David Ray Griffin and the Politics Of Mental Instability

A friend of mine had a couple of extra tickets to see David Ray Griffin at Town Hall last Friday and he asked if I wanted to go. Sure, I said, why not. I’d love to see what all this is about. And that’s the story of this post.

In case you don’t know, Griffin is the author of a bunch of books, a couple of which are about 9-11. His theory is that 9-11 was an “inside job” and he is a leading light among what’s known as “conspiracy theorists.” My friend and I have and ongoing argument about this. He insists that certain factions of the government planned the whole thing and I insist that no, we were attacked, though we did have it coming. At times our argument has become heated and I have told him to stop sending me things about it in emails and so on. We remain friends – I give guitar lessons to his sons, and he is one of the best and most constant activists I know in the Seattle area. He is a Catholic Worker, and those folks are the real thing – you won’t find any more dedicated and hard working bunch. But there is a bit of “Catholic Supremacy” that runs through his thinking sometimes. The first thing he will point out about certain people is that they are Catholic – and he will overlook a lot of baggage if the faith is involved. So when he had first told me about Griffin a couple of years ago he was quick to point out that he is a Catholic theologian, a recommendation that doesn’t really do much for me. Griffin’s book had received mixed reviews, achieving a kind of cult following in certain circles and being laughed at in others. I sent my friend a few critical articles from the web, to which he never responded. There’s that blind eye again. So I let it drop. But here was a free ticket. I couldn’t turn it down…

We met at a downtown restaurant – he and I, plus a priest and mutual friend from Belfast. Drinking was almost mandatory so I had a few glasses of wine. Mistake number one. We drove up to Town Hall and went in. I perused the literature tables in the lobby, only some of which were familiar to me. Quite a few of them were of the Black Helicopter type – Idaho Survivalist stuff. $30 DVDs about Freemasonry and so on. After a while we took our seats and I began to struggle to stay awake. It was hot up there and the wine was taking its toll. The MC was a very strange tall man with abnormally broad shoulders, wearing a dark suit that looked like curtains. He introduced Professor Griffin and the audience gave him a hero’s welcome. I was ready to be intrigued.

Griffin’s new book is called “Debunking the 9-11 Debunkers.” There was a lot of ground to cover and I expected blazing arguments. Instead, Griffin proceeded to read from a prepared speech – and he’s not a very good reader. If he made a mistake he would start at the beginning of the same sentence and read it again. Real dry stuff. And his counter arguments seemed to be innuendo and sarcasm. Three times he mentioned a passport that had flown out of one of the airplanes – everybody laughed at this but he never used for anything. Everybody just seemed to know what he meant and it was accepted as a great hammer blow for the truth. At another time, as proof of the growing acceptance of his Truth Movement – and proof of the intelligence of his scholarship – he listed off a number of groups that had joined the fight. Groups like “Architects For 9-11 Truth” and “Scholars For 9-11 Truth.” Okay, I thought, anyone can make up a name – who are these people? He never said. He just kept reading.

I can’t say that I recall any great moments, because there were none. One of Griffin’s most serious critiques had come from Popular Mechanics, who had written a book debunking the conspiracy theorists, a lot of it being about him. I never read the book but I did read the transcript of their interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! They made sense to me and I thought they did a good job of straightening out some of the real curvy logic that Griffin uses. So the professor addressed them in Town Hall and I was expecting fireworks. No such luck. The best he could come up with was who owns the magazine – guilt by association. Nothing to do with the arguments. I could use the same logic on myself and say that I can’t write decent political songs because I play a Martin and the Martin company is very conservative. I’ll have to stop buying my own records.

