From: mporter@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mitchell Porter)
Subject: Conspiracy to Destroy the Earth?
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 00:32:54 GMT

I started writing this article about the events of last night intending to
send it off to a mailing list to which I subscribe, but I am posting it to
Usenet News instead because it's not really on-topic for the list, whereas
here I think it is. I am not a regular reader of alt.conspiracy or
alt.destroy.the.earth, so perhaps these topics have come up here before.
Anyhow, on with the story...


Before I read this morning's mail I want to have a go at describing some
strange things that happened last night. I was walking home from the train
station and overtook a guy who had been walking along slowly ahead of me
(it was about 12.30 am). He said a few things by way of talking a little,
but I was thinking about net-related matters and it was damn cold anyway,
so I said I wanted to keep going.. so then he pulled out a $10 note and
gave it to me. This slowed me down a bit. We did end up talking for a few
minutes, in the course of which he told me a bit about his life: briefly,
he was born in Algeria just before the Revolution, a "pied-noir", so
neither the French nor the revolutionary Algerians would accept his
generation; he went to Europe as a young man - said he knew London and
Paris like the back of his hand; now he was here in Australia, married
with five children, and his advice to me was 'to follow your mind, not the
money or the carrot'.
  Anyhow, after we separated, a few minutes later I ran into *another*
guy, who was hurrying past until he saw me and stopped to say hello. I
recognized him after a few moments: we had spoken in a cafe a few times -
then he was telling me of the necessity of space colonization, so the
human species doesn't have all of its eggs in one basket. We talked a bit,
and then a bit longer (but it was mostly him talking and me listening),
and I will have a go at summarizing what he told me:
  He is now homeless - but he has a list of dozens of addresses that he
tries to visit every day. Basically his aim is still to try to save some
fraction of the human race from extinction, but his preferred means have
changed and this time I got to hear more of his worldview. He began by
saying how we're all living in a sick society, citing as an example an
incident within the last few days where he had seen a street kid carrying
several ?ounces of pure speed, who was handing it out to anybody who
wanted it. "Now how do you think that sort of stuff gets on the streets?"
he asked. After a few other examples, he went on to say that this overall
sickness was largely attributable to universal corruption - "the police,
the government minister, the US senate". "Kids don't believe the teacher,
they don't believe the minister, they don't believe their parents. If you
lie to a five or six-year-old, they may not really have an idea of what a
lie is just yet, but they know they're being deceived."
  He went on to say that a state of massive denial is near-universal -
people don't want to see how bad things are, how bad they are getting, or
what is just around the corner - which, he said, is nuclear Armageddon. He
recounted a few stories about the way geopolitics supposedly really works;
eg the Russians saying to the US, "OK, we give in, we surrender, just so
we don't have to fight a war. But as the price you're going to have to
support all these people that *we've* been supporting" - (I think he was
talking about ex-Soviet Central Asia here) - "that's the price *you'll*
have to pay for getting us to drink Coca-Cola and accept the rest of your
shit." 
  For me the most interesting geopolitical story he told was his version
of China 1989. The US began by trying to entice China, with things like
aerospace technology transfer, and later exchange student programs, all
carefully calculated to try to spread the American system. "Several
thousand exchange students were sent to China, and there were no
restrictions on what they could take - sports cars, flashy clothes - and
of course your ordinary Chinese hasn't seen anything like this..." (This
is all meant to suggest what he said of course - it's not a word-for-word
quote, I didn't have a tape recorder running.) Essentially, their presence
was such a stimulus to the Chinese students, who in turn were a stimulus
to the urban workers, that the 1949 "democracy movement" turns out to have
been the result of American conspiracy. So *then*, the Chinese government
"made a really heavy decision: they sent in the tanks, and they shot their
own children, in order to send the message, that they were prepared to use
the bomb." (ie "if they were prepared to do that to their own children,
what would they do to America?") This action apparently reined in the
interference of the American government in China.
  Later on he briefly praised the virtues of Chinese civilization - "4000
years; America is just 200 years old, it's just a little brat", and
"they've never invaded or raped and plundered another people, they've been
nonaggressive for four thousand years"; he even advised me to go to the
library today and read some books on Chinese history. He then contrasted
East with West, saying "the fucking American government, it's out of
control..."
  I don't know how clear all this sounds, but anyhow, his essential
allegation is that there is an inner core of extremely powerful people in
America who are planning to launch the missiles soon (when he mentioned
this he would look at his watch, and say things like, "I hope we have at
least two years" - I don't know why he looked to the watch, perhaps for
dramatic emphasis). He told me that because of a 50-year secrecy act of
some sort, you can't find out, say, who the first 300 people in the CIA
were, since it is held to be a matter of national security. (This is where
he gave me a recap of Oliver North's appearance before the US Senate -
saying how North had said he was ordered to do what he did, but he
couldn't say who gave him his orders, since he would then be executed for
treason, and so the Senate agreed because North was thus following the
letter of the law stating that you can't divulge these names.) And
presumably it is these people who are the only ones who have the capacity
to launch the missiles - and I think he assumes that they intend to do so
because he can't see any other reason for continuing to produce them. And
the fact that nobody even *knows* who the power-wielders are - he said -
was why he was looking for schemes to make a safe haven for part of
humanity to make it through a nuclear apocalypse, rather than trying to
avert the missile-firing altogether.
  He used the phrase "the serpent's head" a few times, as in "You have to
find the serpent's head and chop it off, if you want to do it that way."
He said thousands of people around the world were trying to find out who
