Who are They?

They are the subject of our conversations more often than we realize. They get blamed for everything bad that happens. And they need to do something about it. So who are they?

In Working for Uncle Henry, Parker's friend Ijue often credits the government as being "they." (I totally invented the name Ijue, by the way. Maybe "they" will name a hurricane after him one day.) See what I just did? But by "government," Ijue insinuates he's referencing a select group of conspiratorial "theys" who are either in government roles or control members of the government.

The government is always an easy target, but as we've stated before "where there's smoke, there's fire." There are sinister people out there manipulating their agendas. It's just hard to tell through all the political hooey who's good and who isn't. That could be because of the power of the secret societies doing the manipulating to remain in the background. Well, that's what Ijue would say.

One of those secret societies is the infamous Illuminati, but Ijue suggests even the Illuminati is being controlled by someone else. We'll dig into that more in Book 3 of the Uncle Henry series currently under construction.

In Book 1, Henry declares, "Humans are corrupt. Therefore, any organization comprised of humans will eventually become corrupt, no matter its original intent." A sad thought, but certainly one worth considering.

Is the most overused pronoun in the English language simply a copout? Could it be that We are They? And we have no one to blame but ourselves?

Conspiracy Theories

Very little has been conceived in books and movies that hasn't happened in real life. In fact, the old adage "truth is stranger than fiction" wasn't coined in vain. It's one reason conspiracy theories are so popular. That and the internet. Theories run the gamut of deceased celebrities still being alive to false flag tragedies and elaborate one world order plots. 

I enjoy a good government conspiracy theory. Not that I believe them--not all of them anyway. But it can be fun to speculate. It can also be a little unnerving when some of those theories turn out to be accurate. Like the CIA's MK Ultra program that spanned decades and involved numerous experiments mostly around the effects of LSD. Samuel Archer comes face to face with this one and a few others in The Biography of Samuel Archer.

In Working for Uncle Henry, Parker's friend Ijue is a bonafide conspiracy theorist obsessed to the point of mild paranoia. He lives in a faraday type house in the swamp in our fictional town of Rolling Rivers, VA. Ijue's theories include Elvis, UFOs, government plots, Big Foot, and crediting the Georgia Guidestones to Jimmy Carter.

The average person will laugh at such "nonsense." But what if the seemingly harmless but crazy theories are just to throw us off the ones that are real? After all, we know some things actually happened. Statistical odds would say then that some current conspiracies floating around are real. And the other old adage "where there's smoke, there's fire" tends to be true more often than not.

Do you follow conspiracy theories? What's your favorite? What's one you believe to be true?

The Sleight Hand

The sleight of hand can be fun to watch as long as you're not on the losing end. No one really knows when these type tricks were first performed, so let's just say it was a long, long time ago. Initially, the sleight of hand artists were grouped with conjurers and sorcerers, but they are really just skilled tricksters who rely on misdirection.

The word sleight, means "the use of dexterity or cunning, especially to deceive." The phrase sleight of hand means "quick fingers" or "trickster fingers." The harmless practice is performed for entertainment purposes. The not-so-harmless practice is used by card sharks and pickpockets like Samuel Archer.

While the fingers must be skilled, misdirection is the key. This is true for other cons and swindles too. The trickster must shift your focus to their other hand or in the case of a swindle to what you really want--money, fame, or something else in life.

While Samuel Archer used the sleight of hand to steal people's money and possessions, Henry Archer warns of the sleight of hand operating behind the scenes to steal our freedom. Now that may sound like a conspiracy theory but look around. Politicians and activists tell us what we want to hear all the time to gain our support.

How many things have happened in your life time you never dreamed would happen? How many policies have been enacted you never fathomed ten or twenty years ago? Unlike the sleight of hand, most of these things didn't happen quickly. They were gradual changes that slipped in under our noses when we weren't looking. The misdirection of a busy, every day life.

So misdirection can happen quickly or slowly. The danger lies in where we keep our focus.