Conspiracy
I am the first to admit, I love a good conspiracy. Over at Mark Terry's blog two days ago (his HOLY CRAP! post), I spun my own theory on the economic crisis. I personally believe my conspiracy theory very much.
Over the years, I have met people who are very wealthy and very powerful. Ghostwrite for a few CEOs and you get a bird's eye view into how things REALLY run. Follow the money. I have no faith in our government. I don't trust the FBI or the CIA. I don't believe in "Truth, justice and the American way" since truth is ALWAYS spun. I believe rendition occurs more than we believe. I don't have faith that the next step, should we elect the wrong president, won't be people hauled off KGB style in the middle of the night. If it isn't already happening.
Paranoid?
Maybe. I'll let you know the next time my father waxes poetic about wishing he wasn't blind so he could assassinate Bush himself and be hailed as a hero . . . and the phone line clicks.
So I am one of those readers--and writers--that loves to spin a good conspiracy. And maybe that's why some books that people wonder "why do they do well" (DaVinci Code comes to mind) fly off the shelves. We love a good conspiracy!
The grassy knoll and all that.
So how about you? Do you love a good conspiracy? And feel free to demonstrate your paranoia and tell us your favorite. UFO coverup? Marilyn Monroe was murdered for being a lover of the Kennedys? Come on . . . what's your favorite? And do you have conspiracies in your books?
29 comments:
I'm setting up my main character to believe she's the victim of a (sort-of)conspiracy, but it's her own distrust of her gut feelings and instincts that lead her to believe this -- and she is wrong. But I'm hoping that readers will think it's so, clamor with "I KNEW IT" only to be wrong in the end - and not feel betrayed, but glad.
I have never thought much about conspiracies. Although after this, I might be more paranoid!! :)
Amy:
Wow . . .pretty complicated to pull off. :-) But cool!
E
In fiction, I love a good conspiracy.
In real life, I'm a skeptic. The primary reason I'm a skeptic is that I think it's almost impossible to keep a secret if more than one person knows it. People talk. What's surprised me about Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance is how well kept it's been. Of course, that may be because they were building both the Renaissance Center in Detroit and rebuilding 696 that cuts right across the city at the time of his disappearance. He's in a foundation, buried in cement!
I LOVE a good conspiracy. While I'm not ready to pain my skin green and wear some bug-eye glass around, a UFO conspiract wouldn't surprise me. Neither would presidential assasinations or anything to do with politics. After all, it's easy to hide the money behind a $30,000 toilet seat or a $10,000 hammer.
Conspiracies scare me because I believe they happen.
Number one on my conspiracy list is the Holy Bible. So much has been researched to debunk it, yet so many lives sacrificed to reinforce its "teachings."
I don't discuss my theories in public. I'm afraid they'll come and get me if I do...
I do love conspiracies! I do think this financial crisis is real. Just in the last three days, in my very small world, 1,300 people are being laid off because of this crisis. It has definitely made it real for me as vs. a fabrication of the media.
And I TOTALLY agree with you on owning a home. I don't own my home for two reasons: one, I'm not paying $250,000 for a tiny house, which is what it costs to live where I have to do business, and two, it doesn't work out better on my taxes.
I can't even TELL you how many people, strangers and friends alike, have literally stuck their nose in my business and told me I HAVE to own my own home. Even people who don't know the numbers and wouldn't have the first clue about calculating the numbers. Even people who are students' parents who hear me mention I'm renting. They literally have emailed me every time a house is available because I "have" to own a home.
So I agree with that part. I also think the banks were targeting those who didn't understand. These mortgages are money-makers for them if everyone isn't foreclosing, and they banked on that. They also targeted the self-employed and the educated by telling them they would be able to refinance, that it was The Way for them to go.
mark:
I hear you . . . I don't know about real life. I tend to think the BIG conspiracies . . . the level of power they occur at is so high that they do keep secrets.
E
marcia:
LOL! Same here . . . totally agree.
E
kath:
Interesting. I guess in that case, I see less conspiracy than mythology--I see it more in terms of Joseph Campbell.
E
Jude:
LOL! Don't answer the door. Or the phone.
E
spy:
Eactly.
