I can go there too. But I was surprised to be out and about yesterday, and to hear people who are relatively intelligent and politically aware, expressing skepticism about the major event that went down in a compound in Pakistan.
I do think an empire crumbles when the citizens no longer believe or trust their government, their press, their media machine, and the motives of their fellow citizens. Of course, much of this skepticism is well-earned. We have often been lied to and misled by those in authority, and we've been lied to and misled by each other too. We almost expect to be lied to and misled. Any action is suspect. We wonder, did this really happen? What is the real motive? Why now? Who got paid off? Who benefits?
And we live in a world of information over-load, ideological spinning, covert operations, black budgets and double-dealing. Often we can't even agree on the basic facts. All information is subject to spin and warp.
And then there is that great conspiratorial frame of mind that ties everything up into some kind of grand narrative. Almost like there is an invisible hand guiding events. Not a god-like entity but some all powerful CABAL that manipulates and orchestrates events in some secret room somewhere.
We've all seen lots of movies. And in a way, we want to believe that there's some coherence to the way events unfold. Maybe it's biological. It's built into us that we want to discern some kind of coherent pattern. Even if that means we can't take events at face value.
And sometimes an all powerful CABAL does sit in a room manipulating and orchestrating events. That's how they got the Bad Guy after all.
