The Smoking Gun

Over the last year I have become interested in the many conspiracy theories that you find on the Internet and the media . My initial reaction was that these theories originated from paranoid minds who had lost touch with reality , but were relatively harmless and in many ways added a certain amount of joy to life . They give us an excuse to laugh at other people , reinforcing our intellectual superiority whilst at the same time wondering where these conspiracists get their ideas from . They must be raving mad , we say to ourselves and carry on with our lives . The mainstream press avoid them like the plague , occasionally daring to talk about them , but only in the same way they discuss a story about a cat caught up a tree - fun , but not to be taken seriously .
My four most popular theories are : UFOs , the 9/11 attack on the Twin towers , the death of Princess Diana and the existence of a shadowy group called the Illuminati who basically control the world . The case for the defence says that UFOs are the hallucinations of drug fuelled individuals , that 9/11 was just an attack by Osama Bin Laden and loony Moslem extremists who got lucky, that Diana's death was an accidental car crash and that the Illuminati is not real and only exists in the minds of anti government agitators .
The case for the prosecution points to the huge numbers of individuals who claim to have seen UFOs and even governments have had investigations , trying to ascertain the truth . I recently saw an interview with Buzz Aldrin , in which he admitted to seeing a UFO on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon . There are many photographs and videos of these crafts , with evidence from supposedly professional observers in the military and police . The very rapid advancements in military technology , such as the Stealth bomber and micro-technology eg Mobile phones and computers are claimed to come from aliens .
Secondly , with the 9/11 attacks , the US government accusers point to the action of the American air defence flying out to sea , the lack of photographic evidence of the attack on the Pentagon and the ease with which the buildings collapsed . They also point out the ineptitude of the US intelligence services in not stopping the plot and are also helped out by the triumvirate of George Bush , Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld . I have yet to come across a more untrustworthy group and would have to look twice if they said the sky was blue .
With Diana , the British establishment is accused of wilfully murdering the mother of the heir to the throne . Photographs of Diana looking pregnant have been released and claims that Dodi Fayed had also bought her an engagement ring have been raised . There are suspicions that Henri Paul , the Head of Security at the hotel was in the pay of the British Intelligence Services and that MI6 officers were in the vicinity at the time . The confusion which surrounds Henri Paul's blood samples have also complicated the matter and the lack of recall of Diana's bodyguards has further added to the mystery .
The last theory is that of the Illuminati - this propounds that there is a small group of people who run the world , according to their whims and wishes , and manipulate events , such as 9/11 and other terrorist conspiracies , even starting wars and putting their people into positions of power all over the world . Their aim is for the population of earth to become nothing more than worker drones for this elite . The proponents of this theory assert the Royal families , the Heads of States and other assorted government individuals with the help of organisations like the Freemasons have managed to retain control of the world and are only interested in the retention of their power at all cost . They highlight the large number of masons in controlling positions throughout the world - eg Winston Churchill , George V and George VI and the large number of presidents of the USA and the influence of the same educational establishments , Oxford and Cambridge , Yale and Harvard etc . The meetings at Bohemian Grove in America , where top politicians and industrialists from all over the planet such as George Bush snr, Gerald Ford , Henry Kissinger and Dick Cheney congregate and where there is filmed footage of a faked ( I hope ) human sacrifice to a 40 ft owl are also used as evidence of the existence of this organisation .
What I hope this proves is that conspiracists are not bonkers and that there is rational reasoning behind their arguments . But are they right ? To be honest , I don't know but what I do realise is that even if one of these theories are true , it would be of vital importance . If aliens do exist , if 9/11 was an inside job , if the royal family did kill Diana or that our leaders are malevolent to us it would be earth shattering . But there is a problem , no conclusive proof has been collected . A smoking gun is needed - something to prove beyond doubt that one or more of these events are true . An alien spacecraft landing on the White House Lawn or Prince Charles morphing into a reptile on national television would be handy . On the other hand they have not been disproved . But the lesson I have learnt from my interest is not to dismiss other people's views , however outlandish , because they do not coincide with my belief structure . As someone famous once said : ' There are more things in heaven and earth , Horatio , than are dreamt of in your philosophy ' .