Spin, Lies, Conspiracy and Truth

Rethinking Big Issues

I have now reached the stage of my life where I am no longer working at a full time job, my children are grown and out of the house, and I have more time to read, think, absorb and analyze information. While the body is aging, the mind continues to operate effectively. I can no longer execute math problems that I used to do instantly in my head when I was 20, but I can now look at what it is going on in the world and put new information in context in a way I never could have done when I was younger.

For most of my adult life I have had a disdain for politics and politicians. I could not fathom why politicians took actions that appeared illogical and not fact based decisions. I finally accepted the fact that most politicians could not be trusted and were not honorable people by my standards. When my career gave me direct exposure to the political process my opinion of the political world sank to new lows. It became clear to me that our political and governing process is extremely flawed and that the people making policy aren't making fact based decisions a significant percentage of the time. I recently read The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick which was originally published in 2012. I believe this book is essential reading for anyone that is serious about attempting to understand how the United States has evolved as a nation from the Spanish-American War to the present day. The authors have many issues with a wide range of decisions made by US Presidents and actions taken by US government agencies during the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the first Gulf War, the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and preparations for future wars. The facts that are presented are truth even if they are difficult to accept. It is very important to separate the understanding of factual history and people's actions in the context of the period and the author's opinions concerning right or wrong decisions. After reading more than 600 pages of history the questions that remain concern our nations future and the people that are entrusted to make critical decisions on behalf of all of us. The book isn't any easy read but it is worth the effort. You can read my various articles and my blog to obtain my views on many current politically oriented issues. The bottom line is that many politicians will say or do anything at any time if it help them raise funds for their election campaign or get them elected. The have become experts of the art of spin.

As I progressed through my career and became involved with corporate activities on Wall Street, I learned that much of Wall Street is not much more than a huge, skillful marketing machine. I also observed that Wall Street doesn't learn from its mistakes very well. Over time greed overcomes common sense and prior mistakes get repeated. You can't necessarily believe everything everyone on Wall Street tells you. One has to separate the truth from the spin in business as well.

Over the years I have built up a very strong desire to get a full understanding of what is true about the world we live in, how we evolved to get here, and where are we headed in the future. One advantage that scientists and engineers have is that when they learn something new that refutes prior thinking about any given subject they can change their understanding of what is true. One example is the wealth of new science gained from the Hubble Space Telescope. Incredible amounts of new information obtained from Hubble have transformed our thinking about the universe. The science that many of us learned decades ago has been changed to reflect new truths that have been discovered. Everyone in the science community understands that new truths will be discovered and our view of the world will change over time.

One of the other things I have learned over the years is that mankind didn't discover the art of spinning facts for public consumption during my lifetime. The art of spin control has been practiced since the earliest days of civilization. People have rewritten history to suit their agenda since history started to be recorded. Organized religions are among the very best spinners of the truth so that religious leaders can control their followers. Everyone should read Christopher Hitchens book, god is not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything. Hitchens explores the history of monotheist religions, Christian, Jewish and Islam. He clearly explains how destructive each of these religions have been during their history. All of these religions have fought against their followers discovering truths that science has discovered. Hitchens points out the evil and inhumanity that each of these religions have promoted during their history. Many of us have read or experienced some of the aspects of religion that Hitchens describes in his book. Hitchens fills out the details and creates a broader context for our personal experiences.

One of the other things that I have learned is that some people will flat out lie about factual information if they think it will suit their personal agenda. This has been one of the toughest things for me to accept, particularly from people that are entrusted with running our government. History is full of situations where individuals have lied to gain political advantage. How much of what the US government has told us in the past 50 years has been truthful and how much of it are lies?

During my business career I had many opportunities to work with the press at various levels of the journalist profession. I always felt fortunate if an article about me or my company was fifty percent accurate. Often times an author would spin the story in a way that simply wasn't true or twisted the facts in such a way as to deliver a conclusion that was opposite of the intended message. I came to learn that journalists come in all types, from the extremely competent to totally inept or biased. When we read an article or watch or listen to a news report we simply don't know how capable the journalist is, or how truthful, unless we have a lot of prior experience with that particular person. How much of the media's output can we actually believe?