these top people were, but "they went underground 20 years ago... And
these are really ruthless people. They shot their own president on TV,
after all!" I am pretty sure he said at one point that he knew seven
people who had been shot dead in the course of such investigations (as he
was talking, he was contantly looking around us to see if anyone was
approaching). Whether these seven were people he knew personally, I'm not
sure. 
  I briefly mentioned the Internet, saying "couldn't you reach all these
millions of people you say you can't work out how to reach, by putting
your information out there". In trying to explain the net, I said that it
was a computer network linking mostly universities all over the world. He
said, in effect, that it was still probably not enough - that you could
tell all the college students the truth, and people would just panic
("You'll probably start to panic when you realize how bad thngs are", he
warned me at the beginning; and indeed I was shivering violently
throughout a lot of the conversation, but I think that was because I was
standing there in the cold in just shirt, shorts and thongs.) "The
students might try to start a revolution, but in that case the people who
run the show would just go ahead with their plans now, rather than later."
"On the bases where they have these weapons stationed, once they're
getting ready to launch, those places are completely sealed off - no
communications from the outside world. They wouldn't know what was going on."
This is why he emphasized the necessity of finding "the head of the
serpent" - if you knew who the conspirators were, and got the names to the
right people, they could perhaps stage a coup and head the thing off. But
he saw no way of finding out who they were. When I said, well isn't it
better to give it a go, rather than say, I can't stop the bombs from going
off, I'll try to save a few at least; he said no - if people are gong to
die, you should let them die peacefully, rather than have them spend their
last days in panic and terror. After all, when "5000" bombs went off it
would be "like the planet passing through the sun" - "all the oxygen in
the atmosphere being destroyed". I had to this point not expressed any
criticisms of what he had said, simply in order to find out what he might
say, but the idea that after such an event everything would be over and
done with stuck me as absurd. "It might be over quickly in the major
population centres, where the bombs go off directly overhead, but if
you're outside..." In any case, I didn't get much of a chance to argue
this, because at this point *another* guy happened along, who overheard us
talking about bombs, and said "You have more to worry about than atomic
bombs these days... There's the electromagnetic bomb." When I asked him
what that might be, he said it "used" electromagnetic radiation to "turn
one atom into another". "It's a bit like alchemy." I asked him for
details, and he said "It changes the number of electrons that the atom can
hold... You happen to have run into a drunken physicist." The first guy
said, "Oh well, I don't want to hear about it if there's something even
worse, it doesn't change our situation..." and said something about the
importance of dealing with the conspiracy behind the weapons machine. The
second guy said, "Oh well, if you're talking about conspiracies, the
military-industrial complex isn't the *real* one", and I said, "So what
is? The Committee of 300?" but it turned out he just meant the Masons.
"You don't get anywhere in US politics without being a Mason." (The first
guy had already said that *they* have lookouts everywhere, in the fof
organizations which are backing or banking the group which is planning to
use the bombs: such groups include the Illuminati, the Masons, the Roman
Catholic Church...)
  At this point I coldn't stand the cold any more and didn't want to
pursue any of these matters right there and then, partly because I wasn't
sure *where* I would want to start asking for clarifications,
justifications, etc. So I simply got the second guy's number (I haven't
yet phoned him; it's now only 9 am); and I may well run into the first guy
again, if I keep my eyes open.
  Okay. I have basically attempted to describe what I heard without
inserting too many critical comments. About the only factor I haven't
mentioned so far, I think, is that the first guy also said a few times that
he thought the whole thing was probably Satanic ("this is the devil's
planet now"), which I guess means that he has an outlook similar to that
expressed in (for example) the Australian book "The Cosmic Conspiracy",
which alleges that human geopolitics is a battleground for cosmic forces
of Good and Evil (not a rare claim, actually). Anyhow, if you inhabit a
reality-tunnel anywhere near that of consensus reality, you can probably
think of lots of reasons not to believe this world-picture. I know I can
think of all sorts of arguments against the idea of a (possibly satanic)
conspiracy to bring about a nuclear apocalypse. But, I also recognize that
my major motivation in thinking up counter-arguments is simply that I do
not *want* to believe in such a conspiracy, since to put it mildly it
makes life somewhat more difficult. What future for extropian hopes such
as indefinite life extension wheneverything's gong to go up in a few years
anyway? And the problem is, how can anyone who is *not* a member of the
hypothetical conspiracy prove that the conspiracy is *not* there, unless
they actually are part of the "inner core"?
  You can remove the part about Satanism and still retain the idea of a
conspiracy whose aim is global genocide. This idea I have actually seen
expressed before, in the final chapter of "High Weirdness by Mail", of all
places. In stark contrast to the cuttingly sarcastic reviews which make up
90% of the rest of the book, that whole last chapter is devoted to
excerpts from a newsletter called "Further Connections" put out by Waves
Forest (PO Box 768, Monterey CA 93940, USA). Here are Ivan Stang's comments:
  "One of the Robin Hoods of suppressed data. Anyone who wants to
seriously look into the possibility that major scientific breakthroughs
ARE being hidden by THEM owe it to themselves to send for his info, which
includes listings and addresses for many fringe research groups not
covered in this book. Not funny at all... horrifying, yes;
outlandish-sounding, HELL yes; but funny, no. Very persuasive, sobering,
almost poetic essay/rants with attached bibliographies on the various
technologies and metaphysical discoveries. Be prepared, however, for some
real shocks to your programming. $4 should cover expenses for the first
mailing, which contains more than 400 sources. A penny a source, folks.
You gonna pass it up? *Huh, boy?*" (I have sent away for this mailing
myself; no response so far.)
  And some words from Waves Forest:
  
