Becoming Important, In Fantasy And Conspiracy

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN November 22 was a spcial day, a special day of infamy, like nine eleven is now. I was eight years old when JFK was killed,, fully old enough to understand its importance, but barely. People two years younger than I barely remember it, and those three years younger not at all, whereas the memory is etched in stone in my mind, and will remain so until my dying day. Almost immediately after the event, the conspiracy theories came forth, and have not yet abated, if they ever will. The FBI, the CIA, the VP, the Russians (always suspects), Castro, and on...and on....Thank you Oliver Stone! Thus began a grand new American tradition. The modern American love affair with conspiracies began with a single question: "who killed Kennedy?" From the outset, the answer was obvious. Too obvious for our enlarged egos. We wanted something larger, more intriguing, more appropriate to the occasion than some twenty four year old nobody with a craving for importance and a mail order rifle. Fifty years later, we can't stop ourselves. We are addicted to fantasy and conspiracy, from video games, to fantasy football, to aliens among us, to shadow governments, we are having too much fun to desist. Mundane reality has long since ceased to suffice. The only question is our drug of choice,; mind altering meth, or mind altering pain killers. reality TV, social media, take your pick. the platforms are always reading and waiting, the vehicles for our departures from any semblance of reality. The less likely that something exists, the more fervently we will ourselves to believe that it does. The more obvious the fact, the greater our resistance to it, her in fantasyland America. More Americans believe in extraterrestrial control of the global economy than believe in global warming. Many, if not most of us, have either been abducted by aliens, interacted with a ghost, experienced death, or been born again. We have utterly abandoned critical thinking because fantasy is far more fun, and requires less effort than actual learning. Our corporate media masters are only too eager to comply and provide. Which lf the latest spate of sorcerer movies have you seen? What is your favorite reality TV show (reality TV shows are in fact pure fantasy), which demons and wizards simulation do you prefer, and which part do you play? On Civil War reenactment day, are you a Yank or a reb? (Civil War reenactments = fantasy). Yes, conspiracy theories and conspiracies have always been among us, and some conspiracies actually happen. but in modern American fantasyland, we have taken it to a whole 'nother level, and the amazing thing is that it all began with a twenty four year old very ordinary young man who wanted to be somebody, and saw his chance, as if a mighty pent up social force lay in wait for the firing of three sharp shots from a mail order rifle. lee Harvey Oswald, wherever he is, can take comfort that he accomplished much more than he ever dreamed possible, more than the mere killing of a beloved American president.