Talk: JFK and the Unspeakable

This is a talk by Jim Douglass, a peace activist and the author of the book "JFK and the Unspeakable." Perhaps I will get a copy for my birthday. From everything I have read about "Unspeakable," I think it gets closest to explaining why I've always been fascinated with the JFK assassination (from the age of seven or eight!), and why I think it is a keystone event in our national life.

It is always very difficult to discuss this topic, because spoken or unspoken it becomes clear that any deviation from the "Oswald did it alone" story is an indictment of our entire shared reality, and hints at a level of ineptitude and/or corruption and/or outright evil that is almost impossible to live with. This is why the mass media has come down so firmly in favor of the Warren Commission over the years; from Life in '64 to CBS in '67 to ABC in '98, and on and on, the self-appointed shapers of public opinion have relentlessly toed the government line, and resented the public's determination to believe differently.

People want to believe in the lone nut template, not only in this case but in all political murders, because it requires no action from them. It is only the vastness and depth of the evidence which keeps the pro-conspiracy viewpoint from dying off. It is, after all, a profoundly uncomfortable place to be. But there are greater virtues than comfort.