush spends a year of campaigning and the first two months of his administration bad-mouthing the economy and whaddya know, the economy starts circling the drain. Mr. B said all through 2000 that the government had too much money, it was time to give some back to the taxpayers; now that a trillion dollars has disappeared from the GNP, George says we need a tax cut so the wealthy can pay off their margin calls. Is it a conspiracy, or are some people just paranoid?
Then there’s the “energy crisis.” No sooner than the energy industry’s favorite son takes the oath of office than the lights started going out in California. Energy producers in the recently-privatized state pulled generating facilities off-line, knowing full well that once Dick Cheney was running the country, there would be no consequences for price-gouging. I couldn’t believe it when it happened. I thought, “How can those power companies be so greedy and short-sighted? Couldn’t they wait until the deregulation trend had spread to a few more states before they sent energy prices through the roof?” California’s a big fish, no doubt, but why settle for California when you can get half the country on the hook? First pillage, then burn. It’s been the first rule of marauding since Attila was just a little Hun.
But then, the paranoids say, the other shoe dropped, the quid pro quo kicked in and it all made sense. George W. did an about-face on his campaign promise to require reductions of air pollutants and said the “energy crisis” forced his hand. Plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were kicked into high gear, and again, the “energy crisis” was to blame. Global warming? Nothing we can do about that in the middle of an “energy crisis.” Last week, George W. stood up at his press briefing and talked about the “energy crisis” as if no human, let alone the president of the United States, could do anything about it. As if the energy situation in America was as immutable as the weather, as unknowable as the mind of God. Of course, for Mr. Bush, the oil industry may BE God. Try this: every time W. mentions God, substitute the words “oil industry.” It’s scary.
What else is there? Congress wants to stiffen bankruptcy laws; bad for the little guy, good for the humongous banks. Banks win. Congress wants to gut workplace safety regulations; bad for the working class, good for the greedy corporations. Corporations win. “Compassionate conservatism?” What’s that? We’ve never heard of such a term. Never existed. Another fairy tale invented by the liberal media.
But is it a conspiracy? If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear it, does it mean there was a cover-up? If people all over town feel energetic on a lovely spring day, does that mean someone has dosed the water supply?
There’s no conspiracy; there doesn’t need to be. If like-minded people act in similar ways, it just means they’re responding to the same stimulus, in this case the opportunity to make a buck – fast or slow, dirty or clean – and the knowledge that no one in the federal government, at least for the near future, will do anything to ensure the law is obeyed.
In a perverse way, a conspiracy theory would be a comforting thought, the idea that we are all manipulated by five evil geniuses in a room somewhere, like a scene from the X-Files. But we’re not dealing with five bad guys, we’re dealing with thousands.
Conspiracy Theories
Now that the Republican Party controls the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, certain people along the American political spectrum are feeling free to indulge their paranoid fantasies, more so now than at any time since Ronald Reagan was declaring trees cause pollution and announcing we would begin bombing the Soviet Union in five minutes. Many of these people have my e-mail address and think nothing of sharing their conspiracy theories with me. Don’t they know the FBI monitors that stuff?
Their evidence is compelling, if circumstantial. George W. Bush spends a year of campaigning and the first two months of his administration bad-mouthing the economy and whaddya know, the economy starts circling the drain. Mr. B said all through 2000 that the government had too much money, it was time to give some back to the taxpayers; now that a trillion dollars has disappeared from the GNP, George says we need a tax cut so the wealthy can pay off their margin calls. Is it a conspiracy, or are some people just paranoid?
Then there’s the “energy crisis.” No sooner than the energy industry’s favorite son takes the oath of office than the lights started going out in California. Energy producers in the recently-privatized state pulled generating facilities off-line, knowing full well that once Dick Cheney was running the country, there would be no consequences for price-gouging. I couldn’t believe it when it happened. I thought, “How can those power companies be so greedy and short-sighted? Couldn’t they wait until the deregulation trend had spread to a few more states before they sent energy prices through the roof?” California’s a big fish, no doubt, but why settle for California when you can get half the country on the hook? First pillage, then burn. It’s been the first rule of marauding since Attila was just a little Hun.
But then, the paranoids say, the other shoe dropped, the quid pro quo kicked in and it all made sense. George W. did an about-face on his campaign promise to require reductions of air pollutants and said the “energy crisis” forced his hand. Plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were kicked into high gear, and again, the “energy crisis” was to blame. Global warming? Nothing we can do about that in the middle of an “energy crisis.” Last week, George W. stood up at his press briefing and talked about the “energy crisis” as if no human, let alone the president of the United States, could do anything about it. As if the energy situation in America was as immutable as the weather, as unknowable as the mind of God. Of course, for Mr. Bush, the oil industry may BE God. Try this: every time W. mentions God, substitute the words “oil industry.” It’s scary.
What else is there? Congress wants to stiffen bankruptcy laws; bad for the little guy, good for the humongous banks. Banks win. Congress wants to gut workplace safety regulations; bad for the working class, good for the greedy corporations. Corporations win. “Compassionate conservatism?” What’s that? We’ve never heard of such a term. Never existed. Another fairy tale invented by the liberal media.
But is it a conspiracy? If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear it, does it mean there was a cover-up? If people all over town feel energetic on a lovely spring day, does that mean someone has dosed the water supply?
There’s no conspiracy; there doesn’t need to be. If like-minded people act in similar ways, it just means they’re responding to the same stimulus, in this case the opportunity to make a buck – fast or slow, dirty or clean – and the knowledge that no one in the federal government, at least for the near future, will do anything to ensure the law is obeyed.
In a perverse way, a conspiracy theory would be a comforting thought, the idea that we are all manipulated by five evil geniuses in a room somewhere, like a scene from the X-Files. But we’re not dealing with five bad guys, we’re dealing with thousands.