Conspiracies and the Kennedys

The other day I needed to be at work exceptionally early. It was the day right before the holidays began and quell nightmare. Those days are always pure insanity. 

I arrived and remembered that there are a few other people in the office who arrive that early every day. They are morning people by nature, admittedly I am not, but after a direct shot of espresso to the head and heart, I was able to chirp with the best of them. Except, instead of chirping, I listened. They were discussing JFK. 

I’ve always found discussions about John F. Kennedy to be interesting if not especially relevant. He was assassinated and there were many strange parts about his assassination. This is all true. And if you discuss the case from every possible angle, you will always find more and more strange things. Assassinations are always interesting because we don’t know what causes them. Most are usually done by the lone-nut-fanatic (John Wilkes Booth comes to mind) yet the idea of a shadowy hand directing the puppet strings still persists. Why is this?

The interest many people show in conspiracy theories and in New World Order ideas being propagated has always confused me a little. While I love to listen to conspiracy theories, back in my head I have this idea that none of this could possibly be true. There are some people who believe in the Masons and believe that there’s a group of about 4 or 5 men in the world that control governments and stock markets and mass movements and I don’t buy it. For starters, I’ve never met anyone smart enough to run an entire world on their own. Have you? The last time I checked, a country that produces reality television and Facebook is not intelligent enough to run an entire planet, but that’s just me.

In addition to the above, conspiracy theories and the idea that our world is run by only a select secretive few leaves out the possibility of God. In a world where we believe in God and believe that He is controlling all, the idea that the power remains in the hands of only some is just a wee bit foolish.

Setting these things aside, it seems to be that human beings believe in conspiracy theories because we like to speculate. Our social instincts drive us to gossip and to get together and rehash plans and ideas until they become tall tales larger than life. Eventually truth and lies merge in our heads to the point where they become one and the same and the truth, the real truth, is lost. It’s lost to the vestiges of time and the stories and implications of others.

Back in the office, as these thoughts were running through my head, I listened to those around me talking about JFK. For myself personally, the stories have always fascinated me. The Kennedys, love them or hate them, were a beautiful family. Graceful Jackie and darling John Jr. and Sweet Caroline captured the hearts of the American people and it’s easy to see why. My dad has a LIFE Magazine that published the details of Kennedy’s assassination shortly after it happened and when I was young, I’d stare at the pictures for hours, lost in the ideas and dreams of Kennedy Camelot. 

I suppose the reason I remain interested in the Kennedys, and why everyone else does, too, was because of that beautiful, fascinating quality they possessed. Setting aside the important things (Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cold War, etc.) one could learn to really like the Kennedys as a first family, and America did, and then the idea was shattered with a brutal gunshot. I suppose this is the reason why we still remain fascinated by them…because we all saw the dream and then it was gone with a bang.

I wasn’t around when the Kennedys were here. The only Kennedy remaining in that particular family branch I don’t care for (Maria Kennedy Shriver, you would have been a terrible senator). The magic, for me, is a secondhand magic. It’s usually the best kind. In my mind, the Kennedys are a series of pretty pictures. I didn’t ever have the opportunity to dislike them for the things that mattered (politics), I was just able to be enthralled from afar. Familiarity does breed contempt, as Shakespeare so famously put it, and I was never familiar enough. 

Listening to the others in the office who actually lived through that time though, I can understand why they would still talk about the assassination of JFK. I suppose we will continue to discuss it until all of us who saw the pictures are finally gone.