We all remember the famous (or infamous rather) Lone Gunmen pilot episode, which aired six months prior to the September eleventh attacks and depicted a plot (on the part of the US shadow government) to fly a plane into the World Trade Centre and blame it on terrorists as a pretext for war.  The Lone Gunmen was of course a spin-off from the massively popular X-Files television series, which ran through the best part of the 1990’s and influenced/motivated many viewers to question what is going with our government(s).

It is no surprise looking back, to find the 1998 movie of the X-Files carry a tone which (as was the case with the Lone Gunmen) strongly mirrored important events.  The plotline was centred around a bombing of a building where federal offices resided and was carried out by the government, in connection with a larger agenda.  

Of course in keeping with the heart and soul of the series, this plot was also inter-twined with the whole ‘Alien conspiracy’ stuff, which stands as artistic license (added for flavour), where the theme of shadow government control on ‘disasters’ and terrorism was the main backbone of the piece.

A powerful message to anyone who doesn’t understand why ‘insiders’ who carry out bombings like at Oklahoma and the WTC would do such a thing.  Obviously, the character in the film knew that whatever the reason, it was worth his own life to let the bombing take place.  After this sequence we see an investigation commission talking about how ‘blame’ has to be assigned ‘in light of events such as Waco and Ruby Ridge’.  (How in your face can you get?)

CONCLUSION:  This is a topic of much debate, going back years amongst researchers and fans of the show alike.  Is this integration of paranormal and extra-terrestrial folklore mixed in with a back story of shadow governments running the show done to ‘wake up’ viewers with a notion, so that they might see the semi-parallels in the real world?.  Or is it just popular culture cashing-in and picking up on world events and alternative research?.  Or furthermore, is it some kind of mass propaganda to link government sponsored terrorism with UFO fantasy non-sense (as the majority of the public see it) to put us back to sleep?  à la guilt by association  “Everybody knows aliens, vampires and ghosts aren’t real, so government sponsored terrorism must be science fiction also!”.

Chris Carter, the creator of the X-Files legacy, admittedly and demonstrably has done his homework when writing and producing these shows, along with co-writer Frank Spotnitz who co-wrote the 1998 movie script and the Lone Gunmen pilot episode mentioned earlier.

I also recall dark secret societies conspiring, engineering and covering up catastrophes in the X-Files spin off series Millennium, which ran from 1996 to 1999.  Even the short lived Chris Carter creation Harsh Realm series included an episode in which New York had been destroyed by a nuclear weapon and ‘Ground Zero’ of the disaster (as they refer to it) was in the heart of Wall Street.

As someone who from the age of thirteen onwards, grew up watching these shows, I would like to think that the message of, not so much ‘anti-government’, but rather don’t trust the government is purposefully included.  Having read and listened to interviews with the cast and crew on such specific matters, it certainly does seem as though, the writers at the very least, had benign intentions when contributing these shows into our popular culture.

I no longer see these types of programmes, whenever I get a chance to watch TV.  Shows like ‘24’ are now imprinting the message on the viewer, that the government is all good, here to save us and kick in our innocent door if necessary, to keep us safe from the dangerous terrorists.

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