Conversations with Professor Paul Zarembka: 9/11 and The State of The Truth Movement

Last week, I had the chance to sit down with University of Buffalo Professor of Economics, Paul Zarembka to talk about 9/11 truth and the current state of the truth movement.  We had a fruitful conversation spanning several topics, touching on aspects of 9/11, historical perspective, and what will become of the truth movement and the police state.

For some background on Paul Zarembka's areas of focus, please visit his website here.  He has published several papers on 9/11 and a book titled The Hidden History of 9/11.  He gave a presentation recently at the Toronto Hearings about evidence of insider trading prior to 9/11, which is available to watch here.

To begin our conversation, I asked what his current level on involvement was in the truth movement and what kind of contacts he maintained in Buffalo.  Buffalo is a rust belt town with a powerful upper class, a sizeable middle class, and an even larger lower class.  It would seem that the truth movement would take hold very well here, but this has not manifested itself like I would have imagined ten years down the line.  The middle class seems to be burdened by a form of group think that skews perceptions of international and deep events, a factor of which would be the quality of both mainstream media information and local news television and print media.  The Buffalo News is owned by Warren Buffet and they have apparently chosen a USA Today, made-for-TV audience business model.  Pictures of celebrities and sports stars and other culture fodder pollutes the uppermost four inches of the front page.  The only decent alternative would be the weekly publication Artvoice, but they still wade around the shallows of liberal moderate righteous-ism.  Back to the question at hand, what is Zarembka's position within the local truth movement?  His answer is very telling to our situation.  For years and years, most of the truth movement has been a non-localized, internet-based form of indirect communication, where the community has mostly corresponded via a relatively small number of websites.  Most of Zarembka's contacts are not located in Buffalo, but he indicated that this is now beginning to change.  He shared the story of recently coming into contact with Barry Miller, a local signatory of Architect and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, through Richard Gage, founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.  Richard Gage traveled to Buffalo to give a presentation on the physics of the World Trade Center collapses, which he rightly asserts are controlled demolitions.  I don't know the details of their correspondence to date, but the connection is there.  The Toronto Hearings took place the following weekend, where both Gage and Zarembka gave presentations.  Zarembka also shared with me a new local publication called Brain Stream Media, dedicated to covering the all the issues we need to confront in this 'brave new world' with the integrity and courage the dinosaur print media organizations lack.  It's funny how major news organizations undermine their own futures by failing to do their jobs by choice - MSM, you are killing yourselves.  If you want to stay alive, it might befit you to speak the truth.

The next topic of conversation centered on why 9/11 truth has not gained as much traction as one might think in the United States.  Zarembka noted a few points, the first of which he related an anecdote.  "I've lived for a considerable time in Europe.  Europeans have the deep understanding and knowledge of a nefarious culture within the government.  This is very old knowledge and very deep," he said as he gestured to his chest with his hands.  He then related the example of the Germans sending German prisoners across Polish lines in Polish uniforms to then shoot back into Germany at German soldiers to start World War II.  He then went on to note that Americans suffer from an imperial mentality that informs them that the idea that 9/11 would be carried out by our own government is "beyond the pale."  To add to this point, psychologists have pointed out that this worldview is a form of pride, the idea that "we Americans" are somehow exceptional from the rest of the world.  This idea, if not altogether wrong, is at least archaic and not based in reality.  Freedom is a pursuit, not a destination.

I posed two questions following these conversations, somewhat larger questions.  The first was, "What do you think 9/11 is all about?"  Zarembka sat in silence for about ten seconds, pondering the question, staring into the space about three feet in front of his chest, and then said somewhat slowly and quietly, "I don't know."  I guess none of us really know, which contributes to the pursuit of 9/11 truth, but I volunteered several different answers in the wake of his response:  it could be war for oil, geopolitical strategy, total state control, revamping the military, protecting empire and hegemonic rule, or some combination of any of those.  Or is 9/11 just a historically significant manifestation of greed and the desire for power?  Unfortunately we haven't gotten a "there there" quite yet.    9/11 wasn't the beginning of the mess we now find ourselves in, it is just a manifestation of evil, a tool that has been used to further create the conditions for the hell we are now surrounded by.  People planned 9/11 in backrooms of D.C. and God knows where else, for years.

