Blog 2: SMU topic: The allegory of the cave

    I find it hard to pick just one case in human history where the masses were purposely
misinformed and where a concentrated group of people made decisions that affected many
people, yet the general knowledge regarding the matter was vague, and full of half
truths. The war in Iraq was the most recent. Arguably the tragedy of September 11th
was preventable, and many insinuate the government encouraged it. The Vietnam war was
launched on the premises that a U.S ship was attacked on the gulf of tonkin by north
Vietnamese boats in 1964. In 2005 it was declassified, and the public was informed
that there "may not have been any north Vietnamese vessels present during the incident".
Even still we know only what we are told of these topics, and the truth behind them is
up to debate.

 Vietnam  war cover up

    The incident which I feel caused the most damage was the federal reserve act of 1913
signed by then president Woodrow Wilson.  In the text "The Allegory of the cave" Socrates uses a cave metaphor to describe human ignorance. The humans were prisoners of this cave, and forced to accept the illusion as truth, much like Woodrow Wilson decieved the public about the true nature behind the federal reserve act. Our President is some one we expect to lead our society into prosperity, not the great depression, which occured not two decades after the act was signed.

   The public was lead to believe that instituting a centralized bank to put a end to financial panics, and lead to economic prosperity. A board of trustees was assembled consisting of the highest ranking bankers, and they
created the federal reserve act in a private meeting on a island. No government official,
lawyer, politician, or civilian was allowed in the meeting. Just the highest banking officials. Bascially
they with out any formal knowledge of law making or political protocols, they were allowed to create a piece of legislature which would forever change the direction of our country. Woodrow Wilson himself later wrote in regret:

    "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial
nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated.
The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a
few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely
controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government
by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority,
but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
  -Woodrow Wilson

  Reference to quote

    This is our president talking here. Not a lobbyist, or a C.E.O. This man is at the
tip top of the ladder, and is privy to information that we would never want to know.
He knows what hes talking about. This was not speculation. He wanted to become president
and needed the support of the bankers.He was promised support if he signed the act. This
is a common practice in politics. Yet later upon retrospect, he admitted that it was
a foolish act but his ambitions blinded him to this. History repeats itself, and I
doubt this was the first time some thing like this occurred.