[FRIAM] Motives - Was Abduction

[Steven A Smith]

Marcus -
>
> < On the other hand, as I always ask conspiracy theorists, "what if 
> his presence in this role *serves* the Deep State?" >
>
> To clarify, I’m talking about the hypothesis of a Deep State that 
> breaks rules as they need to be broken to advance the general welfare 
> of people in the country & world.
>
I didn't know anyone hypothesized this version...  the people I know who 
run on incessantly about "Deep State" seem to be categorically talking 
about a deeply non-altruistic version.

And my original point still (might) hold(s) if we push the ends/means 
justification far enough.   What if having Trump in office somehow 
*does* advance the general welfare of the people (and sentient animals) 
in the country and the world?   Sort of a "back fire" against the more 
effective, institutionalized fascist narcissism of the "shallow 
state/culture/..."?

The version you reference here, reminds me (quite tangentially) of the 
collective sub-protaganists in John Brunner's 1984 novel "Shockwave 
Rider" where a collective of well meaning individuals set up (Precipice) 
to provide a ubiquitous anonymous ear (Hearing Aid) for anyone "just 
needing to talk".

 From Wikipedia's plot summary:

         Precipice turns out to be a Utopian community of a few thousand
    people. The nearest comparison would be an agrarian, cottage
    industry <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottage_industry> community
    designed by William Morris
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris>. Precipice is also
    the home of "Hearing Aid", an anonymous telephone confession service
    accessible to anyone in the country. Hearing Aid is also known as
    the "Ten Nines", after the phone number used to call it:
    999-999-9999. People call the service, a human operator answers, and
    they simply talk while the operator listens. Some rant, others seek
    sympathy, still others commit suicide while on the phone. Hearing
    Aid's promise is that nobody else, not even the government, will
    hear the call. The only response Hearing Aid gives to a caller is
    "Only I heard that, I hope it helped."

   A million plot twists aside, the bottom line (as I remember it when I 
read it) was that the *collective* knowledge/intelligence of the members 
of Precipice gained by having listened to millions of people talk openly 
to them about their greatest hopes/fears gave them some incredible 
advantage/perspective which supported their Utopian ideals (nominally 
altruistic in the sense you reference above).   As I remember it, this 
consequence was an entirely unintended side-consequence.

>   I don’t have any doubt that the kind of Deep State you are 
> describing exists, but that reality is more the failure of 
> organizations to police themselves than a (sub)organization that has 
> become especially autonomous and potent.
>
I would suppose that any and all criminal organizations which have 
penetrated various parts of "the State" *are* this.   The (alleged?) 
criminal elements of the CIA and/or foreign equivalents (e.g KGB) or 
even the Mexican Federal Police, for example.

Is this another example of the conflation of "absence of evidence" with 
"evidence of absence"?

- Steve

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