The next question I posed was, "How do we fix this?"  Zarembka had an easier time answering this, if only because he relied on Marxist theory to point to an answer.  Due to his Marxist studies, he stated that he believed the locus of change rested in workers.  Workers are the ones who will force the system to change, a very simple concept really, but one that holds appeal to someone like me because I am a "worker,"  someone who shows up and gets paid by the hour to work.  Pretty simple.  I would also argue that work is a distraction much of the time due to the money system, and that full employment is absolutely unnecessary, but the rationale that the working class are the ones that hold the keys to widespread revolution or change holds appeal.  In attempting to understand, from this Marxist perspective, how the working class might hold the keys to revolution, he offered an example from the 1930's, when the U.S. working classes became so enraged at everything that they started making connections to the bigger picture of socioeconomic distress.  Like today, working class people are slowly moving in a direction of deeper understanding of the issues they face, how they are all interrelated, and the fact that this situation is both unsustainable and needs to change.  The skullduggery unleashed by the mainstream media, the propagandists, and the puppet politicians everyday just illustrate that the balance is tipping, that they are fighting to stave off a collapse of their own system.  The harder they fight, the easier it is for us to win.  The sooner this system breaks, we will rise like a phoenix from the ashes. 

Two final notes from our conversations.  I brought up the issue of surveillance and whether or not he thought it was an issue people like him or I had to worry about.  While we agreed that it probably wasn't worth their time or money to deal with people like us, we still noted the existence of data banking systems, algorithm based profiling, and the PATRIOT Act intelligence agency spy powers.  He said if they really worry about anyone it would be people like April Gallop and Barry Jennings (now dead...), but they definitely keep tabs on the truth movement.  He made a final point about surveillance by referring to a 9/11 Truth conference in 2006, where keynote speaker William Pepper, attorney for the King family, revealed insights into how deeply embedded government agents can be.  Furthermore, he cautioned the conference attendees that, "This group, more than any other that I can think of, in terms of a movement, is going to be infiltrated, is infiltrated, and there are going to be all kinds of efforts to subvert your work, all kinds of efforts to corrupt your work, and all kinds of efforts to discredit you.  Please understand that and take it in the spirit in which it's being given, because this is what will happen and probably is happening, so, please, your work is too important, your mission is too precious, be careful in every aspect of the work, make sure your allegation, your claims are well-founded, because if they are not, you will be discredited."  Thank you to Professor Paul Zarembka for your time and insights.  "This is the beginning of the beginning."

"We Are Winning": OWS Projects Messages on NYC Verizon Building

We are winning.

Violence Begets Violence

Violence begets violence, so we are confined to peaceful means.  Add to that the militarization of the police and the criminalization of dissent and, voila, you have a recipe for no justice or progress.  How can we fix this?

J. Krishnamurti - The Origin of Fear

The Dignity and Humility of Being Human

It is humbling to be human.  The simple things, like fingernails, having a physical body that occupies space.  The similarities all people share, the teeth, the act of washing oneself even, all so humbling.  The little things that take up our time that we have to do as part of being human.  The little things we do that are sacred, even if we do not pay attention to them every time, walking one foot after the other, adorning ourselves, cutting hair and nails, having a belly button.  We all have dignity and share a similar story.  We are human.  I am thankful for this gift.

The symmetry of our faces, of our bodies.  Even animals delight in the symmentry.  We resemble grasshoppers when you get down to it.  We have the same desires, needs:  food, a mate, a home.  The desires for love, safety, meaning.  What we do to find these, and live with them, forever and always.  Unmistakeable, Undeniable, there.  Presence, essence. 

The gestures we offer one another, as a token of love, a token of ourselves.  If not for another, then for who?  Without another, we wouldn't be.  All we do that is solitary, belongs to others.  Is there any act that does not truly exist for others?  The impossibility of escaping the fact that selfishness is a puzzle piece that fits in no puzzle.  If I were the only person in the universe, I would see myself and demand that I create another like myself - to witness, for me to witness, to create.  All it takes is a moment, a glance at our fleeting physicality, to understand.  We are never alone, the divine path we inhabit.  There is no other way.  I take comfort in the sanctity of this moment.