Marty: Conspiracies and 9/11

While many Americans see the tenth anniversary of the 9/11/2001
attacks primarily as a remembrance, I see those tragic events as
exposing our national Achilles heel – mistrust stoked by unproven
conspiracy theories that are too often taken as gospel.
While many Americans see the tenth anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks primarily as a remembrance, I see those tragic events as exposing our national Achilles heel – mistrust stoked by unproven conspiracy theories that are too often taken as gospel. Part of this strange phenomenon is that many promoting the theories claim to believe in scientific principles, yet they consistently ignore the difference between a theory and its proof.

A May 2007 poll by Rasmussen Reports indicated that 35 percent of Democrats believed George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance and 26 percent were not sure. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18 percent believed Bush knew. Since no one has ever presented any credible evidence to that effect, those results obtained almost than 6 years after the event were simply shocking.

Conspiracy theories have been around forever, as have actual conspiracies. However, the advent of technology, too often a mystery to the average citizen, and the general distrust of those in power, especially of opposing political parties, has led to an exponential increase in these theories and their ardent supporters. This is more than a political problem; it shows a basic inability among the population to apply basic logic and critical thinking.

George W. Bush is not the first president to be accused of a dastardly act to advance his political agenda and he won’t be the last. Franklin D. Roosevelt has been accused of allowing the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor unimpeded to drag America into WWII especially after it was revealed that the U.S. had broken parts of the Japanese diplomatic and naval codes before the attack. President Lyndon B. Johnson has been accused of orchestrating the Gulf of Tokin incident to justify escalation of attacks on North Vietnam and, according to some theorists, divert attention from the investigation of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the mother lode of conspiracy theories.         

I’m not sure when conspiracy theories became so ingrained in the mainstream American psyche, but the JFK’s assassination was certainly a modern milestone. There are so many conspiracy theories surrounding the event that Wikipedia put them into 16 separate categories. Pick the one that suits you.

The 9/11 attack is curious because there is overwhelming irrefutable evidence that it was the result of a real conspiracy – one planned and executed by terrorists under control of Al Qaeda. Yet many reject the truth because that conspiracy does not fit the pattern pre-ordained by modern theorists. A modern conspiracy theory has to involve the government, preferably secret agencies, working with foreign powers and/or big money interests to manipulate the population.         

One of the ideas currently at play is that we are in control of almost everything and anything we cannot explain must be the result of complex conspiratorial forces. The truth is that control is an illusion; we are still at the mercy of our human failings and Mother Nature, not to mention just dumb luck. We used to attribute unknowable things to God or the supernatural, now we believe we can figure it out if we only knew all the secrets they are keeping from us – whoever “they” are.

The overall result is the fracturing of America’s history where large groups of the population hold to versions that have no basis in truth whatsoever. Unlike religious beliefs that are primarily personal, our history is our public persona. Without a fundamental belief in a common history – even when influenced by individual experience – we cannot be a nation.     

Marty Richman is a Hollister resident.