Governments love imaginary problems. They provide excuses for expansion. Before 1928, there had been dozens of recessions, “panics”, and economic ups and downs. In 1928, the word went out: “Let’s not miss another chance to really help!”. To make the 1928 recession bad enough to justify massive, needless intrusion, the American government just stopped printing money. At the same time, it stopped international trade with protectionist treaties. As planned, they succeeded in destroying whole sectors of the economy.
Soon, what had been the usual downturn was transformed into a full-fledged, world-wide depression. It lasted until the desires for even bigger government launched us into WWII. After that war, the government engineered a “cold war” with Russia, partly because Communism was spreading its virulent hatred, slaughters, and deportations all over Europe, and partly to maintain high levels of taxes. At no time could Russia have actually won a war with the United States, but having the Russian Bear for a deadly enemy provided endless excuses for more spending.
By the end of the 1980s, Russia’s slave-economy had fallen so far behind that it could do nothing but collapse. So, it did. Our government was concerned. Suddenly, there was no depression, there was no “hot” war, there was no “cold” war, there was nothing at all for anyone to worry about.
Desperately rooting around for something to use as an excuse for its swollen size to seem necessary, our government made a succession of imaginary problems out of various kinds of “deadly pollution”. Everything from mercury to ozone to carbon dioxide became a “pollutant”. Lots of things got cleaned up. The entire town of Times Beach and the neighborhoods around the Love Canal were bulldozed into an oblivion that could only be accomplished by a government fighting a vicious war against its own people. Those who knew what was going on realized that if they complained about such lunacy, reasons for their own towns’ destruction could quickly be invented. But, few well-adjusted people could be convinced that such actions were justifiable. Once the EPA had arranged for all the funding that it was going to be allowed, the “war” on pollution was put on the back burner.
Other groups wanted government jobs. So, Global Freezing was run up the flagpole. Unfortunately, this was at the bottom of a solar cycle. Soon, the sun started to warm up things. As a result, Global Freezing melted away. Its supporters quickly made a total reversal, and proclaimed that “Global Warming is the “real problem”. “This is our big chance.”, those who make money from imaginary problems told each other. “We’ve got to make it stick!”
This was a Really Big Lie, accompanied by endless funding. Smarter, more honest people quickly saw that Global Warming was more self-serving nonsense to justify government takeover of power generation. They were proven to be right as the last solar cycle, #23, began to wind down and earth’s temperatures began to drop. A vast fraud, one that involved skewing the temperatures recorded by thousands of temperature sensors, was put into effect. The internet suddenly emerged as a political force. People saw pictures of the sensors, and all could see how they had been sited (some, on or next to, black, heat-absorbing asphalt) in order to produce the desired results. Real scientists began to recognize what ordinary citizens had seen all along, and say “Hogwash!” in increasing numbers, despite the desperate, near-hysterical protestations of those who received billions of dollars for “research” that “proved” Global Warming to be a danger.
Ever fewer people were dumb enough to believe in Global Warming as global temperatures began to plummet with the end of Solar Cycle 23. Now, even scientists, journalists, and pundits are beginning to publicly question the moral and intellectual levels of those involved in Global Warming.
As Global Warming disappears from credible thought, other imaginary problems are being explored. The “epidemic of obesity” is very popular among agencies desperate for something they can do to “help”. It does not seem to exist. It’s “bad effects” seem to work in reverse. Thin people are dying at younger ages than the moderately overweight, who are being re-defined as “obese”.
There have been lots and lots of vitamin lies. Billions of people take what’s growing into an entire alphabet of vitamins. Studies involving hundreds of thousands of people found that placebo and vitamin takers live about as long, except for the cases that showed vitamin takers died more quickly.
“Second-hand smoke” was another successful imaginary problem, justifying billions in spending and countless decibels of outrage. But, once public smoking was largely stopped, there weren’t a lot of other opportunities for more taxing and spending. A brief flurry about the “dangers of 3rd hand smoke” has found few people gullible enough to take it seriously.
Many are still concerned about “food pollution”, but those lies aren’t gaining much traction. No one is overly concerned about the rapidly recurring “salt and sugar” lies. Neither are the recurring vaccination lies being taken seriously. What’s an alarmist to do? More lies are necessary. Elsewhere on this site, The Lie Committees are hard at work.
