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UR_CONSPIRACY


                                       July 11, 2004
   

To take the "ur conspiracy"
as an example -- the
conspiracy that put the               Well... at least it put them  
conpiracy theorists on the            in their current place on the 
map:                                  intellectual landscape.       
                                                                    
  The assassination of JFK.                     Maybe that's     
                                                "off of the map".
A lot of energy was put into 
raking over the Warren Commission 
report, studying the frames of 
the Zapruder film, looking over 
the background of Oswald... 
   
I'm not up on the details                           
of these disputes, and        The theorists have a number    
have no intention of          of interesting points, but in  
delving into them.  I have    general they don't impress     
no conclusion that I want     with their intellectual rigor. 
to present on whether it's                                   
plausible that Kennedy was        E.g. what possible reason           
killed by a lone assasin,         could Oswald have for             
on who might have been            waiting until the last         The Theory    
behind a conspiracy to            minute to get off a shot?      version is    
kill Kennedy, and so on.                                         that there    
                                        Well: maybe he was       was another    
But the notion that the                 indecisive and           gunman "on    
CIA -- or some faction                  wasted time stalling,    the grassy    
inside the CIA -- might                 then decided to go       knowl", and    
have had a president                    for it at the last       Oswald was    
killed remains                          moment.                  supposed to    
interesting, not because                                         wait for    
it's proven, or even                      Why not?               the car to    
provable, but simply                                             get in range   
because it can be made                                           of both.    
to sound plausible.                                                         
                                                                    Plausible,
                            To make it sound plausible              but Oswald's
                            to most people, my experience           pause  
                            is that all you need to do is           doesn't 
                            lay out a motive:                       prove it.
   The fact that such                                                        
   things seem                       Kennedy was angry with the              
   *possible* is                     CIA because he felt                     
   already a strong                  manipulated into the "Bay               
   inditement against                of Pigs" fiasco.  Memos                 
   the CIA:                          exist where Kennedy said                
                                     he wanted to "scatter the               
      Perhaps a free                 CIA to the winds".                      
      country shouldn't                                                      
      have a secret                         I don't know if such             
      police, eh?                           a memo really exists             
                                            (though I was told               
                                            so), but saying that             
                                            it does is enough to             
                                            get a "Oh.  Maybe                
                                            they did do it, then."                               
                                            
                                                  MOTIVATIONAL_BIND       
                                                                             
                                            There are some funny             
                                            attitudes in play here:      
                                            it's okay with you for the    
                                            CIA to be capable of doing   
                                            anything given a motive?  
                                                                      
                                            You'll just cross
                                            your fingers and
                                            hope they'll never
                                            want to do
                                            anything bad?
                                                                      

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