Follow-up Emails

Here are the emails fro the un-named source of the Conspiracy Theorist's original rant.  His intended perspective was not portrayed in my story as clearly as he wished.  However, his criticisms did not include a review of the "Putting on a Show" episode.  He is reviewing the entire text in order to suggest final revisions for the book's publication, so the jury is still out the source's conclusion.  These emails provided the supporting details which ended up being included in the story.  Note that some of my material interpolated into the Escaped Lunatic's dialogue came from my responses and suggestions. Note also that the responses give a perspective on the composition of the story.  Fair warning:  There is some profanity in these original texts.

 

From: EL
To: Wraxtiorre
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 10:17 PM
Subject: 2nd try

Hey Todd... I started writing to you & thought I'd lost it, but I came back thinking it might have saved (in my email) & here it was! So I'll just continue it... 

I read it, & Iiked it! But it was actually kinda scary reading what I'd posted word for word lmao!! So I was going to suggest that you modified it a bit to make it fit better, which I gathered from your most recent message is what you're doing(?). I'm curious about how it's going to unfold, maybe I can help? I don't know... I thought it was going to be a lot longer, but you said that was half of it?

Okay, as far as the underlying message... I hope we're on the same page here lol! It's not an argument against conspiracy theories, or conspiracy theorists per se... You'd probably have to be one in order to fully understand what I'm trying to say, but I'll try to nutshell it lol!

Well, okay, a brief summary & then I'll go on & tell you as much info as I think I should. Basically the only thing I'm personally against is this whole "fight the system" mentality. Because that's what they want. They need people to fight the system in order to bring about the changes they need to control everyone and everything through one entity, or one government. That's why all these facts are leaking out. It's all being done systematically to cause a reaction, and they're close! Look at all the "peaceful protests" going on. Now, peaceful protests aren't bad, but if you notice it seems as though they want people to fight. Have you heard all the reports of cops harassing people & spraying them with pepper spray & all that? Just my opinion though; I'll keep stressing I stopped looking into it all when I found out they were purposely trying to get people to fight the system. Also (another opinion), if people refuse to fight no matter what this could actually turn out good... Anyway, here we go...

Most of what conspiracy theorists talk about is actually true. There's technology to modify the weather. They can create earthquakes, storms, hurricanes, the works. They can also destroy hurricanes before they reach land btw (if they wanted to). They can listen in on you through your phone even when your phone is off (fox news actually reported on this years ago; you can probably still pull it up on youtube), there's been a plan (project bluebeam) to use hologram technology to stage an extraterrestrial invasion for the main purpose of uniting the whole world under one government (so all the recent ufo sightings I'm guessing are probably holograms. I don't know, I stopped looking into all of it a while back). Oh, and this was also going to be used to portray images (holograms) of certain religious figures in an attempt to get everyone to accept a new religion (long story, as is most of the stuff I will mention). They're at least 20 years ahead of anything we've ever seen technology wise. I'd give you specific examples, but I... forgot lol! It's been that way for a long time though.

Okay, this is the part where I'd stopped... Not even sure where I was going now lmao!

Okay, so the basic picture is they're putting out facts because they want people to fight the system. The people pulling the strings are practically invisible, and they know us better than we know ourselves in certain ways... In other words, they pretty much have everything controlled, and whoever we fight are not going to be the main players. It'll be our governments, our corporations, our police, our military... We'll fight ourselves before we fight them. Because we're pretty much operating from a feeling of anger & frustration bed by all the information that's leaked & what happened to the economy. Oh, the economy was crashed on purpose as well btw. I mean there is a ton of shit you can get into really... but it's pretty much useless & might even be detrimental once you know what's really going on.

So... shit gets bad, people revolt, and then THEY offer us solutions making it seem like it's us doing it. Or a party in complete opposition to them. That's why I advised that you keep from joining any movements and things like that. Because even if the movement itself was not started by them, if it's big enough they'll infiltrate it & guide it towards a different end. They're better at all this stuff than we give them credit for. I think that's another mistake conspiracy theorists make. They think "Oh yeah, we've busted them" or "We're winning" when they have us exactly where they want us. I think now I'm just ranting lmao! Sorry... I'm on meds right now btw :/ I'm not even gonna proof read this, just ask if u want more info on something...