I do own. For me, it made sense . . . but given the economy, I think I'd be less stressed if I rented a townhouse. I don't know. I have a big family so rents are the same as my mortgage for the amount of space I need. However, I do know enough to know that ARMS and so on . . . they can backfire. And definitely people were targeted. Another big target--seniors and reverse mortgages, and seniors and so on and second mortgages. Going for the vulnerable. Screw the greedy bastards!
E
I LOVE UFO conspiracies. I believe we've been visited by beings from other planets, and somewhere there's proof of it and somewhere else there's a cover-up.
edie:
Me too!
E
Oy, so much here... first, I think Mark would be surprised at how easy it is to keep a secret - especially when discussing it can cause you irrepairable harm. Just think of all of the little silly things that embarrass you that you don't let people know, then magnify it with a more unsettling consequence than a bit of blushing.
Housing - I'm lucky in that my house is less than ten years from being paid off for and even with the dramatic drop in housing prices, it shouldn't hit down to what I paid for it 11 years ago... buuuuut, pretty much my entire savings went into getting it paid down so quickly. We live in a bad high school district and looking ahead toward putting the kids in college, I wanted to move before they start high school to a better ditrict - now I'm thinking it might be better to rent, and put the money from the house into CD's or something safe with a little interest earning on it - that way the extra can help with college and the principal is still there if I ever want to own again.
There's nothing wrong with renting. The days of using your house as a significant part of your retirement are over.
Conspiracy theories, well, that can be a whole post in itself. They often smack of crazy, but I've seen enough to know that even the paranoid aren't always wrong.
Erica, you've touched on a subject I'm in total agreement with. It's all around us. Since the financial crisis, I've caught glimpses of other things in motion and I gotta tell ya, it's scary. Why will we have American deployments in the U.S.? Yep, starting today, a battallion (not sure how many)of our solders will be on our shores protecting us? They will rotate out of Iraq, and protect our soil. I can't tell you how wierd it was to keep seeing this one everywhere. On a military site, it says to prevent riots, in case of natural disasters, and chemical or warfare disasters. Hmmmm.....
And I do believe in the UFO coverup, but lately I think bigger things are behind the closed door. Did you know the Bush family bought about 100,000 acres in Paraguay a few years back?
I love conspiracies, and my husband is always looking for the conspiracy angle in every random news story. Especially with all the political wranglings going on these days. I have to remind him that sometimes people (*cough* Palin *cough*) just do stupid things without an ulterior motive.
btw, I think I'm going to camp out in your blog. Once again, you've niggled an idea for my next story. I knew it would be a conspiracy of some sort but still need to work out what exactly. This has given me some good ideas!
I love conspiracies in fiction - hate them in real life. In real life, it's called a conspiracy when it involves the rich, famous and powerful, but it's just called a scheme when others are involved.
My favorite conspiracy is that the Jews own Hollywood. I just can't figure out how everyone found out! Every month I get my "Jew Hollywood Check" in it's discreet vellum envelope. I put it towards my mortgage. (How that nasty old Mel Gibson has managed to outsmart us, I just don't know.)
How timely this is! I just watched Zeitgeist
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
the other night- and now I see conspiracies everywhere . . .
:-D
merry;
Really good point. Everyone has the stuff they tell no one.
E
ladonna:
I'm with you . . . scarey!
E
melanie;
Drop by for ideas any time. LOL!
E
anti-wife:
Totally awesome point!!!
E
Robin:
Is that like the Gay Mafia in Hollywood? ;-)
Ridiculous!
E
P.S. But those Scientologists out there are scary!
Erica, you silly, the Gay Mafia in Hollywood are the evil Jews' best friends! We sit around and listen to Streisand toons and laugh and laugh! It's great fun. We can afford lots of Streisand records with our "we own Hollywood" checks.
Okay my FAVORITE conspiracy, though I absolutely don't believe in it, because I know the science involved, is the Moon Landing Hoax conspiracy.
Something about it just captures the imagination even if you know it's bunk. The idea that the entire moon landing was filmed in a studio instead of really happening. It's one of those "omg what if that was true?" sort of deals.
But for the record I DO believe we went to the moon, lol.
robin:
I knew it!
zoe:
I forgot about the moon hoax. Actually, that's really interesting--because yeah . . . the idea of it being a hoax is cool.
E
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