Between 2008 and 2010, Matthew Dentith first joined 95bFM’s Simon Pound, then José Barbosa, on Sunday mornings to talk about conspiracy theories. Listen, as they say, again!
Well, I somewhat forgot to update the blog with the confirmation of my fortnightly radio hijinks. Jose is now my erudite host and today’s dissection of the Loudon and Moran article was, I think, rather thorough. Here’s a link to the article and my rebuttal:
Next time around we’ll be fisking chem trails. So, until then, watch the skies!
(I’ve always wanted to say that.)
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The Dentith Files
This week Matthew Dentith looks at claims that the Soviet Union had plans and, indeed, went about gaining influence within New Zealand unions. The aim was to undermine and destroy ANZUS and it’s argued that New Zealand’s much vaunted anti-nuclear policy was a result of that.
Matthew’s not so sure, or, at least, he sees no evidence for it.
Listen and then have a gander at Matthew’s post on his blog about the subject. There’s links to the original article written by Peter Cresswell, and Trevor Loudon.
Note bene: The original article was written by Trevor Loudon and Bernard Moran. Peter Cresswell just linked to it.
Between 2008 and 2010, Matthew Dentith first joined 95bFM’s Simon Pound, then José Barbosa, on Sunday mornings to talk about conspiracy theories. Listen, as they say, again!
The Dentith Files
Today, Matthew enlightens us on the mysterious and utterly scando Stone Masons. Learn about their history and reputation for having lots of choice secrets.
Like last time, more content than we had time for, but it will lead on nicely to the next topic, the Illuminati, in two weeks time. Since there were topics we simply didn’t get on to here are the notes from today’s ‘episode’ along with an assortment of my finiest unanswered questions (now with trite and easy answers supplied, free of charge).
Freemasonry
A Potted History
The legends concerning the founding of Freemasonry are numerous. Some say it was founded by the Patriarch Lamech before the Flood, others claim Freemasonry is simply the remnants of the Roman college system, whilst others argue that the origins of Freemasonry are to be found in Egypt, or that modern Freemasons are the rightful heirs to the Templar legacy. What we do know is this. Freemasonry first appears as an organisation in ACE1717 when the Grand Lodge is founded in England. It seems to be based upon an early Scottish fraternal system for stonemasons, basically a social club for skilled stonecrafters to share trade secrets and network.
Freemasonry was but one of the many fraternal societies in the 18th Century; what made it so popular seems to have been its system of “revealed” knowledge, slowly doled out to its members through a variety of secret and mysterious rituals as the adept proceded through the three degrees of membership, the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft and the Master Mason.
By the 19th Century it boasted eight million members. However, like many secret societies, Freemasonry split and fractured; from one English Lodge in 1717 Freemasonry split into the Egyptian Rite in 1788, the Ancient and Accepted Rite in 1802, the Scottish Rite in 1833 and more besides.
Given Freemasonry’s popularity with the growing middle-classes it soon garnered a reputation for being involved in politics and the occult (which were, admittedly, the growing concerns of the bourgeois). However, Freemasonry was, and still is (to a certain extent), merely a system of personal development… for men (some female lodges also exist, but we cannot, to paraphrase Michael Palin, escape the sexism inherent in the system). Whilst modern Freemasonry has begun to reinvent itself as a charitable organisation, the system and the rituals of initiation are meant to make Masons better men.
Which may explain why its members now number less than two million. In today’s economy Men don’t want to be better; they just want to be richer…
Questions:
Why is Freemasonry so suspicious?
Because in purportedly open societies secret organisations are de facto suspicious in their activities. Why else would they hide behind ritual, the common wisdom asks…
Why is it that there are so many songs about rainbows… sorry, that so many global Conspiracy Theories have Masons at the heart of them?
Because Freemasons have had a history of being in politics, because the Illuminati (which started out as Freemasonry) engaged in conspiratorial activities, because of the answer to the former question, because of the work of Antimasons (which can be considered both good and bad) and so forth.
