Alliances: We Never Went to the Moon pp. 179-181

Conspiracy theorists have a problem in that they make things way more complicated than is necessary. Simpler is always better, it’s always more believable. If you want to lie about something the vaster and more complicated the lie the more likely it would fall apart if true. Kaysing’s theory has run out of steam, but he’s got to say something about the physical evidence to bring

There is no better example in my mind of this than the moon rock claims in this conspiracy. Kaysing introduces this section, “In 1977 I requisitioned some films from the Las Vegas Public schools system. Among them was one describing and illustrating the work of the NASA Ceramics Laboratory. As the film progressed, it became clear that this facility would have been ideal to create the various ‘moon’ rocks used as conclusive proof that the Apollo trip took place. Let’s examine how this could have been done.”

First off, I want to credit Kaysing because this is a great opening paragraph for a section. It lays out exactly what he’s going to attempt to write about and is very clear about the conclusion that he’s going to arrive at. Unfortunately, he’s already pulled the bait-and-switch. He writes that “it became clear” that the ceramics lab “would have been ideal.” Note that he doesn’t write “was ideal,” he qualifies it because he’s just making this up as he goes.

As far as NASA is concerned, there is the “Advanced Materials and Processing Branch,” and they do work with ceramics. There are ceramic tiles at the bottom of the re-entry capsule and the more modern shuttle. That it exists isn’t an issue. What is an issue is how Kaysing, once again, over-complicates the conspiracy. He will later claim that “the moon was most likely once a part of the Earth and thus minerals would be quite similar.” Point to him on that as it is the prevailing scientific consensus on the formation of the Moon, but we’ll take that point immediately away because this automatically means that you don’t need to make the rocks in a lab. In fact, since NASA is going to control the rocks and only lend them out to people that they approve: they don’t even need fancy rocks. Just grab some from a cave somewhere, the bottom of the ocean, Greenland, etc. It doesn’t matter. If you’re faking this, all you need is a few rocks that do not look like they’ve sat in a river or have been eroded in anyway way from water. Toss a few on a table and then put them in a vault somewhere.

We’re told of a lab in Santa Barbara that specializes in creating high speed impacts, which Kaysing thinks would be good to fake the rocks but there is no reason for this. Unlike his requisitioning of films there is no public loan program for Moon rocks.

And then…we’re done with the rocks. Kaysing goes off on a weird tangent about how American Universities “are a direct reflection of American corporate life.” Which is in direct opposition to the usual anti-higher education ranting that we usually get out of the conspiracy theory crowd. Usually, it’s that universities stifle free speech because they (well in this case they mean me) are teaching the kids to hate America, burn the flag, and be gay. Kaysing thinks that they’re being educated to be corporate shills and cogs in the wheel, “Mavericks and rebels are not welcome. Men of the innovative intellect of Timothy Leary or Alan Watts find themselves either in prison or attached to the lunatic fringe by media edict.”

We were talking about rocks, right?

I’ve got no prior beef or love for either Leary or Watts, but these are not good examples of anything. I’ve read one of Watts’s books, an introduction to Zen Philosophy called “Zen: The Watercourse Way;” and it was fine. I wouldn’t characterize him as a rebel relegated to the lunatic fringe. Leary was more of a character, and his prison stints were because of his violations of the law. Now, I don’t think simple marijuana possession should get anyone prison time, but it’s not like Leary was jailed for his beliefs, he was an outspoken drug advocate and user. It’s not the result of a grand conspiracy that he was in possession of illegal drugs.

Kaysing repeats a mantra that grants only go to those doing research that corporations can use…well, yes, in the cases of private grants. If Lockheed-Martin sponsors a grant, they’re doing so because it will lead to something that they hope to use.

“So what we find is, ultimately, no real distinction between such agencies as NASA and the halls of ivy.” He’s acting like he’s proven something shocking, but he hasn’t. Only the most well-respected academics get to work with NASA, that’s just how it should work. I wonder if Kaysing thinks he should get a Moon rock.

Which, in case you haven’t realized, he’s completely abandoned the subject. I thought we were going to get an analysis of the rocks in the images, or something like that; but apparently Kaysing doesn’t have the stones to make those claims.

We received nothing about the rocks, only a very thin hypothetical about who could have made them. To repeat, none of that was necessary to begin with. If the alliance between NASA and academia was as strong as Kaysing thinks it to be it’s entirely unnecessary.