  Imagine you are among only a few hundred masters of a whole planet's
resources, with five billion slaves surronding you, many in bad shape
because you've mishandled some resources, many others starting to wake up
to the situation. In your attempts to strengthen your psition you have
seriously mistreated a lot of them, or hired others to do so, and you are
slowly losing the struggle to keep the extent of your crimes and cruelties
a secret.
  If you were in such a position, would it feel safe to share with all
citizens the advanced technolgies developed in your top-secret "defense"
laboratories? Some of these discoveries could free mankind from dependence
on your resource monopolies, and provide tools for a mass uprising and
overthrow of your regimes.

  When a man does something his fellows would strongly object to, and
decides to keep the misdeed a secret, he mentally withdraws somewhat from
the others, because now he has to watch himself to make sure doesn't
mention what he did. More misdeeds bring on further withdrawal. The
intensity of the misdeeds and the secrecy surrounding them can increase to
astonishing proprtions.
  It has actually reached the point where certain very powerful men, to
ensure their presonal safety and the perpetuation of their empires, plan
to kill off two thirds of the world's population and overtly enslave the rest.
  Since most of the general public just somehow doesn't feel right about
genocide, the blatant exterminations of the '30s and '40s have been
replaced by artificially induced wars, plagues, accidents, and "natural"
disasters.
  Earhquakes can be induced artificially by precise placement and timing
of nuclear "tests". The shock waves sprad out over the globe, then
recombine at various harmonic intervals around the sphere to deliver a
strong jolt at the desired location within forty-eight hours of the
initial blast.

  So there it is again, the idea that "certain very powerful men... plan
to kill off two thirds of the world's population and overtly enslave the
rest." Hell, I recall a similar idea - although the motivation here was a
religious/occult hope of achieving immortality - on the part of the Saures
in "Illuminatus!"
  So what I want to know is this. Where did this idea originate? Does
anyone know more about Waves Forest, about the secret 600 at the top of
the CIA, about the logistical problems of organizing such a conspiracy, of
what forms this idea has taken, who communicates it, who argues against it?

PS: If the "first guy" of my story is in fact wholly correct, and some
member of the Conspiracy reads this post, then according to the argument
he gave the bombs will be set off now rather than later...

PPS: I have just recalled another anecdote from the same guy's monologue.
He said he approached a few US sailors (on shore leave here, I presume)
with a similar set of claims and ideas, and asked what they thought of it;
and one guy said, "Well, if I was to give you my opinion I would probably
agree, and probably so wold my friends, but we can't give you opinions
because when we join the Navy we sign a little piece of paper that
forbids us from expressing political opinions, and we'll get shot for
treason if we violate that paper..." This is one claim (amongst many!) of
which I am sceptical - can anyone confirm or deny this? I can imagine a
courtmartial, dishonourable discharge, etc - but execution?

Xref: sparky alt.conspiracy:12168 misc.legal:19894