I really wanted to take a nap but my friend was sitting right next to me and I’m told that I snore. Our buddy from Belfast was sitting on the other side of me, however, and he had nodded off several times. When the lecture was over everybody stood up to give Griffin an ovation. I stood up also, mainly to get the circulation going again in my feet, but also to be polite. Then the Belfast man and I went downstairs for some water. The air was hot up there (!). After a few minutes I went back up and sat in the rear. The Belfast man stayed downstairs by the water cooler. It was time for questions and answers. The questions had been written out and the strange man with the broad shoulders was reading them. To answer one of the questions Professor Griffin went on about how Christians in particular should be concerned with stuff because Christianity was by nature and anti imperialist religion because Jesus had agitated against the Roman state, and on and on, and I began to think, well now wait a minute - are Christians better than everybody else? I don’t have a deity – what about me? Then the professor began to spin his wheels and he said, “I’ve been biding my time trying to remember what the question was but I can’t do it. What was the question?” Everybody laughed but not the way that you would like them to. The MC said that Professor Griffin would be delivering the sermon at such and such a church on the following day and I got up and went downstairs for the last time. My Belfast friend was still sitting by the drinking fountain, talking with a custodian who was marveling that they could get so many people out for something like this. In all positive generosity he was saying that it was a good sign because at least people were distrusting the government. I agreed, with reservations. Our friend with the tickets came down and we went out for a late drink.

We had a pleasant after lecture evening, pretty much staying off the topic of David Ray Griffin. Alcohol and agitation can lead to hangovers. But the next day I got an email from my friend suggesting that perhaps I was having trouble accepting Griffin’s arguments and should give them a chance. I wrote back assuring him that we were still friends but making a couple of points: One - there are no theories of any kind - from Big Foot to the World Jewish Conspiracy - that are not supported by "reputable experts." Two - I have never met a religious person of any persuasion who was not aware that their particular version of reality was the best. Three - religion is predicated on the acceptance of the mysterious as proof of a greater design and therefore should be kept as far away as possible from the science of investigation. And I meant it.

And yes, we are still friends.

But really, do we have to suffer through the whimsies of soft skulled speculations just to be nice to each other? Shouldn’t we call bullshit when we see it? I think that there is a strange kind of America First thing going on here - the US is so great and powerful that no one could attack it except itself. And also a boring old magical “man behind the curtain” scenario. Like wishing for a good movie version where everything gets to be really exciting with lots of James Bond intrigues and maybe even some flying saucers. I know its boring, and maybe even a little depressing to think that the great Land of John Wayne could be brought to its knees by a handful of Arabs with hand held weapons, but you know…. History doesn’t play favorites. And even the gods have to get real sometimes.

Back In Seattle Again

Back in Seattle again… Warm weather and lots of green. Sometimes I remember why I love this place. Everything is alive. I had a very successful east coast trip and now it’s time to dig my heels in again. We at the Pike Market Performers’ Guild need to really get on the ball about this years’ Busker Festival - time’s a-wastin’ and there’s never enough hours in the day when you start to fall behind. We need to get those artwork entries and those applications out. Damn… It’s already May!

We may have another stage this year. I would like that. One of the restaurants at the Market is talking about having a beer garden on festival day and that would mean setting up a stage right there. It would have to have sound reinforcement, of course. The amazing thing is that we have become such a welcomed addition to the city that local businesses fell like taking advantage and joining in. Good news all around.

And speaking of good news, the Great Mystery Project is nearing completion and may actually be able to declare itself by name before too long. It involves recording studios and old friends, new music and ancient ritual rhythms. I will say no more. It will not be ready for Folklife but soon after. Once again I am going cross eyed at the computer getting all these parts together. Good thing I already wear glasses.

And while we’re on the subject, Jerry Falwell just died. What can I say? I listened to Ron Reagan on KIRO today, a local talk radio station. He was so vague and kid glove about everything. “You should be nice to people right after they’ve died,” he kept saying. And I kept wondering why. They weren’t nice to Sadam Hussein after he died. I mean – he’s dead, he’s not going to be bothered by what you say. So let’s be real: Falwell gave us the Moral Majority, those shiny white shock troops for Jesus who laid out such a great and detailed plan for the future of these late great United States. He helped elect some of our most virulent politicians. He helped to make women’s clinics the dangerous places that they are today. He blamed women, gays, and liberals for the attacks of 9-1. He was not a constructive personality in the world and he had a lot of political power to do things with. Maybe we’re better off without him and we should say so.

