The uselessness of conventional history becomes increasingly clear in this period of rapidly crashing illusions. We can expect to be divested of our idols and pressured to consider anti-idealism as a form of intelligence in itself. We should choose not to fall for it. It is no longer hard to believe in social engineering and its power and purposes, so we have some freedom to explore the possibilities.
Operation Chaos was a domestic espionage project that performed targeted surveillance on over seven thousand americans and created a computer index of data on 300 thousand citizens plus at least a thousand different organizations. Chaos agents (CIA) also infiltrated antiwar organizations to derail their projects and neutralize leadership. The operation ran officially between 1967 and 1974, it was started by request of Lyndon B. Johnson and expanded under Nixon.
Operation Chaos homed in on specific targets, but its real power was its cultural vision. The CIA created then embedded a series of narratives into the american psyche. If we consider the hippie movement to have been instigated by nefarious actors, we can open ourselves to deeper questions about who we, the descendants of this cultural project, are today. We have access to the workings of some of the weapons used against us and maybe we can find something useful like a medicine, like an antidote, like a saucerful of clarity as we parse through the damage.
Were the so-called, Manson Murders induced by something greater than the powers of one charismatic man who had been raised by the institutions of the state? Does this crime end up making more logical sense if we consider the potential that a fairly clever and resourced intelligence agency played a more than tangential role in its execution?
If this question is new to you or if it sounds ludacris, consider the death squads in Indonesia and the Junta in Argentina, the people of Iraq and Nicaragua and on and on. Consider the gruesome murder programs performed again and again all over the world by the CIA and their sister agencies. If five grisly murders on Cielo Drive seem over the top when it comes to the CIA protecting the capitalist project, consider what this organization is willing to do in the course of a day’s work.
Listen to Secret Antenna’s episode on rock n roll and the cia AND our upcoming episode on Tom O’Neil’s book: CHAOS.
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