Oh! I forgot about this, but when I was reading this it occurred to me you might want to hear something... The whole field of psychiatry is a bs science. I wish I had some sources to point you to, but... I probably do buried somewhere in my email... But yeah, it's a bogus science. They've never cured anyone, and what they use for diagnosis is also... ridiculous. Many of the patients in mental institutions are actually victims of government mind control. Look up MK Ultra if you've never heard of it. Program never stopped. They still do it all the time. It's just more well hidden. One time this Dr (I believe a psychiatrist of some sort) conducted an experiment where he rounded up I think 8 people and told them that each was gonna go to a different mental institution around the country and he told them that the only thing they were going to say was wrong with them was they heard a voice in their head. Well, a specific word, but that was it. Other than that they were supposed to act completely normal. So they all went, including himself, to a different place, and they all got accepted. They took a series of tests and even though the only thing that should've been an oddity was the fact that they heard that voice/word in their heads. Once inside they tried to convince the staff that they were not crazy & they wouldn't let them out! No matter how normal they acted. The guy who conducted the experiment figured out that the only way to convince them was to act crazy, but act as if the treatment was helping him improve... Eventually he was let out and he got the others out. It went public & of course it didn't sit well with the industry. An institution then challenged the him to send someone else into their institution (undercover) and that next time they'd definitely spot him. Months later the institution said they'd identified I think 24 fakes (it was in the 20's)... But it turned out he hadn't sent anyone. After that they changed their system, but obviously it's still a bs system. After that is actually when they came up with ADHD & other personality disorders which are bs as well... I don't know, I thought you could do something with that info. 

What else... I feel like crap lol!

On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 11:12 PM, wrote:

EL,

    Yep, it came out pretty scary, and I know that it sounds wildly anti-conpiracy-ish, but it needs to be a bit wacked-out for people to read it.  What I sent you was slightly less than half of your original posting, so, yes, there is more to work with.  What I am aiming for as it unfolds is two-fold.

    Narratively, it needs to feel like a discrediting of conspiracy theorists so that non-conspiracy theorists will read it thinking they will have their literal (conventional) beliefs defended by its mocking tone, but all the while is will be feeding that fear which is usually considered the fuel that drives conspiracy theorists along in their passionate drive to convince people to "wake the fuck up" and do something--which is precisely what the Powers-that-be are pushing us all to do.  I liked that you ended one of the later paragraphs with the expression "You'll keep having realization after realization."  It's like the revelations of conspiracy theory research cause an endorphin rush in much the same way that religious passions do--which goes hand in hand with your description of how this is designed to function like a religion.  The scary fear factor in the narrative stylings encourage the reader to participate with that expression rather than just see it explained.  So, the thing that is scary about it is not your words, but the dynamic narrative (slight as it is) around them.

    Literally in content, I will be having the arguments that reveal how the powers-that-be are pushing us all towards a massive reaction/revolt/uprising and the fact that spreading conspiracy theory reports (as well as following them in the endorphin-rushed frenzy) may seem like a successful effort to indict/incriminate the powers-that-be, but all it leads you to is the revolt that they are encouraging so that they can install this world government which would dissolve regionalism and cultural identity, basically turning people more into sheep than we already are.  I want to keep my research links connected to mainstream and stable sites like wikipedia (not wiki-leaks) and mainstream newsmedia websites--although I have already seen reports in the past ceasing to say what they said when they were newsworthy (in the "Social Networking & Anti-Consumerism" I found that the articles about Boycott BP's deletion did not contain the contradictory details that they contained when they were first published),

    But basically, what I wanted to portray is that conspiracy research becomes a mere endorphin rush addiction, and that common sense not guided by media hoopla will educate you better than the non-lies planted by the powers-that-be (because they know the path they will lead you on, and the facts that they feed you will only goad you into looking further in search of more endorphin-rush-based research)--realization after realization.  It just keeps you busy until you become so entranced by it that people will think you are crazy because of the way you sound before even beginning to listen to you.