One of the most interesting aspects of reading about historical events at this stage of my life is that one can appreciate the nuance that people use to reshape the truth. It is clear that conspiracies have occurred throughout history and what we were taught as young people doesn't always reflect the true historical facts. I have found that incredible quantities of facts have been known but never included in what we were taught. We were taught a sanitized version of history in our youth that someone wanted us to believe. As adults we have the ability to investigate and interpret history in greater depth. We may not always know the complete truth but we certainly have a broader context that we can use to make our own judgments.

And sometimes new information becomes available to us that crosses over multiple learning areas and beliefs. And we really don't know what to make the information other than to absorb it and try understand how it fits into the big picture.

Some of the Big Questions

I have created a list of important questions I would like to attempt to answer in my own mind during the remainder of my life. I consider these questions to be unresolved or not fully resolved at his point. I don't necessarily believe the currently accepted truth because there is available information that appear to contradict what the general public has been told to believe. Or there are good reasons to believe that someone in history had a vested interest in spinning the truth in a way that delivered a flawed perspective on the truth. The only way to determine the truth is to keep searching for new information, analyze the information and put it into context with other known facts.

How does the following list of questions match up with yours?

Q1 - How was the universe created? If there was a big bang, what existed before the big bang occurred? Of the total amount of science that is available to be learned, how much of it has already been discovered? - These questions are intellectually interesting but probably unknowable within my lifetime and many generations to come. Please read my article The Philosophy of God on this general subject.

Q2 - Was Jesus of Nazareth the son of god or simply a Jewish religious leader of his day whose philosophy of life had a dramatic impact on his initial followers and two thousand years of believers? I read a very interesting book, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews by Paula Fredriksen, which analyzes the life and times of Jesus in great detail. I have no doubt that Jesus was an actual historical figure. I have no doubt that Jesus was crucified by the Romans. Read my article, The Philosophy of God, which discusses the late-in-life changes in philosophy of Antony Flew, once the world's most famous atheists. I have no doubt that Jesus was a magnetic personality that had an incredible impact on his followers. The search for truth continues.

Q3 - How much of the Bible is actual historical fact, historical allegory or outright spin? Since the Bible is a document written by human beings well after the actual events took place it is guaranteed to be full of spin. It has become very clear to me based on numerous expert sources that many of the stories in the Old Testament of the Bible were not original. They were created by the Sumerians and other cultures well before the books of the Old Testament were written. In addition the Bible was subject to editing at multiple levels and translated into different languages during its evolution. We know that the some of the ancient translations were not accurate. We know they were misleading because we can now compare versions of the Bible in different languages and can determine where the translation mistakes occurred. There are passages of the Bible that directly contradict other passages in the Bible, an entirely human outcome. The early Christian church argued for centuries about the fundamental teachings of Jesus and the facts concerning Jesus relationship with God. Jesus Wars by Michael Jenkins provides tremendous insight on the political negotiations that took place 1,500 years ago to create the doctrine and dogma that is taught to Catholics today.

However, I must acknowledge that it is likely there are some stories in the Bible that are accurate descriptions of historical events or honest interpretations of historical events. Separating the Bible's spin from facts is incredibly important if we are to fully grasp critical points in world history. For example, did or does the Ark of the Covenant exist? Did the Ark end up being transported to Ethiopia over 2500 years ago? Is the original Ark in the Saint Mary of Zion Church in Axum, Ethiopia today? Is Graham Hancock's historical detective work that is explained in his book The Sign and the Seal reasonably accurate?

Q4 - Why did the Catholic Church fail to embrace the incredible scientific breakthroughs by Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei during the Renaissance and what other truths were denied or suppressed by church leadership throughout history? Two of my favorite historical figures when I was an adolescent were Copernicus and Galileo. The stories of these two renaissance geniuses were inspirational. When I learned as a youth that the leadership of the Catholic Church denied the truths discovered by these two great men I became suspect of the real intent of all religious organizations. It became evident to me that religions are more interested in controlling what people think and the actions they take instead of searching for truth. You can read about Galileo and his relationship with the Jesuits and other elements of the Catholic Church and the spin, doublespeak, buck-passing, and official cover-ups that shaped the world in The Greatest Lies in History by Alexander Canduci.

