Oppenheimer — the Conspiracy, the Treason, the Truth
“History is a set of lies agreed upon.” So, supposedly, said Napoleon Bonaparte. Well, the liars have certainly gotten the upper hand since Napoleon’s day. Our “history industry” has been so successful in larding with lies virtually every popular historical source the average person consumes — history books, textbooks, novels, movies, documentaries, Wikipedia — that the quest for truth is a daunting journey through a treacherous and confusing landscape. There are many ways of lying, of course, from outright prevarication to lying by half-truth, lying by omission, lying by context, and, in the case of photography and cinematography, lying by lens.
One of the Big Lies of our past century is that America has been afflicted with recurring bouts of irrational “paranoia” and “hysteria” about the threat posed by communism. The intelligentsia who dominate Hollywood and our academic and media institutions endlessly warn us that this recurrent fear of communism is a dangerous mental condition and a sign of fascist tendencies. Rare is the college (or high-school) student who escapes being marinated in numerous textbook entries, films, lectures, and essays on the supposed terrors of the “Red Scare” and McCarthyism.
However, the Orwellian censors and propagandists who send true history down the memory hole and confect “history” out of lies are, apparently, in a panic that the recent upsurge in the anti-communist “derangement” — going hand-in-hand with the still-potent Trump MAGA movement — is signaling the need for renewed artillery barrages against the newly awakened McCarthyite hordes. Enter stage left, Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film Oppenheimer to fill this desperate need.
JBS Member or ShopJBS.org Customer?
Sign in with your ShopJBS.org account username and password or use that login to subscribe.
Subscribe Now
- 24 Issues Per Year
- Digital Edition Access
- Exclusive Subscriber Content
- Audio provided for all articles
- Unlimited access to past issues
- Cancel anytime.
- Renews automatically
Subscribe Now
- 24 Issues Per Year
- Print edition delivery (USA)
*Available Outside USA - Digital Edition Access
- Exclusive Subscriber Content
- Audio provided for all articles
- Unlimited access to past issues
- Cancel anytime.
- Renews automatically