The Great Myth of the Fifth Column: Garbage In/Garbage Out

Norman Cohn opened the preface to his 1975 book "Europe's Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt" with these words:

This book began as an enquiry into the origins of the great European witch-hunt. It ended as something wider. It argues that the stereotype of the witch, as it existed in many parts of Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is made up of elements of diverse origin, and that some of these derived from a specific fantasy which can be traced back to Antiquity. The essence of the fantasy was that there existed, somewhere in the midst of the great society, another society, small and clandestine, which not only threatened the existence of the great society but was also addicted to practices which were felt to be wholly abominable, in the literal sense of anti-human.[emphasis added]

Right. Sleeper cells and all that. Good thing we are no longer susceptible to such mass hysteria in our post-Modern Age...

Meanwhile, the criminal conspiracy that truly threatens all of our lives and futures operates in the open and under the auspices of the public trust. It stokes fears of a fifth column at its convenience--the Reichstag fire syndrome--through bureaucratic means. After all, a bureaucracy is like a computer: it operates in accordance with certain set assumptions and protocol. The division of witch-hunting is entirely predicated upon the belief that there are witches to hunt. This belief includes the profile of a witch. Wherever there is a division of witch-hunting (a.k.a. "homeland security") there will be witches to hunt. It is a fait accompli.

Garbage in/garbage out.

I am not suggesting that the only individuals involved in terrorist activities are state actors; no one holds a monopoly on criminality. I am suggesting that bureaucracies are particularly adept at creating self-fulfilling prophecies. 9/11 was a criminal act. Had it been treated as such, instead of cynically and hypocritically exploited for political purposes by criminals in suits and uniformed punks, we would be living in a safer world with less government interference in all of our lives and poof! the witches would only come out on Halloween.

As the Evidence of the "Plot" Thins...

Under the headline Bomb-making equipment found in Britain, AP writer Katie Fretland quotes Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, the head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorism unit, as saying: "Since the 10th of August, we have found bomb-making equipment. There are chemicals, including hydrogen peroxide, electrical components, documents and other items...We have also found a number of video recordings — these are sometimes referred to as martyrdom videos."

Hydrogen peroxide will not cut it. I use hydrogen peroxide on occasion for oral hygiene. My father, a PhD chemist, recommended it for that purpose. He used it himself. He also worked on the Manhattan project in the 1940's. Maybe that should make me a suspect in a bombing plot. Perhaps I inherited the bomb-making gene. Nah...I have the wrong complexion and ethnicity.

Why don't we just come out and say it? The so-called "war on terror" is nothing but the latest wave of what Norman Cohn called "Europe's inner demons." Once directed at Jews and women (accused as witches), the homocidal rage of the Euro-American has been re-directed to more a politically correct target: "uppity" brown men who have the criminal audacity to refer to God in Arabic.

I also noticed that the number of individuals charged with conspiracy (as a lawyer, I can tell you that "conspiracy" is the least substantial of any criminal accusation) is now 11 (down from the magical number 19 that was first used to create a parallel in the mind of the quiescent public with the 9/11 hijackings).

If most Muslims did not already have distinctive identifying marks (clothing, ethnicity, language), they would be made to stitch yellow crescents onto their outer-garments. We're almost to that point...

The Challenge

The challenge is to stay positive and avoid bitterness. We have criminals running the country, but it isn't the first time and, sadly, it is unlikely to be the last.

A year ago, over the Memorial Day weekend, a friend of mine who lives in greenwich village called me to tell me that he happened to be near "Ground Zero" and saw lots of military, mostly marines, engaged in drills around the site. He heard a drill sargeant shouting to his troops: "You are all deploying to Iraq, so take a good look around here. The first shots of the war you are going to fight were fired here." Since Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, that would qualify as a bold-faced lie. Tacitus remarks somewhere in his histories that the most effective tactic to pursue when caught in a surreptitious criminal act is to proceed with audacity. The people in the Pentagon are corrupt, not stupid. In the war colleges, they are reading Tacitus.

Exile is an honorable disposition. The great Stoic philosopher, Epictetus, relates the story of Paconius Agrippinus whose motto was "I am not a hindrance to myself." He was tried in the Senate under Nero on the ground that he had inherited his father's hatred of the head of the Roman state. He was tried in absentia. You have to love the absolute craven vulgarity of the whole thing. Anyway, he learned of his trial second-hand. His response: "I hope it may turn out well; but it is the fifth hour." The fifth hour was his usual time to work out at the gymnasium and then go to the baths. He then invited his informant to join him. After his exercise, a messenger came to tell him that he had been condemned. "To banishment or death?" was his query. "To banishment." "And what of my property?" "It has not been taken from you." "Let us go to Aricia, then, and dine."

Though I long to see the Gang of Four crucified upside down, I will not be a hindrance to myself. I just returned from the gymnasium. In another hour or so, I shall dine.

But I am also looking for ways to actively confront the darkness. So I just joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). Check them out.

Some Mornings I Wake Up

and imagine how human society could be organized into a global commonwealth of interdependent, green, libertarian-socialist republics. Then I turn on the radio and find that I must suffer, yet again, the indignities of having my intelligence insulted by the punditocracy and bad faith journalism of the treasonous Fourth Estate and the neo-Fascistic blatherings of the self-righteous, imbecile son of privilege who currently poses as our head of state and i ask myself, with David Byrne, "Well, how did i get here?"

Neo-Fascism Revisited

Let us recall what Fascism is: the control of government by big business. Communism, on the other end of the political spectrum, is the control of business by the government.

The newly popular phrase "Islamo-Fascism" has no meaning today; which is to say, it points to nothing in the world--or at least nothing in the world that those who presently use this phrase intend by it. The last Islamo-Fascist that I can think of was the Shah of Iran, supported by the United States (indeed, installed by the CIA), now deposed and dead.

"Christo-Fascism," on the other hand, does have meaning today insofar as it points to the Christian right of Ralph Reed and George W. Bush and their ilk--those who seem to believe that big business running the government furthers the "cause" of Christ.

Click here to read a sane assessment of the recent arrest of "Islamic Fascists" (Bush's slur) in Britain.

Lie-berman Down; Terror Alert Up

As their political fortunes begin to suffer, the neo-Fascists turn up the heat of their phony war on terror. Lie-berman wasted no time attacking Lamont on the basis of this latest Scotland Yard sweep of "plotters." Bush, in a classic case of the kettle calling the pot black, makes a statement regarding "Islamic Fascists"--is he now identifying with the Left? As their desperation mounts, we will find ourselves "saved" from impending disaster again and again by government intervention. This is right out of the Orwellian playbook--not to mention Hitler's. The axis that formerly ran from Berlin to Rome to Tokyo now runs from Washington to London to Jerusalem. Do not be fooled. The fight against Fascism today is the fight of the people against a small coterie of elites who have defined themselves as the "good guys," anyone who opposes them as the "bad guys," and, worst of all, perhaps, they have convinced themselves that the ends justify whatever means they have at their disposal.