Reagan talked to a local Seattle area Falwell supporter, a “Reverend SoAndSo” from Renton. The reverend liked to talk about how Jerry was so adamant about getting America back to its faith based roots. Back to the Christian principles that America was founded on, he said. Wow – I don’t remember learning about that in school. In fact, I remember learning that one of the things that set this country apart from so many others is that we do not have a religious involvement in our governmental affairs. Separation of church and state and all that stuff. I think I remember it right. But Reagan never challenged him on any of it. He was too busy being nice.

(While you’re being nice and playing your violins they are reorganizing their power base. The engines of the coup are never idle. Death creates a vacuum and if you don’t shine the light it will be filled by invisible minions. The kind that bite you in the neck while you’re bending down to kiss your children.)

Oh well, time goes on and the calendars just keep changing. These eternal deities just don’t last. Remember the story about Galileo? That’s one of my favorites. Galileo suggested that the earth was not the center of the universe. That really pissed off the church who had him arrested and put in confinement. He was finally pardoned sometime in the late 20th century. No sense in rushing into things. It was a very threatening thing to say because this planet earth is where we humans live. And if the earth is not the center of the universe then we humans are not the center either and that might mean that we are not made in the image of god. I mean, if everything revolves around the deity then it only makes sense that everything would also revolve around the deity’s mirror, right? Humans, who are that mirror, would be right in the center of it, with all the universe revolving around our collective head. But if that’s not the case then it might mean that we are not made in the image of god after all but are only some overly imaginative primate species with a need to be needed. And that would mean that god was most likely made in the image of humans. And that’s depressing if you’re a big wig in one of god’s many earthly empires.

The empires are shrinking, and that’s the good news.

Manhattan

37 years ago I arrived in Manhattan wearing a fleece lined army surplus flight jacket with a broken zipper, held together with two ropes. I had a back pack and about 75 cents in my pocket. I was twenty years old. I had hitch hiked across country from California with my buddy Scot Simbulan, whom I have not seen since. I remember that I didn’t bring my guitar because I figured everybody would be so good that there would be no room for me. What I found was that Greenwich Village had moved on. What was left was a handful collection of real people and a whole lot of posers waiting to be discovered by TV. But I was in the Village and this was Manhattan and there couldn’t be anything closer to heaven in my book.

Manhattan! That’s where we are now, up at 113th and Riverside Drive, staying with my buddy Mark. He’s a multi instrumentalist and a gas to hang out with. We only have a few days here so it’ll be fast. Last night we played at a book store around the corner from his house, a small but appreciative crowd. Today we’ll just wander around and check out the sights – and for me that means the neighborhoods and the benches. And the smell of the place – a mixture of pizza and concrete. Makes me hungry. Tomorrow morning I’ll get up around 6 am and head downtown to be at the Firehouse Station where they broadcast Democracy Now! Years ago Amy Goodman gave me an open invitation to drop by any time I was in the city and this will be the second time I took her up on it.

I picked up two books last night. “The Mayor Of MacDougle Street – a memoir” by Dave Van Ronk, and “Garcia – A Signpost To A New Space” which is Jerry Garcia interviews. To my thinking they are kindred spirits. Van Ronk was the big great hearted lord of the east coast folk scene – mentoring everybody from Bob Dylan to Joni Mitchell – and Garcia was the folk saturated mandolin/jazz/rock guitar player of the Grateful Dead who carried all that wonderful old folk music with him into the late 20th century. Two generous giants from the same ocean of soul. I would have loved to hear them play together. Maybe they did.

Anyway, I’m going to put this up so that people don’t think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. I’m off to Berea, Ohio in a couple of days and will finally make it home next week. See you down the road.