THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

BASICS: CONSPIRACY AS USUAL | nationalsalvation.net

It is easy for the average person to think there is a conspiracy when, actually, all that exists is an understanding. One very good example is what I said about what you say versus what you know about Israel if you are getting a staff job on Capitol Hill.

You know exactly what you have to say about Israel in an interview on the Hill. At the same time, if you actually BELIEVED that line, you couldn't get a job in a million years among professionals.

Everybody can look you in the eye and quote, "All men are equal." But if somebody actually BELIEVED that, you would watch them carefully as you walked away.

That is why amateurs so easily believe there has to be a downright conspiracy. If I didn't know that carpenters spend years learning their trade, I could easily believe there was book with The Carpenters' Conspiracy because the only thing I get from boards and a saw is bleeding hands.

It is true that everybody in the media takes exactly the prescribed position at just the right time. The professional liberal knows exactly what stand to take, and so does the professional conservative.

But that's not because it's written down somewhere. It is because that is their meal ticket, their occupation, and you don't NEED to say it out loud.

Someone from outside our culture would find it hard to believe that there was no written plan. But after all these decades, you and I know exactly what stand National Review or any given talking head is going to take on any of a huge range of things that come up.

The only reason we don't think it's a Conspiracy is because we're used to it.