Rick Archer's Note:  

I do not expect you to like this chapter.  It deals with the existence of Fate and the possibility that we do not have complete Free Will.  It also deals with the possibility that God occasionally goes out of His way to make our lives difficult by placing obstacles in our path.

If it is our Destiny to make a mistake, what easier way to lead us astray than to briefly render us Blind?  The idea that our mind is periodically controlled by forces beyond our awareness is so abhorrent that most Readers prefer to dismiss the possibility without a second thought.  For that reason, I intend to give people a good reason to reconsider.  Without further ado, let's get started. 

THE TROJAN WAR

It is impossible to prove that 'Cosmic Blindness' is a fact of life.  To save time, let's pretend it exists. 

The Cosmic Blindness theory suggests our minds can be tampered with so our eyes will see what we are meant to see and our eyes will miss what we are not meant to see.  Psychology says we tend to see what we want to see.  That may be true, but there may be a deeper reason why we all have Blind Spots.  I am not saying that Real World explanations are wrong.  I am saying that crazy behavior may have a bizarre 'Otherworldly' or 'Supernatural' origin that none of us suspect.

If it is true that Cosmic Blindness does exist, then the most blatant example in history has to be the Trojan War.  The Trojan War is now considered fact, not myth.  In 1873 German businessman and archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found the remnants of a grand metropolis in an area known as Hisarlik in modern Turkey.  Excavations revealed multiple settlements (nine main layers) built on top of each other, showcasing continuous occupation from the Early Bronze Age (Troy I) through Greek (Troy VIII) and Roman (Troy IX) periods.  After extensive research, the existence of the city of Troy has been generally accepted as fact. As far as the Trojan War is concerned, there is some evidence that walls in the ruins were damaged around the time the war would have taken place (c.1275-1260 BC).

"Beware Greeks bearing gifts!"  Where do you suppose that phrase came from?

The crazy part came when the Trojans decided to drag the giant horse inside their walls.  "Hey, look, the Greeks put wheels on the horse!  Gee, how thoughtful.  Too bad those nice Greeks didn't stick around so we could thank them."  Hmm.  What on earth would cause an entire community to drag the Trojan Horse inside their walls?  Would it really hurt to leave the giant structure outside for a few days and admire it from safety?  Why was there no suspicion?

Obviously the decision to haul the Trojan Horse inside the walls of Troy was an act of startling ignorance and stupidity.  An entire city let down its guard and put out the welcome mat for their sworn enemy.  We all know how that turned out.  Massacre.  Annihilation.

When you stop and think about it, the Trojan Horse story is comical.  For no obvious reason whatsoever, one morning the Trojans discovered the Greek camp was empty.  Ten thousand Greek ships had disappeared in the night.  Since people see what they want to see, the Trojans assumed the Greeks had given up and gone home.  Ah, but look what the Greeks left behind!  Behold the magnificent wooden horse standing three stories tall.  

One characteristic of Cosmic Stupidity is Blindness to Danger.  So ask yourself this.  In the annals of History, how many times has a defeated nation willingly donated a lovely prize to the victor?  For example, did the American government leave behind an attractive statue of Ho Chi Minh after the USA deserted South Vietnam in shame?  I assume you see my point.  Indeed, following a fierce ten year battle in which countless Trojans had been sent to Hades, surely the survivors had come to distrust their mortal enemy.  What would cause the entire Trojan community to let down its guard and drag the Trojan Horse inside their walls? 

Believe or not, the Trojans were warned to be more careful.  Princess Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, King of Troy.  Due to her gift of prophecy, Cassandra fervently begged her father not to allow his men to haul the mysterious Trojan Horse inside the gates of Troy.  Priam completely ignored his headstrong daughter and her vision of doom.  So did everyone else.  No one would listen.  In fact, they were openly hostile, degrading the prophetess with harsh insults.  Labeled a fool and an idiot, Cassandra was still determined to save Troy.  Grabbing an axe in one hand and a burning torch in the other, she ran towards the Trojan Horse to personally expose the hidden Greeks.  The Trojans stopped her and carried her away.  For reasons we will never know, the Trojans lost complete control of their common sense. 

Mistakes are made when the Warning System fails to operate in a person's mind. 

PEARL HARBOR

When President Roosevelt was informed of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the first thing he asked was how the Japanese managed to catch this vital base totally unguarded. 

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, George Elliott was manning the radar equipment on the northern tip of Oahu.  Just after 7 am Elliott noticed an unusually large number of blips on the radar, a pattern which indicated a large number of incoming planes.  As we now know, those blips reflected 353 aircraft launched from four Japanese carriers.  Elliott showed the signal to Joseph Lockard who dismissed it as a malfunction.  However, George Elliott disagreed.  Unsure what the signal could be, Elliott made a call to the Information Center at Fort Shafter.  No one was available, so he awaited a call back. 

