Kill the Illuminati

I met this guy the other day.  He's 24, and he doesn't have consistent employment.  I'm not sure what he actually does for money.  Not sure I want to know.  He dropped out of high school at 15 after bouncing around 3-4 different schools.  One he got kicked out of, one he was just bored.  He's a bright guy though.  Mentally agile, given an opportunity I'm sure he could have finished high school gone to college and made his way in the world.  He's also one of the nicest people I've ever met...always smiling.

Anyway, so he was asking me if I could answer some questions for him.  He wanted to know if we were really experiencing hell on earth.  I had no idea what he was talking about...long story short...he loaned me this DVD to watch.  I have since talked to some people who have grown up in Detroit in less than wealthy circumstances and apparently this DVD is pretty popular.  It's called "A Damn Shame" and there are five, two-hour installments.  I only watch about half an hour of one of them.

So it turns out that Detroit is a hotbed of modern conspiracy theorists.   It's all about how the Illuminati control the world.   I learned so much about them.  They killed Tupac for starters, and Michael Jackson. They also put their symbol on the back of the one dollar bill.  The Masons control who becomes president...I actually thought this one had died with the election of a black president since when I first heard these theories they focused heavily on how only white men could become president.  And their ultimate goal?...to bring about and maintain hell on earth.

Ridiculous right, how could anyone believe this...the thing is though, I got it.  I saw why it's so popular.  The narrator talks about hopelessness, oppression, poverty.  It speaks right to the feeling of the inevitableness of poverty among the underclass of this city.  The lack of opportunities.  To grow up in poverty in Detroit is not a hopeful position.  If I didn't have an education I'd probably believe it too.

But it takes the truth of oppression and poverty, and twists it.  The video says there is this one group oppressing us, holding us down...when what is really holding this city is the sin of millions of people.  The small choices of everyone.  The choices of rich folk out in the suburbs who have given up on the city, and the choices of some of the poor here in the city who choose alcohol, drugs, and sex over staying in chool and getting a job.   It is the weight of the collective decisions of millions of people that makes the problem of poverty so intractable.  If it were just a few illuminati, we could just take them out and poverty would be gone.

So this video gets passed around-bootleg copies making the rounds in Detroit.  And I think it actually brings a modicum of hope to some, because it makes things simpler and it gives an answer...just get rid of the illuminati.