Loose Change

I remember waking up on the morning of September 11th, 2001. A guy on sports talk radio mentioned something about how a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and now possibly the Pentagon, also? In those days, I could listen to the radio for an hour without being compelled to actually rise and begin the day but on that day, this news was enough. I went straight to the living room and turned on the tv.

I sat on my couch, my back to my main window, watching the tv and wondering if I would hear bombers or bombs coming down into the San Gabriel Valley from over the tops of our mountains behind me. Unlike others, I believed. I believed everything I saw and like everyone I knew, I was sad, but for different reasons.

I was sad for those who were dying behind the smoke in front of my eyes on my television screen but also for the bad omen this "attack," represented. President Bush had cozened his way into office. This at the very least, (on the back of an antiquated electoral college system,) considering even he agreed he lost the popular vote. I knew this event would grant him license.

I am not a genius for realizing this-I know many understood it immediately, (though we were all kind of silenced in public about it.) But I knew the fear this event would place in the hearts of my countrymen, and men the planet over, would pave the way for an agenda of greed and corruption the likes of which I guessed the world had not before seen.

My thoughts at that time were conjecture. The manifestations of those thoughts today, are fact. (I could enumerate the evidence but in the interest of limiting this entry, I'll trust you either know or can find plenty of evidence at most any news or information outlet.)

All of this brings me to the idea of conspiracy theories related to the events of 9/11 and the obvious question, is a conspiracy theory by definition a falsehood? Noam Chomsky has said the phrase "conspiracy theory," is used most often to discourage institutional analysis. The idea that a thing could be a conspiracy theory is meant to dismiss that thing, render it on some acceptable level impotent.

If you click on the words "Loose Change," at the top of this blog entry, you will be directed to a site where you can view the movie Loose Change.

This movie is a documentary about the mother of all conspiracy theories. (Credit to Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle for bringing it to my attention.) Loose Change has the audacity to more than suggest the crime that was 9/11 was perpetrated by people other than those we were told executed it. And, the movie has merit.

I can't know what theories presented in the movie may or may not be true so personally, i don't see a point in taking a definitive stand on its veracity. Rather, I recognize what is important about the movie. It quite clearly illustrates and points out the fact that our government has become far too secretive, (secrecy being the cornerstone of all tyrrany.)

This movie, and indeed all that we know as "9/11," needs institutional analysis. Not like the Warren Commission wherein the findings remain secret even after they were scheduled to be revealed, (the secrecy being in the "national interest," in the first place.) There can be no national interest in this case greater than our need to know, our need to find a way to trust our government, again.