Just Because You're Paranoid

I worry a little bit about certain groups that everyone says you should worry about. I won't name them here for fear of drawing their wrath. But I don't think I'm paranoid. For instance, I don't worry about the Bavarian Illuminati, or the Elders of Zion, or Atlantis, or the worldwide Jewish banking conspiracy. The first one is funny, the second is very nearly the same as the fourth, which is completely bogus, and the third (Atlantis, if you're keeping score and lost) is beneficial and no longer extant, not necessarily in that order.

But I do worry about certain organizations. There's nothing wrong with that. I've made it plain that I worry a fair amount about the government and its agencies, not because I believe they are personally out to get me, but because I think that a certain amount of distrust is healthy. Organizations that have control over our lives should be worried about, at least slightly.

The organizations I worry most about, however, are the ones that are probably not out to get me personally. Imagine, for a moment, that there is a worldwide organization of powerful, rich people. Pretty intimidating, no? You'd be scared of them. Well, that's a load of garbage; the UN, for instance, is not the Novus Ordo Seclorum. Put it out of your minds, or don't. I don't really care what nutty things you happen to believe.

But imagine for a moment that all the richest, most powerful people in the world have a club which meets every Sunday to eat brunch. There is no hierarchy in this club, and there is no real meeting, just everyone who attains a certain level of power and wealth gets an invitation each week to go to a mansion and eat brunch. Sounds innocent enough. There are many organizations worldwide which could meet this formula.

Now suppose that each week, the only thing the members decide is what they want to eat for brunch. They show up each week at around 11, vote in a secret ballot as they come through the door, and then half an hour later, the item which received the most votes is served. And lets say that every week that item is waffles.

None of these rich, powerful people own stock in a waffle concern. They don't get together beforehand to decide to throw the vote. It just always happens that a goodly proportion of the attendees want waffles. Now, if you don't think that this weekly meeting would affect worldwide prices of waffle batter, you need to reexamine your naïveté.

Suppose you are a regular schmo and you make one of these waffle-club members angry. It might not do anything other than make him (or her) angry. But he (or she, but whom are we kidding) might mention his annoyance at you to his table mates at his weekly waffle brunch. And they in turn, since they like eating waffles with him, might view you in a slightly less-favorable light. And there would have been no decision made to make your life miserable, but simply because they got together, ate waffles, and talked about their weeks, all the richest, most powerful people in the world would start to hate you.

Lest you think I am concocting a ridiculous scenario, this club-entity, in more-or-less its entirety, could be used to describe organizations almost anywhere. They aren't formed for the express purpose of controlling anything, but simply by virtue of gathering important people together, they control things anyway, and no one member may have any idea. Certainly, sometimes the clubs are more organized, and sometimes they may have more decision-making power than simply choosing waffles, but a lot of their control comes from simply networking powerful people together.

In our world of increasing connection, these types of organization, even without any organization at all, become larger and larger. When was the last time you formed an opinion of someone or something based solely on what a friend or acquaintance said about them or it? It's not something you can avoid, and if you have enough of these snap judgements and connections, the organization arises without anyone's approval. Madison Avenue knows it. The government knows it. Now you ought to know it too.

So yes, I worry about things like that. Is that wrong? If I make you worry about them too, have I controlled you? Can you blame me?