I know "The Truth"© and in all honesty. . . it’s really not that impressive. It’s actually kind of funnier to watch everyone else try to figure it all out. They’ve got this new offier now: all you gotta do is just mail in 3 UPC tags from a Cracker Jack box, and they send you "The Truth"©.
Tripler
Before the new program, it was $14.95 and a winning lottery ticket.
Email me.
The answer to your next question is “no”. I don’t know why you thought this was going to be easy.
Well your first mistake is modeling it as a ladder. If you realize that there are others like you who you do not know of it should all become clear. Everybody knows something you do not. You know some things nobody else does. The relevance of any secret is purely subjective. Being involved in running tests of chemical weapons on some Island in the pacific only affects my coworker Joe if something goes wrong. If I eat a lot of garlic he will definitely be affected. He doesn’t know about you participating in the tests, nor does he know about my nefarious plans for lunch. What exactly is your goal? What is it that you want to know? What do you want to do? Unfortunately we just don’t have *Bureau of Secret Activities That Would All Break Even at the Box Office if Made Into a Major Motion Picture *
Do you think the NSA knows what FBI or CIA or DEA or ATF or the military are doing? They live in their own little worlds, tiny little boring yet classified projects, too many to be micromanaged by any single group, and mostly paperwork and retards. That’s the problem with conspiracy theories – they assume a “they”, and such a “they” just can’t exist. People are unable to organize into any sort of functional organization bigger than a few dozen people out in the open, why would you think some oligarchy is secretly doing anything other than making each other fill out boring forms and occasionally exposing chimps to some modified ebola or financing a small revolution somewhere you’ve never even heard of?
The President? The CIA? The NSA? The Men in Black? Opus Dei? The Illuminati? Those bozos only know what we tell them. We’re the ones who are really running things. And because I’m in a good mood, I’ll tell you who we are and what we’re doing.
It all started back in
and thereby erasing any memories of our existence.
No one EVER gets into the inner circle by their own efforts. If the powers that be think you’re a worthy candidate (and no, there are no criteria you can follow), you’ll be extended an invitation. This tree house doesn’t have a ladder, only a rope that gets let down occasionally.
Princhester, you’ve got mail.
How does this remain in GQ?
Princhester what’s your email?
The Prez has the best access to general information, able to draw anything of interest from any department in the executive branch, though I’m sure individual cabinet secretaries and senior advisors have far more detailed information within their specific fields. If anyone rivals the Prez’s access to sensitive information, I’d bet on his Chief of Staff; his gatekeeper. If the Secretary of Defense or the National Security Advisor wants a meeting with the Big Guy, I’m pretty sure the COS knows the reason.
The notion of a secret cabal pulling the strings doesn’t pass the credibility test. To carry out the various secret murders and disappearances and whatnot requires a large staff of mechanics (far more than could plausibly keep their mouths shut) and the inevitable interest of curious non-cabal law enforcement officers, who either have to be eliminated (attracting more attention) or recruited (increasing the size of the conspiracy).
Join the Stonecutters!
“Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!”
Dammit, you beat me to it 
I’m sure you meant to be polite and first ask me whether you could have my email address. Assuming so, I’ve already answered. 
That is actually quite true. **xkcd **, if you want to understand the secrets behind conspiracies, power structures, government (dunno about aliens though) you could do a lot worse then study history.
For instance, try reading the memoirs and teachings of people who were "the smoking man"of their time. Think Julius Cesear, Sun Tzu, and Macciavelli, or more recent, try biographies of leaders/tyrants like Lenin, Mao, Stalin, Hitler, or democratic presidents like Gorbatchev or…well, any biography of a leader who has been dead long enough so his biographers don’t have anything to lose by telling the truth. You might occasionally have to filter out some self-worship. But though times and circumstances were different, people remain the same, and reading stuff like that will give you insight so you can draw your own modern parallels.
You could also try to read some history books on social developement. "Guns germs and steel"is a good example. Or try the beautiful writings on the 17 th century by Simon Schama. I myself am subscribed to a magazine which takes this months political and social trends and finds a relevent historical parallel for it. Quite often, history does repeat itself.
Nothing bad about Schopenhauer, but do you want to channel him and follow his lead? The guy severely disliked almost everyone he met. He hated his mom, who was by all accounts a nice lady, he hated his students on the university where he taught and spent more time writing about them with contempt then actually preparing useful lectures. He once kicked his maid so hard in anger, he had to pay her damages.
His writings on mankind reflect his hate and contempt. They can be read as a rationalization of his socially withdrawn and misanthopistic attitude. “I hate people, and they in turn regard me as Grumpy Mc Temper, but because <insert well written philoshopical argument> that makes me actually cooler and more insightful then everyone else, so there!”
So if you want to be like Schopenhauer, by all means channel him (he was financially independent, by the way, so he could afford it; can you?). If you want to be a 'smoking man" find yourself an example and learn from him/her.
Interesting. What magazine would that be?
Sorry, but it is Dutch: Historisch Nieuwsblad. “Historical Newspaper”. I’m sure there is an American equivalent, though.
I had an idea for a website called ‘history repeating itself’, in which current events are compared to history each week.
Well, we could, but then we’d have to [del]kill[/del] ban him. Looks like I’ve said too much already.
Clearly we have a “smoking woman” in our midst – most mainstream sources are still propagating the notion that Gorbachev is alive! :eek: