Saturday, December 4, 2010

The CIA, the Establishment, and Wikileaks

       You will find, if you read many of my posts, that I am very hard on the CIA.  You will also find, I hope, that I could be described as a strict Constitutionalist, a libertarian, a populist, an ordinary Christian, a humanist, and an American patriot.  ( I like to think that I can be all of those good things at the same time. )

       So, why am I hard on the CIA, that fine patriotic organization dedicated to protecting America?

       In a few words:  because it is not dedicated to protecting America.  It is not dedicated to advancing the happiness of the ordinary citizens of America, or America's founding ideals rooted in respect for natural law and the rights of all men.  The CIA was created, and is maintained, for quite a different purpose:  to advance the interests of the well-connected and moneyed families of the United States, and to extend their control over the American people, and over the world, as far as possible.

       If you think that I am talking "conspiracy theory" here,  I have to reply that this is one of the most open  "conspiracies" the world has ever seen.  It has been noticed (and criticized) for centuries, and thoroughly described by historians, philosophers, anthropologists, theologians, and other observers of human nature.  The "conspiracy" that I am describing is, at its most basic, simply the firm, committed intention of a self-selected part of the human race to rule over the rest of us, for their own purposes, and the laws of God or men be damned.  

       For those of us who take a very religious view of reality, we may be quick to credit (or blame) God, or Satan, or the Angels, or Heaven,  for what we see in human affairs and human government; and ultimately we may be quite correct.  But let us not be so quick that we pass over some rather obvious facts.

       In the world of factual appearance, we observe that it is men, not angels, who steal from other men; that men enslave other men; that men abuse other men; that men starve other men; that men murder other men; and women and children.  If there is a spiritual agency, and there well may be, the fact remains that we are describing the behavior of flesh and blood human beings.  People.  The Ordinaries.

       What we further observe is, that men make kings of themselves; that they make whole governments of themselves; that they conceive that they are in some sense "sovereign" over their fellow men; that they establish rules and obligations for "their" people, that favor the favored and disfavor the disfavored;  that the more insecure they are -- and they are always insecure, because they are mortal -- the more they make intrusive "laws" to control "the people," while they manage with some adroitness to exempt "themselves" from the limitations of these selfsame laws.  The Elect Few People.  The self-styled Exceptionals.

       If we are geneticists, or anthropologists, we may readily satisfy ourselves that, for the most part, each of the nations of the world springs from an original tribe or clan, or from the combination of several of them.  The roots of national experience are to be found, therefore, in the actual historical behavior of extended families.

       Over the course of several or many generations, family behavior appears to be similar around the world, regardless of the specific qualities of the political system in which the family operates.  There is a reverence for the old patriarch (or occasionally, matriarch) which becomes a shared tradition; a development of the family enterprise, the business which has made the family prosper, ever elaborating and extending itself;  some method of selecting the single family leader, often the eldest son of the eldest son, who provides the essential consistency of the group;  the women help to extend the family hearth by participation in the market place, the festivals, and the advance of the domestic and fine arts, which extends the general family culture to create a community or even a homeland; the extra sons and daughters are encouraged to become second-level managers, or adventurers who scout out new enterprises and markets for the family.

       It is essential for the family cohesion that it consider itself in some way superior and "insulated" from the "common people" or "competing families."  It must develop its special sense of difference, of superiority, of exceptionalism.

       For the sake of its enterprise, it must maintain any secrets which preserve its advantage, while discovering the secrets of others, which may serve to extend or secure its gains.

       The family will, of course, have its weaknesses, which must also be guarded, or dealt with.  The idiot son, for example, who is totally unfit to take the helm when the father dies; something is going to have to be done.  Or the wayward Capulet daughter who falls in love with a Montague.  Or there is the necessary abortion; the bastard child; or the bit of unpleasantness between our own Cain and Abel that got out of hand; or the erratic servant who seems to be threatening trouble.  All of these things suggest a private family law which remains, forever if possible, out of the public view.

       And so the family must develop its own effective private security functions, and begins to avoid as much as possible the interaction with any public or universal moral law.  Family business is family business.

       These consequences of human nature are so nearly universal that practically every ethnic group has its own private security function:  there is not only an Italian mafia, there is a Russian mafia, and an Irish mafia, a Jewish mafia, an Arab mafia, a British mafia, a Chinese mafia, a Japanese mafia.  Who have I left out?

