"They"

A fellow objected to my use of "they" when explicating a problem in USA politics.  Who is "they" he wanted to know?  My reply who was it that got us into the war in Iraq?  Who arranged the bank bailouts?  Who deigned torture acceptable in USA.  Who set up Gitmo?  Who decided warrantless spying on US citizens is ok?

Well, not congress.  Not the courts.  The president might have ok'd stuff after the fact, but no USA resident really has such unilateral power.

People like to think Dick Cheney is the Dr. Evil behind so much of this destruction of the American way of life.   But he has always been a clerk, along with Rumsfeld. So he cannot really be an originator.  But all of these terrible things have come to pass in USA, yet try to trace any of it back to clear authority and responsibility.  Good luck.  So who is it?  "they."

It does not qualify as conspiracy theory lunacy since there is no debate as to the facts.  We are in a war.  We do have torture.  We do have bailouts, etc.  We do vote for change, but we do not get it.  Obama has not been what his supporters hoped for.  What is going on is plain as day, the problem is just who is actually calling the shots?  "They."

A conspiracy theory provides an answer"  "pssst... the CIA killed Kennedy!"

But the most important part of a conspiracy theory is it absolves us of any responsibility ourselves.  If we can name the people who did something we do not approve of, then we are innocent of it ourselves, we have no responsibility for what is going on, and the best part, we are powerless to do anything.

Referring to "they" is to leave open the question as to who is responsible for these serial debacles, with the view we wish to be responsible, take responsibility for actions done in our name, and address crimes and grievances.  We know what happened, we just want the "who" so we can address the problem.

We do have the term "the powers that be" but it gives them a legitimacy they do not deserve.  We, USA, are the bad guys, because we are not curbing "they" who drive these crimes and debacles.  Using the term "they" is to challenge our legal system, which so far has failed to address wrongdoing.  We need to keep referring to "they" until we can identify them, and let them face charges.

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