Q5 - How was the human race created and how did it evolve all over the earth? One of the most thought provoking books I have ever read is Graham Hancock's book, Supernatural. Hancock explores the impact of hallucinations on the development of the human race. Hallucinations can be created by ingesting a variety of naturally occurring hallucinogens found in many different plants that have been available for human consumption for tens of thousands of years. Apparently, there is a small percentage of the population that can hallucinate naturally without ingesting hallucinogens. Hancock provides convincing evidence that hallucination experiences have made a huge impact on all cultures from the stone age to the current day. He makes the case that the creation of the worlds major religions were materially impacted by hallucination experiences. The unknown question is what is truly being observed during a hallucination. Is the person observing an alternative dimension or reality or some portion of the mind that has been prewired into our DNA? Supernatural addresses a wide range of fundamental questions related to human existence through examination of hallucinations, or what are believed to be hallucinations, throughout history. But maybe, some of what we think might be hallucination experience might actually have been real events. One has to have a very open mind to read, comprehend and evaluate the material presented by Hancock in Supernatural.

The story told by the "recognized experts" in ancient history doesn't answer many of the tough questions one must ask after analyzing all of the information one can gather from many areas of our planet. How can maps from 1513 accurately depict the Antarctica land mass under glacial ice that wasn't discovered until centuries later? Much of our current analysis of history simply doesn't compute. Some of the great mysteries are discussed by Graham Hancock in his book, Fingerprints of the Gods. In Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval's book The Message of the Sphinx - A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind the authors make the case that the Sphinx was constructed in approximately 10,500 BC, not 2,500 BC as currently believed by Egyptologists. Hancock continues his exploration of ancient civilizations in his book Underworld - The Mysterious Origins of Civilization. I don't think there is any doubt that the history of civilization that we have all been taught is not correct. Hancock effectively integrates information from different disciplines to develop his conclusions regarding mankind's early history on earth. I believe that it is highly probable that an advanced civilization existed in many regions of earth around 7,000 BC or earlier. I also believe that the seas rose after the end of earth's last ice age and much of this earlier civilization was destroyed or submerged under the rising seas. Gavin Menzies, in his book The Lost Empire of Atlantis, provides an extensive analysis of the development of the Minoan culture during the Bronze Age. He provides convincing evidence that the Minoans are Plato's Atlantis civilization and they created a transatlantic trading network that included North America. There is an incredible amount of evidence to support Menzies's conclusions that has been thoroughly documented by many qualified academics for over a century. I hope to visit the Greek island of Santorini and make a second visit to Crete so I can see some of historical artifacts that support his theory myself. Check out Unsolved Mysteries of History by Paul Aron to learn about the debate concerning the potential relationship between human beings and Neandertals and many other unsolved mysteries on a broad range of topics.

Q6 - How did humankind spread across the world and different cultures develop and interact with one another? This extremely broad topic covers the entire history of human development and has broad philosophical and religious ramifications. There are many, many apparent common links between cultures that have occurred over thousands of years. One sub element of this question relates to Columbus's discovery of America. We now know that the Vikings landed in North America centuries before Columbus. There is also evidence that other Europeans explored North America before Columbus arrived. Read Gavin Menzies's book, The Lost Empire of Atlantis, to gain his perspective on the Bronze Age Minoan culture's mining and transporting of copper from the region around Lake Superior to the Mediterranean. Did Chinese treasure ships also arrive in North America before Columbus? Maybe they did. Read Gavin Menzies book 1421 The Year China Discovered America to get a very different perspective on the era of European exploration. Also read Menzies book 1434 The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance to get his perspective on how a highly developed Chinese culture transferred its advanced technology to backward Europe during the Renaissance. Many experts strongly disagree with some of Menzies' theories. However, what is clear from Menzies books and other sources is that international trade was much more highly developed and influential in world affairs at a much earlier time in history than we have been taught. You can make your own decisions concerning how much you accept of Menzies' conclusions.

