Article: Too Monstrous

Being evil has its advantages, one of which is that good people, who don't think like deranged psychos, can be taken off guard because they imagine others to be like them. For example, consider the ever-popular plot for a horror movie: the kind-hearted soul who, out of pity, picks up the rain-soaked hitchhiker (who also happens to be an axe murderer). Us good folk don't WANT to suspect everyone of being a villain, and we don't EXPECT them to be, either. And when you're talking about "respected" people in positions of great power, then we REALLY don't want to consider the possibility that they may just be well-dressed axe murderers. But if we are incapable of considering the possibilities of what evil people might do, what kinds of things they are capable of, then we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." [J. Edgar Hoover]

As a result, when someone brings up some "conspiracy theory," suggesting that people in "our" government have committed theft, torture, murder, etc., part of us doesn't WANT it to be true. We WANT to be able to dismiss it as nonsense, rather than face the possibility that there are some people with a LOT of power who don't at all mind torturing and killing other people.

Recently a story broke -- though not very loudly in the mainstream media--that six nuclear warheads had been "accidentally" flown from North Dakota to Louisiana. ("Oops, how did that get in my suitcase?") Some have argued that that simply can't happen "accidentally," and have gone on to suggest that the nukes may have been intended to be part of a surprise nuke-attack on Iran. (The feds say the nukes were about to be "decommissioned.") Well, someone in the Air Force spilled the beans, and the military higher-ups feigned shock and outrage, and said the matter would be
"investigated."

By itself, that story could be a toss-up: was it something devious or was it incompetence--each of which the government has plenty of? However, several air force folks from the two involved bases (Minot in North Dakota and Barksdale in Louisiana) have since turned up dead. Oh, and that was all "accidental" too. The following link lists those who have died, with links to the "mainstream" stories about the deaths.