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The Forum > Article Comments > Know your enemy > Comments

Know your enemy : Comments

By John Woodley, published 28/6/2007

All conspiracy theories depend on the identification of an enemy as the threat around which the conspiracy revolves.

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Another example of this in Australia - and leaving us living under its legacy - is the 1962 betray of the people of West New Guinea.

America and the local papers told Australians that West Papua had to be sold to Indonesia to save us from communism, inside the U.S. White House advisers like Robert Komer and McGeorge Bundy had spent sixteen months convincing President Kennedy that he had to force the Netherlands to sell the Papuan people to save America and Australia from communism. See http://wpik.org for U.S. & Australian references.

Fear won the day - what the U.S. advisers forgot to tell their President or us, was that their friends at Freeport Sulphur (today Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold) and Bechtel (today the head of the "US Indonesia Society") were in mid-scheme designing the world's largest Gold & Copper mine to be built inside West New Guinea. Today that mine dumps over 300,000 tons of waste per day! into Papua's rivers and our Arafura Sea.

It is my observation that people who use "us versus them" politics, often have a secret agenda they do not want seen by the public. When George Bush took office in 2001 with a great deal of help from Bechtel Inc., he immediately asked for the U.S. to drop its bans on the TNI military, he has since promoted the TNI as vital allies and nuclear energy as America's future; all of which are agenda items of the Bechtel Corporation. If you follow the money (even in Iraq or Bolovia, or Indonesia) you will often find what the media has failed to mention.
Posted by Daeron, Thursday, 28 June 2007 10:08:16 AM
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An excellent essay.

One point I would add is that, in contrast to ‘crimes of the powerful’ conspiracies such as the 911 Truth Movement, ‘enemy-identification’ conspiracies often carry enormous respect within the societies in which they operate – and are rarely identified as conspiracies until many years later, if at all. This is usually because they are directed by those who control both the economy and the mouthpieces of public debate.

In Australia in recent years, a revolving-door Right-wing cabal comprising the Howard government, The Australian newspaper (and most Murdoch publications) and a close circle of Right-wing think tanks such as the Centre for Independent Studies and Institute of Public Affairs, has created and maintained a shrill conspiracy theory against the straw-man ‘enemy’ Left and its supposedly destructive cultural legacy, ‘political correctness’.

Dubbed ‘the Culture Wars’, this political version of clinical ‘sinistrophobia’ (fear of the left side of the body) identifies any form of social challenge to the traditional rich-male-dominator system – in particular, women’s rights, the indigenous struggle, multiculturalism, environmentalism, the peace movement, social welfare and trade unionism – as a conspiracy by Left-wing socialist elites who have supposedly infiltrated academia, the media, the arts, the bureaucracy and politics.

To those who control the current public debate, the idea that such social challenges are simply the inevitable evolutionary growing pains of a society in progress – and are not confined to Left-wing politics – is unthinkable. Rather than rising to meet and embrace the positives inherent in these social challenges, it is much more comfortable to do what the Right wing does best – wage war.
Posted by MLK, Thursday, 28 June 2007 12:12:44 PM
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No they don't . I have a conspiracy theory that unknown enemies are out to get me. Because I write here. I can't identify them as they are unknown.

But it's still my theory. You see, I'm paranoid. Echelon is watching me while Elvis and Harold Holt dance together in Atlantis, having wacthed the making of the moon landing in Vegas.
Posted by DavoP, Thursday, 28 June 2007 1:25:28 PM
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It's true DavoP.

I'm actually a high-tech artificial intelligence designed to spy on you and drop occasional behaviour-modifying messages in order to test your suggestability.

Oh, apparently you're a seven, though I'm expecting that to go up after you read this message.
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Thursday, 28 June 2007 2:01:12 PM
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MLK, don’t you recognise that what you’ve written is an example of a conspiracy theory, that “they” are out to manipulate us for their own ends?

I agree with most of this article, and especially its identification of a straw man evil “enemy” as the centre of conspiracy theories. It’s why many of the discussion on Islam on OLO get so polarised so quickly.

But the article is weakened by focussing almost entirely on right-wing, western conspiracies. Islamic (and other) anti-Americanism, MLK’s “right wing cabal”, the antipathy to big business, big oil etc, the language of the “military industrial complex”, much of the anti-globalisation movement and the more rabid Howard-haters equally rely freedom to hate supposedly granted because of the unambiguously “evil” other.

The key strength of this kind of analysis is when it’s used for self-criticism, by any group, left or right, that is overly confident of the rightness of its cause and the wrongness of its opponents.

When it’s used only to show how wrong one’s ideological opponents are, it can paradoxically turn into the very thing it’s trying to warn against – a means of vilifying opponents without engaging in what they really think and feel, or recognising the merits of their arguments and the weaknesses of one’s own.
Posted by Rhian, Thursday, 28 June 2007 2:25:10 PM
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Rhian,

I’m starting to wonder if you might be out to get me … Just kidding.

‘MLK, don’t you recognise that what you’ve written is an example of a conspiracy theory, that “they” are out to manipulate us for their own ends.’

Yes, I fully recognise that what I wrote is an example of a conspiracy theory – which is why I wrote it.

In fact, one of the best articles written about the long-term revolving door between The Australian newspaper, the Centre for Independent Studies, the Institute of Public Affairs and Howard government, is this one by David McKnight (author or ‘Beyond Right and Left):

‘Rupert Murdoch and the Culture War’, La Trobe University Essay, http://home.vicnet.net.au/~abr/Feb04/McKnight.htm

Also, any scrutiny of The Australian newspaper over any set period of time, particularly its Perspectives pages, indicates a dominance of CIS and IPA contributors, a howling double standard in its portrayal of the government and opposition, and a very unhealthy obsession with dissecting and bisecting the supposed ‘failures’ and ‘hypocrisies’ of the Left.

It’s not so much The Australian’s savage critiques of the Left (with no corresponding critiques of the Right) that are grounds for a conspiracy theory, but their sheer volume, constancy and repetitiveness
Posted by MLK, Thursday, 28 June 2007 3:51:35 PM
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Thanks for that great link MLK, a very good analysis of that disgraceful rag.
Posted by Carl, Thursday, 28 June 2007 8:28:41 PM
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Well all this was said before Iraq.

It has always seemed to me that 'conjecture' is a fairly natural response to secrecy. When politicians have secret agendas - usually easily discerned by their rhetoric not synchronising with their actions - you know it is about the interests of a 'special' few and not the interests of all. Conspiracy theories are often much more intelligent and nearer the mark than people, until now that is, have previously given them credit.
Posted by K£vin, Friday, 29 June 2007 1:41:48 AM
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The author said:

"While the teaching of Christian Zionism is much more influential in the USA than in Australia, the friendship of John Howard with George Bush means that this teaching has affected the political agenda of our nation and involved us in the appalling wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Here, here.

John Howard is a criminal.

Australia is (and always has been) very good at punishing petty thieves or innocent people, but totally useless when it comes to punishing evil deeds carried out by those in government.
Posted by Ev, Friday, 29 June 2007 10:57:28 PM
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