Q7 - How much of our accepted history is not factual but has been shaped by conspiracies that are not well understood by the general public? Virtually every significant event that has occurred during the past century has been tagged with the possibility of a conspiracy. It turns out that conspiracies have been a trademark of the ruling classes for thousands of years. There is no doubt that conspiracies have occurred. The issue is finding all the relevant information to ensure that the conspiracy is properly understood. It is important that we understand conspiracy theories and either reject them, accept them as possible or totally accept them. Check out History's Greatest Conspiracies by H. Paul Jeffers and American Conspiracies by Jesse Ventura with Dick Russell.

Q8 - Have aliens visited planet Earth from another location in the universe? The debate concerning UFOs and alien visitors can become very disconcerting to some people. The subject can make people angry. Some people just laugh. The problem is that much of people's underlying personal philosophy is grounded in religion. If aliens are real much of the doctrine of organized religion must be thrown in a trash can. Most people can't deal with this kind of fundamental change in understanding from an emotional or intellectual perspective.

There are many unexplained events in human history that defy logical analysis. For example, we just don't have any idea as to why and how primitive societies accomplished construction projects with technologies we think were available to them. We can see and touch the physical remains of their work product from many centuries or thousands of years ago. How could our ancestors have accomplished these magnificent accomplishments without help from someone with access to very advanced technology? Maybe the problem is that our understanding of the sequence of historical development of world cultures is incorrect. It might make sense if we reexamine the evidence from a different perspective. Graham Hancock and Gavin Menzies have done a great job of doing this task for all of us in their books.

In recent decades much of the focus has been on UFO experiences. Many books have been written on the subject including Timothy Good's extremely interesting book, Earth An Alien Enterprise, which was published in 2013. Film footage of what are described as UFOs is in the public domain. We have first hand creditable witnesses that describe events that appear to be impossible based on current technology. I believe that Unidentified Flying Objects exist. But that doesn't mean UFOs are from outer space or produced by aliens. It simply means that flying objects are unidentified. Advanced technology developments by human beings have occurred through history. The US government has sponsored secret projects like the ones developed at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. What other secret projects have been developed over the years that the general public knows nothing about? What other innovative teams exist in the world developing technology in secret? However, some of the events that have occurred are so far beyond current comprehension it is hard to ignore aliens as the possible source.

I read UFOs - Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities by John B. Alexander, a former US Army Colonel. Colonel Alexander, while on active duty and after he retired, attempted to determine if the US government had any relationships with UFOs, UFO technology or aliens. I believe he looked in the right places and took the right approach based on my own experiences in working for and with the Department of Defense during my career. Colonel Alexander found nothing that directly linked the US Department of Defense to the UFO arena. However, he acknowledges that many UFO events have occurred involving the US and foreign military organizations that cannot be explained by any normal circumstances. Alexander makes the point that credible groups of people with supporting technical data have reported events that are not explainable using current technology.

I recently read UFOs for the 21st Century Mind - A Fresh Guide to an Ancient Mystery by Richard M. Dolan which was published in 2014. This is the best book I have read on this subject. It is a complete overview of all relevant topics related to UFOs and aliens. Dolan has the opposite view of Alexander regarding the US government's involvement in UFOs. He believes the US is funding a massive secret (black) program in this area and has been for over 60 years. Which one of these authors is correct?

I find this entire subject fascinating. I believe there are many unexplained circumstances that could logically could be explained by alien intervention. But until definitive evidence is available, the theories are simply theories, not fact or truth.

Conclusion

If we are to improve our society in the decades ahead we need to work diligently to reduce the government, corporate and media spin of the truth when communicating to the general population. We must eliminate the lies and failure to disclose material facts on important topics. We must not let those that would conspire against the interests of the general population to gain influence and power. We must continue to search for, understand and teach the truth to future generations. We must challenge the fundamental assumptions of all organizations that attempt to lead and educate us, if there is a rationale to believe they are not telling us the truth or providing rational alternatives to the accepted facts for their own purposes. And if we learn new facts that fundamentally change our perspective on what is true, we should not hesitate to reveal the new truth to everyone.