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“Those larger institutional forces are directed by conscious human agency, and those agencies use conspiracy or non-conspiracy, they use conspiratorial forces or non-conspiratorial forces, and that the conspiratorial forces are important, they’re not rare exceptions, and that they are systemic in their nature and in their output.” – Michael Parenti (from this week’s lecture.)
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Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
Conspiracy theory.
The term is in frequent use today. It is abundant during present day discourse over the coronavirus pandemic, as voices are rising to raise questions around some of extra-ordinary moves being made by governments to enforce the main narrative. [1][2][3]
The term is also a ‘thought-stopper.’ As soon as you are labelled a ‘conspiracy theorist,’ even before you have a chance to muster an argument, the public by and large will immediately develop a distrustful attitude toward you.
But conspiracies not only exist in our society, it actually is a concept in law! And, it is in systemic use by governments determined to fulfill a desired goal that might be difficult to explain. What’s more, the concept of Class Power plays a substantial role in subverting this deception ‘in the public good.’
Sunday November 22 is the anniversary of one of the most famous incidents of ‘conspiracy’ in the history of America – the assassination of John F Kennedy courtesy of one lone gunman. After the multiple exposures of Kennedy at odds with some elements of his own state with regard to Cuba and Vietnam, it end up being simpler to blame one ‘patsy’, kill him, and keep invoking the term ‘conspiracy theory’ to throw innocent inquiry off balance. [4]
This set-up forms the backdrop for the entire discussion aired on the Global Research News Hour this week. ‘Conspiracy and Class Power’ is a famous speech given in Berkeley, California by author and lecturer Michael Parenti. Unlike Alexander Cockburn, Noam Chomsky and others, this progressive voice finds ‘conspiracy’ to be not only an aspect of an occasional event, but a factor running through regular State operations.
The 1993 lecture you are about to hear not only brings this characteristic forward, he talks about incidents of known conspiracies, the history of foreign invasions and interference inconvenient from the perspective of Liberal ‘apologists,’ and the gearing of the conscious intent of State to use murder to defend an entire element of Class.
This lecture is offered for free. Please feel free to share it widely.
Michael Parenti is an internationally known author and lecturer. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale in 1962 and is one of the nation’s leading progressive political thinkers. His highly informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad. His books include Democracy for the Few, Superpatriotism, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, History as Mystery, and Contrary Notions.
(Global Research News Hour Episode 296)
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg. The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca .
Notes:
- https://www.npr.org/2020/11/19/936248527/covid-19-denial-still-rampant-in-some-virus-hotspots
- Yaron Steinbuch (November 18, 2020), ‘Nurse suspended for spreading conspiracy theories on COVID-19 ‘scamdemic’’; https://nypost.com/2020/11/18/nurse-suspended-for-spreading-coronavirus-conspiracy-theories/
- Katie Sewell (Nov 20, 2020) ‘Coronavirus vaccine conspiracies fact-checked: Ridiculous theories causing people to think’; https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1362113/coronavirus-vaccine-conspiracy-theory-fact-check-explained-covid-vaccination-evg
- https://lightonconspiracies.com/jfk-a-conspiracy-theory/
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