    Also, here is my take on the whole movements thing.  Movements are furthered by gatherings, which become protests (however peaceful they may attempt to be), police presence results in posturing and confrontations, stand-offs result in shoving, riot-gear, rock-throwing, tear-gas, assaults, night-sticks, and eventually mass arrests.  It becomes the problem it tried to prevent.  Another difficulty with movements is that they are usually started by a particular person who has one issue, and once that person gets followers, other issues are added to the platform, somebody leader-like takes charge and makes it about his(or her) issue instead of the original issue, and it becomes something totally other than what it was when it started.  The Tea Party is a prime example of that.  The pre-Bolshevik revolutionaries started out that way--read Chernyshevsky's What's to be done?  and Dostoevsky's Devils.  The first book is piss-poor narration, but it paints a pretty picture--it's the world that Dostoevsky's characters wanted to re-invent, but the Stavrogin factor in Dostoevsky's book really gets scary after reading Chernyshevsky.

From: EL
To: Wraxtiorre
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 11:17 PM
Subject: Re: 2nd try (for Part two)

Nice. You got it!

From: Todd Mikosh
To: Albert Alamos
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 1:22 PM
Subject: The Rosenhan Experiment

EL,

    I told my wife about the anecdotal way of portraying the Rosenhan Experiment, and it seemed to be the best way to portray it--in other words, tell the first half straight-faced with both sides presented, and then tell the second half with only the other side presented and let the reader/listener infer the conclusion from the mysterious punchline--"He hadn't sent any pseudo-patients the second time." I'll see about getting the actual Rosenhan article and reviewing it as well--it might give me better insight to the controversy.

    Three things I realized about interpolating this incident: First, it shows off very clearly the argument about institutionalization and the need to fear it. Second, it can be used to show the inappropriate relationship between the efforts of activism and the actual consequences of activism. I'm not sure how it will pan out, but I will share it with you before I post it again. Really, I'll put your reservations to rest with this. I had been concerned about your fear that I was simply dissing Conspiracy Theorists, but I wasn't sure how to turn it into a portrayal of the Oedipus thing (The attempt to run away from self-destruction results in causing it) .

    The third thing it will show off--in the way I present the polyphonic content as being spoken by different people--is how a selected portion of the facts can paint a VERY different picture than the whole truth (with ALL the facts).

From: EL
To: wraxtiorre
Sent: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 2:59 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: The Wraxtiorre blog, Part Two

So I'm guessing you posted it already? I would definitely change the wording on my part, but I might just feel that way because it was just a post on facebook... If it was for something like this I would have described it differently... & definitely would have re-worded it.

This isn't the whole thing though, right? What's everything you got?

On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 1:44 PM, wrote:

EL,

    Sorry about sending this without any explanation, but it was after 2AM and I was quick to go to bed after hammering it out.  This section proved difficult, because of my effort to intercut the whole Rosenhan summary and the Catch-22 excerpt, and make them the stronger parts of the scene while not letting the reader forget that they are the second and third elements of it.  Also, much to my frustration, this scene used ALOT less of your original text than I did before.  I used screenshots from the movie that I got from another blogsite which discusses the film from the DVD commentary--I thought that including that last shot of Alan Arkin looking sideways from the hospital bed was especially effective right after the Rosenhan summary comes to an end.  I fixed a few typoes and made a few slight changes this morning.  Let me know what you think--I'll post it tonight.

From: Wraxtiorre
Subject: The third part, texted out
To: EL
Date: Saturday, November 12, 2011, 9:28 PM

EL,

     Here is the third part of the article, fully fleshed out.  I probably won't post it until Sunday Night, but I'll review it for typos and errors on Monday.  So, even if you can't suggest your desired revisions until Monday, I will still be able to make those corrections when I re-upload my revisions.  It's coming out a bit rougher than I had hoped, but I would like to give some more shine when I present Dr. Blight's hypothesis behind the study involving the Escaped Lunatic.  So, you will see in Part Four that only Dr. Blight sees the Escaped Lunatic as crazy, and even that can be suggested as a means to an end instead of a professional diagnosis.  I've been thinking about looking for a picture to use in this one, and all I can come up with is to find a picture of the Twin Towers, but I don't feel quite so right about that.  As with Part Two, highlight the segments that you do not like, and suggest in a separate email (or above the entire text) what it is that you don't like about the segment--you can even suggest what the rewrite should say.  But don't just give me an uneasiness based on a vague desire to reword it somewhere (without specifying where).  Tell me where.