What kind of knowledge is this “revealed” knowledge?
The kind of ‘knowledge’ one gets from a self-help book. But with bells, whistles and funky robes… (Plausibly, once upon a time, some of it might have been encoded mathematical secrets; for stonemasons this could have qualified as trade secrets…)
Why is Antimasonry so popular?
A good question. Probably because no one likes not knowing other peoples’ secrets. And because Freemasonry does pose a threat to other organisations that also trade on revealed knowledge or vested authority.
Between 2008 and 2010, Matthew Dentith first joined 95bFM’s Simon Pound, then José Barbosa, on Sunday mornings to talk about conspiracy theories. Listen, as they say, again!
We ran well over time this week and so the Middle East was a little truncated. Next time, Freemasons. Everyone loves the Freemasons. The time after that, Chem-trails. Because poison is fun.
The Dentith Files
This week our resident conspiracy theory expert, Matthew Dentith, talks to Simon about the further ‘terror raids’ arrests and the conspiracies around this, internet troubles in the Middle East, and in a move that will make both conspiracy theorists and conspiracy sceptics happy, the British Government being forced to reveal that the dossier used to justify the British-assisted invasion of Iraq was indeed doctored.
(Here follow the notes that lead to Sunday the 24th of February’s exciting discourse)
Three things:
One: More raids-slash-arrests over the October 15th “Terror” Raids. News of this, which leaked on Tuesday, is already creating claims of some state-level conspiracy against the people of Tuhoe. I’ll be keeping an eye out on this one and keep you up to date as more news comes to hand.
Two: In a move that will make both Conspiracy Theorists and Conspiracy Sceptics happy, the British Government have been forced to reveal that the dossier used to justify the British-assisted invasion of Iraq was indeed doctored… by a Downing Street PR doctor and the information that Blair said made it a moral imperative to invade Iraq, that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction against the UK within 45 minutes, was a late minute amendment. Certain Conspiracy Theorists (which, in this case, isn’t really a pejorative label because I suspect most of us agree with them) will be happy because it proves exactly what people have been talking about for quite some time whilst Conspiracy Skeptics will be arguing that this, once again, proves that not only with the truth come out but that even seemingly well-oiled Governments can’t organise a five year old’s surprise birthday party without the child being in on it.
Finally, today’s topic of attention, the Middle-East and the Internet.
At the end of January two underwater cables (carrying the oh-so precious internet) failed, causing intermittent internet access to countries from Dubai to India. There was immediate reaction (mostly from the Blogosphere) accusing either Al Qaeda or the American Government cutting the cables deliberately. When two more cables subsequently failed the knives were out; the USA (Al Qaeda seems to have been excused from the picture) was deliberately causing troubles for Iran (and Pakistan, and India, incidentally) or preparing for a fake terrorist attack on the Superbowl (thanks, 9/11 Truthers, for that theory).
Let’s quote Conspiracy Theorist (and 9/11 Truther) Richard Saunder’s article “Connecting the Many Undersea Cut Cable Dots”:
Three things stand out about these incidents:
1) all of them, save one, have occurred in waters near predominantly Muslim nations, causing disruption in those countries; 2) all but two of the cut/damaged cables are in Middle Eastern waters; 3) so many like incidents in such a short period of time suggests that they are not accidents, but are in fact deliberate acts, i.e., sabotage.
The evidence therefore suggests that we are looking at a coordinated program of undersea cable sabotage by an actor, or actors, on the international stage with an anti-Muslim bias, as well as a proclivity for destructive violence in the Middle Eastern region.
Now, obviously to prove such a conclusion you need more than just those three premisses (especially since one of those premises [#3] is the conclusion anyway); the argument rests upon the assumption that someone (the USA, for example) had the means and the motive(s) to cause the cables to fail, but what could these be?
