why do those who know the secrets still keep them from the American people?

[grasswire]

Anyone that has been in a position at a certain level in Washington knows the secrets that are being kept from the American people. Certain members of Congress, Senators, cabinet members, policy makers, many people know from briefings and from "talk" what is being kept from the people.

The Clintons know. Al Gore knows. People in power today know, but cannot be expected to tell. But many many many people out of power could tell.

We know they have "war gamed" peak oil, and the effects of aging boomerhood, and climate change. We know they have plans and contingency plans.

It would seem that the "club" has agreed to keep realities out of the national conversation in order to put off the civil chaos that is sure to happen eventually. "If we don't tell them what's coming we can keep the lid on a bit longer." Or maybe "The people can't handle the truth."

Of course it would be infinitely better to educate the people and allow them to participate in finding solutions to problems. Unless their games and models have shown that there are no solution. And then we're back to the "keeping the lid on as long as possible" M.O.

This will not end well for The Powers That Be, and not for us, the hoi polloi.

At some point, those who know the secrets and keep them are guilty of collaboration.

[polichick]

1. imo they do it in order to maintain the corporate status quo as long as possible...

...and those in the know are taking as much as they can before the ship goes down.

[grasswire]

4. it's so cynical

If what you suspect is true, then it means that those we have put into power -- those we have trusted with our votes -- are anti-democratic and have no faith at all in the American people. "Get what you can" is a low moral path, not worthy of our founding principles.

Does no one who knows the secrets think that the concept of liberty and equality as set forth in our founding documents is worth saving and protecting?

[polichick]

6. It's really about short-term thinking and our capitalist society is all about short-term thinking...

I really think that most who run for office are much more about power than some sense of patriotic altruism - and I have 30+ years of Democratic activism to point to in coming to this conclusion.

[Whisp]

2. or from president to president

I'm sure Obama was surprised at some of the stuff he learned once in office.

The only one who wouldn't have been surprised is the chimp, whose pop would have filled him in in all the dirty little things.

[closeupready]

3. I don't know why we Americans think that we are immune from decadence

in government or corruption. As far as I know, the expression "absolute power corrupts absolutely" does not contain a disclaimer for Americans, and in my humble opinion, what you are stating shows - to an extent - how the centralized power of DC has tended to corrupt the democratic process, since a healthy democracy rests upon a foundation of an informed citizenry. "Information is power" and therefore, keeping information from others makes you richer and your fellow citizens poorer. But that's how people are, and how societies go.

[grasswire]

5. yes and we are probably more naive about it all

We believed the lies. But I don't like to think of Al Gore and the Clintons as corrupt. They know. And they either think we're better off not knowing, or they are corrupted too.

[closeupready]

10. Al Gore is one of my favorite people, but he's just a man, like me.

I like to be charitable about him and think to myself, "If he's keeping information from the American people, it has to be for a very good reason." That may be naivete on my part, too. Who knows.

[Autumn Colors]

7. threats?

Perhaps harm has been threatened against their loved ones if they tell??

:tinfoilhat:

[jwirr]

8. I often think that is the only reasonable explanation. nt

[jdlh8894]

9. They have been threatened , but

IMO by the information age not physically. They are scared of the internet,
video phones,etc. What used to be transmitted in hours,days, - now gets air in seconds.This scares the crap out of them! JMO

[AndyTiedye]

15. Gore Would Have been Assassinated if He Had Won the Election, and He Knew It

That is why his campaign was so halting and tentative, compared
to what he has done afterwards. That is also why he did not
contest the election fraud as strongly as most of us expected.

He already knew that he would not be allowed to serve.

PNAC would not be denied, even if they couldn't steal the election.
Lieberman was their plan "B".

If Gore had become President, he would have been JFK'ed,
and Lieberman would have given them their wars.

[moondust]

16. Or simply loss of membership in "the club."

Loss of privilege, status, etc. Fear of being exiled into oblivion.

[Recursion]

11. Because there is no Matrix, and it doesn't have you, Neo.

There is no cabal in control of things. There is no master plan. There is no Illuminatus, no Priory of Sion, no Knights Templar pulling strings from behind the scenes. There is no one person or small group who know nearly enough about enough things to have the kind of control we imagine. It would be an easier narrative if there were. There would be real villains we could go out and slay (or at least expose) and everything would get better.

In fact, it's a messy, grimy world with a lot of moving parts that don't really fit together. There's no master plan because political and business leaders are too busy trying to stay one half step ahead of the other guy that they never have time to make one, let alone stick to it. It's a world where a butterfly's flight in Indonesia changes weather in Houston. Where updating your Java installation breaks your daylight savings times definitions in your Fortran library. Where orthogonal bits in a plaintext remain orthogonal in the ciphertext.

People don't "release the secrets" because they don't "have the secrets" because there aren't the secrets to have.

[grasswire]

12. baloney

There doesn't have to be a conspiracy of masters for there to be secrets. We know there are secrets. Sometimes we find out after the fact (like the shadow government existing in bunkers), but we know that there are plans and contingency plans that are written to address processes already underway and perhaps unstoppable.

All I want is the truth. Tell the people the truth. If the truth causes panic in the land, well then the leaders deserve to be hanged for failure of leadership to educate the people and solve the problems.

[Recursion]

13. But none of the things you listed are "the truth"

In the sense of indisputable things agreed on by people in the know. They're one interpretation of certain data.

[AndyTiedye]

17. They Published Their Master Plan on the Internet

They are the Project for a New American Century.

even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.

Note that this document was published in September 2000.

advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.

This puts them in the same league as Hitler, IMHO

http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

[Recursion]

18. What's funny about the PNAC-alluding crowd...

... is that you guys never seem to have read the document, and seen how laughably wrong it is about, well, everything. Also amusing is the implication that we wouldn't have been lied into war in Iraq without 9/11.

[AndyTiedye]

14. Carter Told Us, and TPTB Sabotaged his Presidency

[karynnj]

19. Some people in power have spoken clearly about both Climate change and peak oli

On climate change, Al Gore and John Kerry have spoken out so much that they are ridiculed for doing so by the right. But, it is not limited to them.
Taking climate change first, there are publicly available reports that were done on the national security aspects of climate change. The first that I know of was written led by three high level military officers. The report is scary and was covered in a SFRC hearing open to the public - here is a link where you can watch it -
http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=bf71022c-9ca1-ab5f-e303-663fb7c33c18 Here is a more recent hearing in the same vein.
http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=674febb4-f841-8968-cbe2-670042abe357

As to peak oil - Kerry has spoken of it since before 2004.