From: EL

To: wraxtiorre
Sent: Friday, December 2, 2011 3:26 PM
Subject: Re: Another thing to inquire

Hey ... So sorry I haven't gotten back to you. To be honest I haven't read the last portions you sent me. I don't know if you know, but I do real estate on the side. I recently started working with a couple of investors & they're working me pretty hard. So whenever I have time I usually just lay back and say stupid things on fb or something of the sort lmao! I haven't really been doing any research/reading, etc... After so much paperwork the last thing I wanna do is read into something. But I hadn't written back because I was going to wait until I read it to get back to you.

As far as what you said about you coming out & saying it... My point was that what I wrote was a stupid rant. Just trying to open peoples' eyes so they could look further into the fact that even though the media's all bs and there's a whole system in place designed to feed us bs, it doesn't necessarily mean that the explanation they've gotten of what's really going on behind the veil is the truth. It's the only explanation they've been handed so they've chosen to run with it.

Really what I meant was just that in the context of what you're doing... I mean if I was to write it as the lunatic in the story I would have written it completely different. Because l think (& I might be wrong, but this is the way I would have done it) that you're trying to convey the message that "Hey, this guy is probably not as crazy at he sounds", right? To the audience? But there are certain phrases, or words in it that kind of give the impression that... Yeah, he probably is just crazy... lol! So I would have definitely tweaked it.

I will get to it eventually though.

From: Wraxtiorre
Subject: Re: Another thing to inquire
To: EL
Date: Saturday, December 3, 2011, 11:21 PM

Okay, I was afraid that you were horribly offended by it.  I'm so relieved, because I wasn't looking forward to a massive rewrite.  Okay, so I get the feeling that I kinda did portray the intent that you wanted, that not everything out there is truthful--or literally factual--and on the other hand, most of the stuff out there is real, it's just got spin on it.  And it needed to make the Escaped Lunatic seem crazy so that the reader would trust the label, and then in the fourth part (the part you haven't read yet) his insanity gets debunked and it turns out that the doctor has used the label of "insane" improperly.  But what bothers you is that the Escaped Lunatic actually does sound a little insane.  Okay, gimme the tweaks (when you get around to it) and I'll make the changes--judiciously--when I put the whole article in its own page.  I still have to get them to find Saint Sixedog (a character from the Behemoth Saga) and get him released from the hospital and then do the Tilapia Fricassee thing which will result in the Reality-show portrayal (which I will conclude by having one of the characters getting assassinated in the TV broadcast--that should be highly controversial).  Just remember, the Homeless Man is crazier than the Escaped Lunatic!

  But, yeah, Real Estate stuff.  Yep, that's a pile of paperwork.  I can understand your aversion to more reading when doing that kind of stuff.  Take your time, my friend.  It's getting harder and harder to finish this having the reportable content staying connected to the storyline, so I'll be working this out for some time anyway.  Besides, I still need to write the Bank Recon essay before people start looking into my other blog and finding it empty.

P.S.  I noticed that you haven't bought a copy of Mangled Doves yet!  Christmas is just around the corner--perfect time to share pictures of the peace dove getting shot with an arrow!

From: Wraxtiorre
To: EL
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2012 12:11 PM
Subject: The Whole Text

I'll bet that it's weird to receive an email with your own words in it, so here goes:

Damn, enter key! I wasn't done... I do want to clarify something I'm not sure I did before... It wasn't "Anti-conspiracy theorists"...

I mean anti conspiracy theorist usually implies you're "for" the government, and that's not the case at all. The information is all there if you ever look into that stuff. It's the direction most people are going with it. These are mainly people who didn't even know what a conspiracy theorist was until all this information started coming out. The people who had the information pretty much "handed to them". Someone shared something, or it was a popular or featured video on youtube, etc. These aren't the guys who researched anything before 9/11. They're the ones who got the "formatted" story, in a way.

All in all it was an attempt at explaining to these people that the information can be factual, but that doesn't mean they have the concept right. Or the story, or direction. & I'm not sure how well you understand that, but for example, you will find that most conspiracy theorists (nowadays) support Ron Paul. They actually think that THAT'S the answer. Or at least part of it. Missing the whole point completely. They're actually helping the agenda.

Anyway, I guess if you get that, you get it. No need for me to keep writing on it lol!