Remembering the Kennedy Assassination
The older I get, the more I believe that the seminal event in our recent history was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
I think when people talk about “making America great again” they are referring to the time before bullets shattered the psyche of our nation.
Nothing has been the same since…our collective innocence was robbed by a single creep with a rifle.
The death of Kennedy was also the birth of the modern conspiracy industry…
“Even the few critics who approach the subject from an academic’s viewpoint, such as University of Wisconsin professor David Wrone, decry the field’s decline in quality fueled by the public acceptance of more sensational theories: “To my mind, this assassination syndrome, this terrible collapse of the critical people— witness Lane, and Lifton, and Garrison and the rest— it’s a suggestion that we are really in trouble as a society. These theorists take us away, fly us away to this unknown land of Oz, wherever they take us. They divert our attention from the reality. Every book that asks the question ‘Who shot John Kennedy?’ or tries to answer the question ‘Who shot John Kennedy?’ has fallen short of the mark, and sometimes egregiously so. Now, as you know, there are a bunch of books that are just old-fashioned nut books, like the umbrella man. And then there are a number of books which appear deceptively within the pale.” 47
Posner, Gerald (2013-10-01). Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (Kindle Locations 9736-9743). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.
“You have to understand,” says Bill Alexander, “what you are dealing with is a thriving industry. People are making lucrative livings off of selling conspiracy theories to the public. What happened to the truth? Hell, it got lost under a lot of dollar signs. No one wants to hear what really happened because it would be the end of their very profitable little business.” 48
Posner, Gerald (2013-10-01). Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (Kindle Locations 9757-9760). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.
“Historian Henry Steele Commager said, “I do think there has come up in recent years … something that might be called a conspiracy psychology. A feeling that great events can’t be explained by ordinary processes.… We are on the road to a paranoid explanation of things.… The conspiracy theory, the conspiracy mentality, will not accept ordinary evidence.… There’s some psychological requirement that forces them to reject the ordinary, and find refuge in the extraordinary.” 49
Posner, Gerald (2013-10-01). Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (Kindle Locations 9762-9766). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.
Thus, our whole society, both sacred and secular, from Alex Jones to the bible prophecy wonks, has been tainted by the scourge of conspiracy theories.
On the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination our friend and brother Alan Hawkins wrote this poignant and honest piece about the event.
I wonder if the times have really changed as much as he has….
I think it is a conspiracy theory to think that the “age of conspiracy theories” began with the JFK assassination.
They have been around forever – the only thing that has changed is the speed in which they can travel and the number of people that can participate.
The one thing that has not changed is we along with all of our predecessors think that history revolves around us and our generation / time in history. This is part of how selfish, self centered or as Luther used to call it – how “curved in on ourselves”, we can get.
Oh, I forgot – one of those Bible passages to make my comment legitimate (isn’t that what we do – quote the Bible to support ourselves?)
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
Actually, I think the modern age of conspiracy started with McCarthy and then fully flowered after the assassination.
It could be worse. In the 50 years after Lincoln’s assassination, two more presidents were killed ( Garfield and McKinley). At least all the assassination attempts since Kennedy have failed.
“The strings snapped briskly then went slack the marionette lay dead
While Hoover played with the motorcade the body slumped and bled
The man who held the camera disappeared into the crowd
I said the hope of youth, fictitious truth, lays covered in a shroud
Then up walked Elmo Lincoln and he said I beg you pardon
But we left it oh so long ago, the garden”
Nightmare #71
Larry Norman
The granddaddy of all western conspiracy theories was launched by the hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This fake anti-Semitic document added fuel to the fires of WW2 and who knows how many pogroms in eastern Europe.
There have always been conspiracy theories, but now people make major bank of them, which of course is always good no matter who they hurt. The Warren commission did a mediocre job in the aggregate, though some agencies performed exemplary in their particular parts of the report. I have read most of the Warren Report, not all of it, and some of the supporting documentation.
https://www.gpo.gov/featured/WarrenCommission.htm
My own opinion, when JFK was executed in Dealey Plaza the United States and the western allies lost WW2 in a political sense. Corporate fascism took a hold of many of our institutions to some degree. But that is just me.
Speaking of worldwide conspiracies I find some groups in the Christian community think there is an international Romans 1 conspiracy consisting of many disciplines. I find that rather interesting.
I am reminded of the one that lives on to the present day, that the disciples came and stole His body while the soldiers were asleep.
@ #7.
What are you referring to regarding Rom. 1?
Nathan I will answer later tomorrow it is a good question but I want to word it correctly. Thank You.
it’s possible it was one single creep with a rifle who got a chance to take a “lucky” sniper shot… it is just as equally possible that he was a useful fool who was groomed to do the job and take the fall…
truth be told, if Kennedy hadn’t been removed, we wouldn’t have had this “Great Society” of Lyndon Johnson design and some other “events” …
but all history does move according to God’s will, His design… permissive or otherwise directed, we do know where it is leading … Father, God, Thy kingdom come (soon?)