Lawrence Jarach: Democracy and Conspiracy: Overlaps, Parallels, and Standard Operating Procedures

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Even if there were some way to get a handle on an elusive Truth, is the exposure of a conspiracy enough to curtail it-let alone thwart it? While embarrassment and guilt can be powerful motivators for those beholden to the ideals of decency, fair play, and justice, it is equally important to remember that bureaucrats and hierarchs hardly ever play by rules that would put them at a disadvantage. The first rule for those gangsters is hierarchical self-preservation, and honor and honesty have little to offer in that realm however much they might exploit the appearance of these characteristics. The irony of course is that, in a democracy, decency, honesty, and fairness are promoted as the primary motivations of those who would rule.

Even better is the slogan on the Seal of the CIA: "the Truth shall set you free." Statist self-parody doesn't get much more delicious than that.

The classical Liberal idea is that information equals power, or information equals freedom. From this we get the silly political tactic of "speaking truth to power" as if "power" were some creature with a conscience, and/or a sense of guilt. The chanting of "Shame, Shame" at demonstrations when the cops rough up lawbreakers or when a politician shows his face is the result of this kind of mythological thinking. The idea that exposure and/or embarrassment is enough to get those in power to alter their policies is a legacy of the myth surrounding Gandhi (especially the film version), who supposedly single-handedly embarrassed the British Empire enough to get them to grant independence to India. This pacifist and liberal nonsense continues to have a bad influence on most anarchoid activists, evidenced by their calls for mass mobilizations: more numbers equals more influence, equals more responsiveness from representatives. They have assimilated many democratic myths.
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