       The United States.  We have our own.  The fact is, there is a major interlocked group of old, wealthy, and powerful families in America.  They are sometimes referred to as "The Northeastern Establishment," the "Anglo-American Establishment," or sometimes, simply, "the Establishment."  Economists, historians and politicians alike have recognized them as facts of life, not "conspiracy theories," for generations.  Numerous well-documented books exist on the subject of the Establishment and its influence in American life.

       ( At this point, I was going to list some of their names, and I quickly thought of 27 prominent families.  But I'm sure that I would have left out some of your favorites; and who can make a complete list? )

Some of them have been called "captains of industry,"
       while others are better known as "robber barons."
Some have built railroads,
       others have dug canals,
some have organized monopolies and "trusts,"
       others have established banks,
some have run drugs to and from China and Afghanistan since the early 1800s,
       others have run drugs from Southeast Asia, or Colombia, or Mexico,
some have busted unions,
       others have established universities,
some have created tax-free "foundations" to protect their money and extend their influence,
       others have created private armies for the same purpose,
some have forcibly colonized Pacific islands,
       others have seized "banana republics,"
some have picked American presidents, and some have served British kings,
       others have plotted the assassination of American presidents and British kings,
some have created and managed political parties,
       others have created "revolutionary" movements to overthrow them,
some have established multi-national corporations to fleece local populations around the world,
       others have manufactured and sold weapons of mass destruction,
some have organized "international monetary funds," and world federalist organizations,
       others have organized "people's militias" and "patriotic" groups.
some have organized "communist cells,"
       others have organized "security" agencies to infiltrate them.

       Some Establishment efforts have been arbitrary and capricious, but most have been well-thought-out, well-financed, well-organized and well-coordinated.  Often, the "some" and the "others" are the very same people.  These are facts of history, too well established to need citations.

       One of the undisputed facts of history is that these people organized, provoked, and executed the Spanish-American War in 1898, and any number of "little" wars to advance their business interests in Latin America, China, and the Middle East, both before and after that time.

       Perhaps less well known is the fact that the same Establishment financed and controlled the "Allied Powers" in World War I; and financed and controlled, more or less, all sides in World War II; and Korea; and Vietnam; and the current mess in the Middle East.

       And while in the process of running their many wars, they organized and staffed the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in World War II, and its successor organization, the CIA, which was officially founded in 1947.

       Which is one of several reasons why I believe that the CIA has practically nothing to do with preserving liberty, protecting and defending the Constitution, respecting the Bill of Rights, or "defending our freedoms."  The CIA was created to serve its creators, and that is all.  Money, yes;  control of "the masses," definitely; extra-judicial killings, certainly; secrecy and deception, absolutely essential.

       Religious people like to think -- indeed, ought to think -- that "the powers that be" are "ordained by God."  It seems that they rarely think that these "ordained powers" are the saints, sages, pastors, philosophers, popes, prophets, poets, teachers, or lawgivers who have discovered natural right or natural law.  They prefer to think that the hijackers of the God-given natural and moral order -- the greedy and the violent -- are somehow the "ordained powers."  Now isn't that strange?

       But according to America's organic law -- that body of documents that extends from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution of the United States -- the people are recognized as being sovereign over their government and all its administrative creatures.  We, the people, are the civil powers that are "ordained" in America.

       Thus, you and I are considered, by our own law, to be sovereign over the CIA.  And I, for one, want to call "our servant," the CIA,  to account.  But I do not know how to do this.

       Given this situation, I am very willing for Wikileaks to act as one of my investigative agents.  As far as I am concerned, they can investigate absolutely anything they want to.  Including, and especially, secret weapons programs.  No more nuclear surprises; no more secret wars.  Not in my name; not without my permission.

*       *       *

       The above does not contradict the fact that good people have had honorable careers in the CIA.  I myself know several.

       As always, comments welcome, pro and con.
      

4 comments:

  1. Great article! I could not agree more. Any agency founded to protect the interests of Opium merchants and Wall Street is not going to be working in the best interests of the American people.

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  2. Les proleteriat vs les nobles

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  3. Angleton summed it up - a hall of mirrors and smoke

    We are doing well with the Alice bit

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  4. I could also mention a good school friend of mine, now deceased, who joined the CIA in his youth and lived to REGRET it.

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