Precious seconds ticked off the clock.  When the return call came, Joseph Lockard answered.  On the other end Lt. Kermit Tyler dismissed the large blip as six American B-17 bombers scheduled to arrive from San Francisco.  When Lockard hung up the phone, Elliott protested.  First, San Francisco was on the northeast and the signals were on the west.  Second, the radar signature was so large there was no way a mere six bombers could be responsible.  But Lockard had already hung up the phone and his shift was over, so that was that.  George Elliott was new to this job, so he lacked the confidence to continue his protest.  Instead he sat there and fumed with a helpless sense of dread.

Although the correct call would not have prevented the impending bombardment, a 15 minute warning would have saved countless lives and material.  U.S. planes would have been airborne and ship guns manned.  But that is not what happened.  Instead, three men who were assigned the vital responsibility of protecting Pearl Harbor fell asleep at the wheel.  Think about it... not one, not two, but THREE MEN made the worst mistake of their lives that day.  How could they ignore a radar screen that screamed 'Possible Enemy Attack'?  They were given one precious job to do and they blew it! 

Mistakes are made when the Warning System fails to operate in a person's mind. 

Pearl Harbor was a disaster waiting to happen.  Ships were jammed as tightly as possible, planes were neatly lined in easily-destroyed rows.  Don't bother to aim, just drop a bomb and watch it hit something.  President Roosevelt had every right to wonder why no precautions were taken.  The answer is simple.  No one was worried because they had Radar to protect them!! 

Put yourself in their shoes.  You are a radar operator at Pearl Harbor who sees a horde of unexplained blips coming at you on the screen.  No, they are not stationary, they are coming closer!  Your superior tells you this giant mass of blips must be 6 airplanes scheduled to arrive from San Francisco.  Two problems.  San Francisco is on the right and the blips are on the left.  Furthermore, considering 350 planes were headed to Pearl Harbor, how could 6 planes be the answer for the massive blob of signals dominating the screen?  Even a preschooler could do the math, so why was it so difficult for three trained professionals to figure it out??

How does someone explain such a colossal error?  Freudian complexes in three different men?  C'mon, let's be serious.  By now you already know my answer.  If Pearl Harbor was a Fated event, then something had to go wrong.  If the Japanese attack was meant to succeed, I wonder if these three men had their judgment secretly impaired.  Otherwise their failure to act correctly makes no sense.

Mistakes are made when the Warning System fails to operate in a person's mind. 

9-11

Tom Clancy had just spelled out the mechanism for a deadly attack on American soil in a face to face conversation with a high-ranking General.  Assuming the General is an intelligent human being, what should the proper response be? 

"Mr. Clancy, thank you for opening my eyes.  You have my word I will contact the correct people immediately and alert them to this possibility."

The General had the authority to act on the warning.  Did he do something about it?  No.  He fell asleep at the wheel.  However, why scapegoat this lone General?  Why not cast a wider net of shame and blame?  After all, anyone who read the book should have seen the danger. 

Debt of Honor debuted in 1994 number one on the New York Times bestseller list.  The novel contained plot elements strikingly similar to the circumstances of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  That included hijacking an airplane to use as a giant guided missile.  Since Clancy was the hot author of the day, his thrillers were favorite reading material for every person in the Defense industry.  That meant every military expert at the Pentagon and every Intelligence agent had been given SEVEN YEARS to consider a novel attack of this nature.

After 9-11 took place, a legion of people suggested Clancy's book is where Bin Laden got his idea in the first place.  If so, why did Bin Laden see what every so-called expert in America completely missed? 

One possibility is that when Fate is involved, we see what we are meant to see and we miss what we are meant to miss. 

How else do three Pearl Harbor radar experts miss 350 Japanese warplanes?  How else does an entire community of military geniuses overlook obvious clues?  While scouring the Internet for reasons that could explain the profound negligence which led to 9-11, I came across dozens of articles.  Although every article had a different slant, they all had one thing in common.  Each article tried to explain how a tragedy of this magnitude could come to pass (and were not having much luck). 

To me, 9-11 was a replay of the Pearl Harbor fault-finders.  Let's face it, when something goes wrong, we want to know what caused it so we can prevent it from happening again.  Which psychological flaw prevented three men from grasping the danger screaming at them from the Pearl Harbor radar screen?  These radar operators had been warned repeatedly to watch out for Japanese bombers.  So why did their brains fail them?? 

Over the ages, scholars have done everything in their power to answer one burning question:  Why do otherwise intelligent people sometimes make colossal errors of misjudgment? 

As I reviewed the various articles, the field of Psychology was frequently cited with possible answers.  That made sense.  Whenever behavior becomes a mystery, people run to Psychology for answers.  That is because Rational people fear the Irrational.  The field of Psychology arose because rational people consistently had trouble finding logical explanations for behaviors that made no sense, things like ignoring a hornet's nest of blips flying directly at an important military base.