FROM TRUTH PAGE 3 Conspiracy is a part of modern life, USC professor says
By ALICE OLLSTEIN Special to the Daily Press
PICO BLVD Each Saturday, local activists crowd into the small, dim back room of the UnUrban Coffeehouse to watch documentaries, share their suspicions and ideas and question the official story of Sept. 11. Perching on the café’s mismatched chairs and stools, the congregated truth-seekers discuss everything from the possibility of an “inside job” to the current economic crisis to the rising power of China. Though the meetings are scheduled to run from 1 to 5 p.m., many stay until 7 p.m. hashing out various theories.
For the past several years, these concerned Santa Monicans have flocked to the UnUrban for the 9/11 Truth L.A. meeting. The group is just one branch of a national organization dedicated to “compelling a new, independent and international investigation into the events and causes of Sept. 11, 2001,” as stated on the Web site 911truthla.com. Group leader Peter Thottam said group membership, which mainly consists of over- 40, working professionals, has “taken off” in the past year due to mounting anxiety about the state of the country.
“People are concerned about Iran, which is motivating a lot of worry, and the economy,” Thottam said. “They feel that the government is putting in an Orwellian police state structure with retroactive immunity for wiretapping and so on. All it will take is one bomb for the current or next administration to declare a state of emergency. Another 9/11 is in the offing.”
University of Southern California Public Diplomacy professor Nicholas Cull offers another explanation for the group’s rise in popularity.
“Part of the reason for contemporary conspiracy is that our governments have lied to us and distorted truth and they have ‘conspired’ — worked with special interest groups to rig the system to mutual advantage. The popular imagination merely extrapolates from their past behavior, and draws the worst possible conclusion.”
Cull feels that whether or not the individual conspiracy stories are true, conspiracy theory is a feature of modern life.
“The conspiracy is a way of keeping politics about people rather than faceless economic and cultural forces. We believe in heroes and need a conspiracy of villains to destroy our heroes. The conspiracy is the perfect story because when an expert denies the story they immediately become part of it.”
Much of Thottam’s frustration stems from government and news organizations failing to address his group’s concerns.
“The media puts out nonsense stories about Britney Spears, but no meaningful news,” he said.
Longtime group member Chuck, who preferred to keep his last name unknown, agreed.
“The mainstream media will not discuss it, so we will,” he said.
Cull believes, however, that the government is the one with the responsibility to address the allegations against it.
“Governments need to respond by being more open and transparent, and in some cases being prepared to engage the stories with demonstrable truth. Often they have only themselves to blame.”
However, because this has yet to happen, Chuck feels that grassroots movements are the only way to reach the people.
“Che Guevara said that the only way to have a revolution is to change consciousness, so that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The consciousness the group hopes to change is the American public’s acceptance of the official story put forth by the government in the 9/11 Commission Report.
“We have a responsibility as citizens to find out what happened on 9/11, because the official report is lies,” Thottam said. “We’re convinced that factions within the government and on Wall Street cooperated to make it happen. It was an excuse to triple the military budget from $240 billion to over $1 trillion, a pretense for a new Cold War. The American people are being lied to.”
In the past, the group’s focus has mainly been on education, awareness and outreach, but starting in August they plan to “step it up a notch” by lobbying city councils, local congressional representatives and the state government in Sacramento. They are also looking into hosting a “major truth conference” next spring, possibly at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Other efforts include weekly meetings on the Third Street Promenade and at UCLA.
Recently, the group’s focus has broadened beyond the day the towers fell.
“We’re no longer just about 9/11,” said Thottam. “We’re volunteering for the Obama campaign, partnering with Muslim and Jewish centers and volunteering with anti-war groups like Code Pink and the Green Party.”
Thottam credits the local community, and the UnUrban Café, for the popularity and success of his group.
“Venice and Santa Monica are two of the most progressive, open-minded cities in the country,” he said. “People here are well read, they care about the government, and many are upset over these constitutional rights violations. We used to meet in Bel Air and Hollywood, but since moving to Santa Monica we’ve more than doubled in size.”
He called the UnUrban “an intellectual Mecca, reminiscent of the ’60s in San Francisco,”and noted that every meeting draws four or five people who had originally come to the café for other purposes.
“There’s an energy and a willingness to listen there,” Thottam said. “There’s a heightened sense of awareness.”
Though Chuck mentioned the Kennedy assassination conspiracy, the mysterious “third building” to collapse on Sept. 11 and the 1933 Reichstag fire conspiracy in the span of a few minutes, he doesn’t want 9/11 Truth L.A. to be misinterpreted as a “conspiracy group.”
“When people hear ‘conspiracy’ they label us something we’re not,” he said. “We’re just trying to get the public literate on these issues. The Bill of Rights is essentially decimated, and if you compare the Patriot Act to Hitler’s Enabling Act, they’re very similar. We have to address these problems.”
As military spending soars and the government stands by it’s version of the attacks, 9/11 Truth L.A. has their work cut out for them.
“It’s not about any particular political group,” Thottam emphasized. “It’s about the constitution and its future.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 14, 2008. Read the original PDF.