Robert Guffey - Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form

CRYPTOSCATOLOGY:

CONSPIRACY THEORY AS ART FORM

ROBERT GUFFEY

Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory As Art Form

Copyright 2012. Robert Guffey All Rights Reserved.

Presentation Copyright 2012 TrineDay

Published by:
Trine Day LLC
PO Box 577
Walterville, OR 97489
1-800-556-2012
www.TrineDay.com
publisher@trineday.net

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011942527

Guffey, Robert.
Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory As Art Form1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliography.
Epub (ISBN-13) 978-1-936296-41-5 (ISBN-10) 1-936296-41-1
Kindle (ISBN-13) 978-1-936296-42-2 (ISBN-10) 1-936296-42-X
Print (ISBN-13) 978-1-936296-40-8 (ISBN-10) 1-936296-40-3
1. Conspiracy theories Social aspects. 2. Conspiracies Case studies. 3. Popular culture United States. I. Title

First Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the USA

Distribution to the Trade by:
Independent Publishers Group (IPG)
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Publishers Foreword

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.

Thomas Jefferson

What can anyone say? Things havent changed much, and the 21st century isnt all that it was cracked up to be or wait a minute did Orwells 1984, a world of official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of the past in service to manipulative political agenda, become reality?

From my standpoint, it sure seems so. TrineDay has been publishing books with inconvenient truths in them for over ten years. We can get the word out through the Internet, and some talk radio, but newspapers and the rest of mainstream media simply ignore our books. According to Jefferson, maybe the newspapers silence is a good thing, but alas no. When our institutions fail their civic duty, we all pay the price.

Is there something we can do? I find solace, hope and even epiphany in trying to understand our world in which we live, and working to end the corruptions, exploitations and criminalities that hold it in sway. To my thinking this is not a battle-dynamic against Evil, but a long hard slog of exposing evil schemes of men hidden within the framework of everyday life that appear good or bad, depending on your world view. These world views are then played against one another in the most sinister of games, psychological warfare: a cacophony of voices alienating us from our civic duties and natural environments.

I first became aware of the term conspiracy theory when I told friends in the 1970s about things my repentant CIA/OSS/G2 father had revealed to me. They called me a conspiracy theorist, and I decided to take up conspiracy theory as a field of study. What a wild ride! I would go into any and every bookstore I could find, and say, Take me to your conspiracy section. Each had at least one volume about conspiracies. Conspiracies that blamed sundry groups for all the troubles in the world. There were books that blamed it all on the Catholics, the Hippies, the Mormons, the Freemasons, the Secular-Humanists, the Right, the Left, Feminism, Communism, the Rockefellers and of course the Jews. As a matter of fact some of the books appeared formulaic: designed to pit people against each other.

As the 1970s and 80s receded, the interest in conspiracy theory grew, and with the advent of the Internet the subject exploded, even spawning a movie Conspiracy Theory in 1997.

Robert Guffeys Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form examines the genre in the emerging light of todays sophistications, taking the reader on a journey into the conspiracy world. Guffey takes to task, with humor, many of the vexing conundrums one finds in conspiracy literature, and explores the question of religion and its role in peoples world view.

Guffey does a masterful job of bringing an odd world into focus through the lens of conspiracy theory. He will introduce you to people you know, people youve only heard about, and some who you never knew existed. So enjoy yourself and take time to delve into the art form of Conspiracy Theory.

that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

Thomas Jefferson

Onward to the Utmost of Futures!

Peace,

Kris Millegan
Publisher
TrineDay
March 19, 2012

To Melissa

for encouraging me to put all the pieces of the puzzle together

Acknowledgements

Id like to briefly thank a few individuals who have been instrumental in helping me complete this book:

First, the various editors who originally published these pieces: Joan dArc and Al Hidell (The Conspiracy Reader, The New Conspiracy Reader , and Paranoia ), Val Stevenson and David Sutton (Fortean Times ), Chad Tsuyuki and Joanne Kozovich (Like Water Burning ), and David Jones (New Dawn Magazine ).

Second, Catherine Bottolfson McCallum for reading everything first.

Third, Randy Koppang for his research assistance (particularly with regard to the chapter titled Concentration Campus).

Fourth, Eric Blair for his invaluable editorial assistance.

Table of Contents

The police state has now become a work of art.

Marshall McLuhan, Take Today: The Executive as Dropout , 1972

While you here do snoring lie
Open-eyed conspiracy
His time doth take.
If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber and beware.
Awake, awake!

William Shakespeare, The Tempest , 1610

INTRODUCTION

Conspiracy Theory
as Art Form

Alis, Alas, She Broke the Glass!

On July 20, 1999, I delivered a lecture about conspiracies in the back of a late, lamented bookstore called The Midnight Special that used to be located on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. One of the few independent bookstores left in Southern California, it specialized in hard-to-find, alternative sources of information. In the back of the store political researchers as scholarly as Mike Davis, author of the bestseller Ecology of Fear , or as infamous as Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything , would hold court. One memorable evening the latter individual nearly got into a fist fight with a Lyndon LaRouche supporter in the first row and the cops had to be called out to break up the scene. It was a lively crowd that attended these lectures, by no means a tepid coffee klatch book club for blue-haired octogenarians eager to dissect the latest Oprah selection.

The lecture I delivered was based on an article youll find in this very book: Science Fiction as Manipulation: SFs Intersection with the Intelligence Community. The lecture went on well over two hours and received a positive response from the audience. One gentleman, an elderly political activist who had once worked for Jet Propulsion Laboratories and had been partly responsible for restoring Simon Rodias Watts Towers to their prior glory, shot up out of his seat and insisted I was lying when I said that the letters JPL actually stood for Jack Parsons Laboratories. (If you want to know why that offended him, just skip ahead and read Chapter Five.) Instead of arguing with him, as Mr. Hitchens had done with his heckler, I tried to calm him down with humor. And unlike with Mr. Hitchens performance, the cops didnt have to be called out to break up a fistfight.