Convergent Emergent Conspiracy Theory and the Plausible Deniability of the Boy in the Bubble

It's like Shystee says.

There's no Dr. Evil required for things to look a little freaky in the reality-based world. Still, there is an otherwise an interesting post by that cautious pessimist, Jeff Wells. It's a belated review of Naomi Klein's Baghdad Year Zero essay.

Jeff says:

She's very good when describing the neoconservatives "apocalyptic glee" at the destruction of a society to accomodate their extreme makeover -
"Iraq was to the neocons what Afghanistan was to the Taliban: the one place on Earth where they could force everyone to live by the most literal, unyielding interpretation of their sacred texts"
- but I think she falters when framing for the big picture, as do most left critics of the war, by not having a deeper field of vision. She doesn't see behind the neoconservatives, to clusters of elite power which owe no allegiance to nation-states, and whose purpose all along has been calamity and the ruin of America.

Klein writes:
"The great historical irony of the catastrophe unfolding in Iraq is that the shock-therapy reforms that were supposed to create an economic boom that would rebuild the country have instead fueled a resistance that ultimately made reconstruction impossible. Bremer’s reforms unleashed forces that the neocons neither predicted nor could hope to control, from armed insurrections inside factories to tens of thousands of unemployed young men arming themselves. These forces have transformed Year Zero in Iraq into the mirror opposite of what the neocons envisioned: not a corporate utopia but a ghoulish dystopia, where going to a simple business meeting can get you lynched, burned alive, or beheaded."

Well, yes; that particular hallucination of a Chicago School hot house on the Euphrates has been well dashed, having served it's purpose to rally Milton Friedman's infernal optimists to the Great Crusade. But like so many crusades, this one was sponsored by cynics for undisclosed ends. Iraq's kingdom of ghouls did not arise entirely by chance or surprise, and not without encouragement. Reconstruction remains impossible because the forces of occupation both inspire insurrection - that's about as far as Klein goes - and also impersonate it. (And shortly after the outrage at Basra who was found dead in the same city, a suspected suicide, but Captain Ken Masters, only the officer "responsible for the investigation of all in-theatre serious incidents.") British examples are good here, to remind us that the double game is international and Anglo-American, demonstrating a trans-national bond and common interest that goes deeper than simply bending to the will of a Donald Rumsfeld.

Iraq is viewed almost entirely as a neocon project, but the backstory to the war includes the purposeful bankrupting of America, which has weakened the state from the inside while the Iraq war has not only created more enemies, but left it more vulnerable to attack.

The neocons are the Lone Gunmen of Iraq. They're the patsies who'll eventually take the fall for its failure, which will actually mean success to the real players who've allowed them the liberty to play their hand. Like Oswald, these patsies aren't innocents, but neither should perfect blame be laid at their feet. And like Oswald, when their heads are offered to the public the public will be expected to sigh with relief that the beast has been slain and all is right again in the land.

But they're not up for the chop yet. A few more acts need to be played before they've unintentionally exhausted their use in the hastening of the collapse of American power. (Idealogues blinded by the beauty of their ideas are easily manipulated to the service of contrary ends.)...

This is a very powerful and effective statement, muddied by the gaggle of conspiracy theorists and professional disinformants that follow and troll Jeff's site, blaming everyone from the might Clenis to the Illumati to the Black Helicopter U.N. crowd as Jeff's Shadow Players behind the NeoCons.

But as I've said before, I'll say again: the search for the Real Culprits behind it All is a will o'the wisp.

It's not just "clusters of elite powers" that are throwing a wrench in the machinery of America the beautiful. It's not just people who sit up late at night, trying to take over the world. Don't get me wrong. There are people who do that.

It's just that even when they work together, they tend to Balkanize their efforts. If anything, the vast right-wing conspiracy, like the vast left-wing conspiracy, is a gang that couldn't shoot straight, because every minor player wants the prize. Don't get me wrong. There are Republicans, and Wrepublicans, just like there are Democrats, and DINOcrats, that possess incredible drive and organization to climb to the top of the pile and be the alpha primate. Or whatever.

It's just that all the Players are too busy Playing to co-ordinate amongst themselves, and like a great man once said, when the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.

Take this little gem, a tip from a friend:

Call it an educated guess, but veteran Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer figures that when Florida's new "Stand Your Ground" law takes effect next October the first self-defense claim he'll see will involve a road rage shooting.

"We already see many cases like that involving firearms. Now, they'll be more inclined to pull the trigger," Krischer said. Under Florida's existing law, what's known as the "castle doctrine" authorizes homeowners and residents to shoot intruders in their homes when they reasonably believe their safety is in jeopardy. The new law passed last month and, pushed by the National Rifle Association, expands that authorization to shoot at attackers "literally everywhere," Krischer said.

Gone will be "the duty to retreat" from potentially bloody confrontations that's now built into Florida's criminal justice statutes. Instead, the law will recognize that everyone has "the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force" if they reasonably believe it's necessary to avoid death or serious injury.

Under such circumstances, those who kill or wound will have immunity from both criminal prosecution and civil liability. The new law will give them a general legal presumption that they acted out of "reasonable fear." And they'll be entitled to recover reasonable attorney fees, court costs and lost income incurred in defending any civil lawsuit filed by their victims...

"As [NRA] executive vice president Wayne LaPierre has said we are going to move across the nation from the red states to the blue states," Hammer said. "Other states have pieces of what we now have in Florida; this is a good, reasonable self-defense package."

Aside from making the streets of Detroit look like Baghdad on a bad day, that's going to make life awfully hard for Men in Black.

A product of the Bu$hCo bubble mentality, seeking to insulate itself from the world but only capturing itself again? A sublime piece of misdirection from the Lords of Chaos, whoever they may be? Or a Zeitgeist response to a tidal wave of repression building on the horizon?

Convergence, indeed.