This morning on the radio, I heard that The X Files is winding down to the big final. One of the reasons was that the studio feels the public viewpoint has changed towards this sort of show since Sept 11.

This led me to consider the whole Government Conspiracy Thing and why it has been so dear to the hearts of Americans in modern times. And it *is* a very American thing. I'm not saying other countries don't have plenty of fans of the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It's just that no other country has managed to elevate it to such an art form in the national subconscious as the USA has.

I once read a theory that it dated from Watergate. According to this theory, Watergate marked a point in history when the public view of politicians changed dramatically. Before that, people might think maybe an *individual* politician was a liar or a sneak, but not that politicians *as a whole* were untrustworthy. There wasn't this general idea that the government had something to hide; that we were powerless pawns unaware of the machinations going on, all the things They Don't Want Us To Know.

Of course this is a generalisation. But the other day I also saw the results of a poll asking what professions commanded the most respect, and politicians were next-to-last on the list, only a few decimal places ahead of prostitutes. And most people I showed the poll to, at work, reacted by humorously saying the prostitutes should be offended.

So. According to all this, Americans mostly trusted government before Watergate, and mostly did not trust government after Watergate, and the reasons people liked The X Files are based on that national mindset of suspicion and distrust. And now, also according to all this, we are entering a new era in which... well, I don't know. The guy on the radio didn't go into what, exactly, he thinks the *new* national mindset is. But apparently it's one that leads to less people liking The X Files.

Brunnen-"no, I didn't have a point in posting this. Except the secret conspiracy one, which naturally you won't be aware of"G