-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Dumb gets dumber Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 13:23:15 -0500 From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
Louis Proyect wrote:
>
>
>
> The US ruling class will do everything it can to turn a disaster to
> its advantage. But to assume that it needed to orchestrate this
> disaster is utter folly.
>
Yes. And more -- even if the conspiracy existed it would do us no good to claim it. The arguments for such complex scenarios are long, torturous, & detailed. The vast majority of people are not even going to listen, but assume that it is just wild claims being made by a bunch of nutty leftists. And as a result, we will lose our credibility even in respect to our description of the ongoing "conspiracy in the open" that characterizes imperialist policy.
It has done damage already. In explaining the crimes of NATO in Yugoslavia to contacts, I will no longer be able to refer them to (or use myself) information for which the only or primary source is Emperor's Clothes. I'm just not going to risk being made a fool of by citing a source which also claims that Tuesday's bombings were the result of a comic-book conspiracy by the Imperialists. I don't read Pugliese's posts, but I would be willing to bet that soon he will be spreading Jared's theory around the net, accompanied by headings saying, in effect, "See, if he can say this, how can you trust him on Srebrenica?" We reached millions of people during the Anti-War movement WITHOUT making any of the claims which the Pentagon Papers proved to be true. That is, the open crimes of the U.S. were sufficient: we did not need the "secret" stuff.
Capitalism _is_ the conspiracy -- not the machinations of a bunch of spooks in Langley. Let us concentrate on what we know, and what reality endlessly manifests everyday. We have our work cut out for us, and there will be hot disagreements among us in any case which will have to be threshed out or compromised, without adding the extra clutter of this supposed conspiracy to fuss over.
Carrol