So, what about the means? First you need to understand the “nature”, if you will, of underwater cables; they fail a lot, especially in areas with a high level of shipping activity. Ships either run through them or the action of their movements, combined with ocean currents, cause the cables to rub on the ocean floor and eventually fail. So, given that we should expect cable failures we have to ask, is four failed cables a statistical anomaly? Well, maybe. A lot of analysts, such as Professor Steve Bellovin (of Columbia University) and Todd Underwood (of Renesys) thought the breakages were unusual but not necessarily in such a way to denote malicious activity. So the answer to the means question is a little vague; it may have been intentional or it might just be a statistical blip (and perhaps not even much of one). Indeed, to really understand whether the cable failures indicate a planned and malicious act you would need to not only analyse just how often cables in this area of the world fail but compare that rate to other similar regions. It may well be the case that, yes, all these cables failed in waters near pre-dominantly Muslim nations but the same has happened elsewhere. Indeed, given the overall trend of cables failing due to wear and tear, perhaps this isn’t quite the statistical anomaly that it seems like (when we take into account past incidences and the like).
Which means we really have to ask about the motive(s) to decide whether the cable failures were caused intentionally. Why would someone deliberately cut these cables?
One argument was that it would cut off the ‘net to Iran, although reports from Iran, filed from the ‘net users, seemed to show that it’s access wasn’t affected much, if at all. Because most Conspiracy Theories focus, at the moment, on just evil America is, the issue shifted from “Is America trying to cause trouble to Iran?” to “What else might America be doing to Iran?” (which, given America’s interest in the Middle East might be a plausible assumption to bring to bear, but it is just an assumption at this stage, even if some Conspiracy Theorists will posit it as a gods-given truth). Were the Americans trying to perform a wire tap on the cables to monitor Middle Eastern communications? If so, then, well, four obvious cable failures seems a little too cack-handed. Possibly the plan was to cut cables and force communications through one particularly cable which was easily monitored, although this plan has the flaw in that the cut cables would be (and have been) fixed within a few weeks. But maybe, by the time the cables are fixed, secret wire-tapping technology will have been attached to them by the US Navy Seals.
Which is all very hypothetical and rests upon a particularly problematic assumption that these fibre optic cables can be tapped into, which it seems they cannot, at least to the limits of our public knowledge. Maybe the US have special, secret technology, but if they do we don’t know about it. This story seems a little flimsy.
Of course, it’s not just the States that have been implicated; Israel has also had the finger pointed at it. The country to suffer the most from the cable cuts was Egypt, which lost somewhere between 70 and 76% of its internet access when one of the cables to Alexandria failed. Egypt has recently refused to allow Palestinians to settle in Sinai, which, regardless of whether you believe there is a conspiracy at work or not, must be a bit of a disaster for the Israeli government.
These motives are all examples of inferences to any old explanation, a fallacious move. These explanations take some piece of data, the failed cables, and posit stories that seek to show that the cables failed for a reason, that it wasn’t normal wear and tear, wasn’t merely what you might expect, but were the results of a conspiracy by a NeoCon-Zionist alliance seeking to destabilise the Middle East and, presumably, give America, Israel and its allies reason to invade and impose its hegemony.
Which, may well be the case, but the evidence, as it stands, isn’t up to supporting those stories.
Between 2008 and 2010, Matthew Dentith first joined 95bFM’s Simon Pound, then José Barbosa, on Sunday mornings to talk about conspiracy theories. Listen, as they say, again!
Well, yes, for long time listeners this was a bit recap-y on the previous one, but Simon and I were developing our rapport and sometimes that means asking questions you already know the answer to, you know?
Good. New and original content next time. As you may have heard (or about to) I’m presenting a recent (i.e. very contemporary) Conspiracy Theory in a fortnight. Suggestions?
The Dentith Files
Our resident conspiracy theory expert, Matthew Dentith, talks to Simon about whether he himself is a conspiracy theorist, how conspiracy theories compare to more mainstream explanations, and the CIA not really being as secretive as we make out in the movies.
In a fortnight Matthew will be giving us a run-down on the biggest or most interesting conspiracy going on right now!
