I discovered a BBC documentary by Adam Curtis called The Power Of Nightmares in my inbox some time ago (see 8.17.05 entry about his documentary The Century of the Self.) It was glitchy but my friend Lawrence Weschler had a copy so I finally saw the whole thing…6 hours…and saw the filmmaker's surprising conclusion. Holy Moses! (wrong exclamation, but whatever.) The director concludes that, in a manner of speaking, Al Qaeda does not exist! Well, that's a misquote — what he really says is that it's not a worldwide network as the neocons would have us believe and that Bin Laden is not directing terrorists through an intricate network. It says a lot more — it traces the roots of both ideologies back to their origins in the U.S. Midwest! Neoconservatism and Islamic Jihad too!
When I went to borrow his copy Weschler told me that his grandfather wrote a "geographical symphony" during Weimar years which was all text — geographical place names — which the young John Cage heard about as a student. Cage then made a pilgrimage to granddad's in Berlin to tell him how important it was.
"It was a joke"
"No, it's REALLY important"
Back and forth back and forth.
Finally Cage managed to convince him that he could at least get it published.
The Nightmares doc connected some unexpected dots, as did the Cage story.
Now that I've had a day to digest this I realize, of course! These 2 completely unrelated stories are intimately related! The idea that what often turn out to be large and influential ideas might be unintended, unexpected, unconscious, is my response to many people who, probably correctly, point out that the neocons and everyone else aren't together enough to manage such vast conspiracies. They conclude therefore that these conspiracies don't exist — or that there is nothing to worry about because these people are not smart enough to manage such a far-reaching system. The point is they don't have to be that smart. Ideas seem to flow downhill, or somewhere, of their own volition — once set in motion an idea is, while not quite a self-governing system, definitely a thing in itself that doesn't really need a Wolfowitz or a Bin Laden anyone else to micromanage it. Or something like that...
Lots of times people propose what seem on the surface like ridiculously vast conspiracy theories — either from the left or from the right — and these are often discounted as being too elaborate and complicated to maintain and keep organized — so therefore they are not really plausible. The Power Of Nightmares (see above) draws a line between the theories of Leo Strauss and the policies of the neocons today. They all seem to be connected, though maybe in a 6 degrees kind of way. Many people would therefore probably discount these connections as being spurious — “they didn't ALL read his books or take his classes, so it's too much of a stretch to say there is a connection.” But what I'm sensing is that one can be sometimes unaware of the guiding principals and ideologies behind one's actions, but they might still be operating, in an unconscious sort of way.
On the other side, or shall we say the mirror side, of the neocons, I think it's possible that Al Qaeda does NOT have a worldwide network of interconnected cells, a vast worldwide conspiracy, which is what Adam Curtis in his doc suggests, but maybe they function more as an inspiration, a imaginative and deadly seed that has no center (any more) and, like any “idea”, can spread like wildfire if the conditions are right (and I believe the U.S. has helped create those “right” conditions.)
(Aside: I still believe the way to combat this is not by massive shock and awe, but by truly supporting cool and democratic initiatives that have sprung up throughout the world — instead of friendly dictators, as is the usual U.S. policy — that policy actually creates insurgents, radicals, etc — duh.)
Anyway, you can also see that this decentralized yet motivating seed could also be the way a lot of creative processes work. This unconscious flow of apparent intention, which I know from experience, can be used to write songs, for example, without one needing to have any conscious sense of what they are about — but then in retrospect they all seem, or the subject seems (sometimes) glaringly clear and obvious later — as if, on looking backwards, one can see the connections, and trace a line of presumed intention. Which does NOT mean the intention was not there in the first place — it was merely unconscious, invisible to the creator — and I think mercifully so. Being blissfully unaware bypasses one's internal censor or editor. Playing Monday morning quarterback on one's own work, it often becomes hard to believe that there was never a conscious intention to begin with — it's also hard to believe that it was hidden from the creator but somehow subtly guided his or her the hand and heart — and the creative decision-making process — but I think it's true, I think that's how it works.
