Our public and political discourse is awash in Conspiracy Theories. What are we to do about it?
The conspiracy theory has become a mainstay of modern life. In every area, from politics to entertainment, one needn’t look far to discover not one but a multitude of such theories. Some of these are consonant or even interdependent while others are contradictory and mutually exclusive. Whether it’s assassinations or extra-terrestrials, there’s no shortage of elaborate and arcane theorizing, spawning entire subcultures, some as fanatically dedicated to their pet theories, however lunatic, as any religious cult . Adherents to these various belief systems have become so numerous that they have spawned entire industries. One need only glance at the regular line up of programming on the History Channel to recognize that it might be more accurately described as the “Hoax Channel”.
Indeed, the phenomenon has become so omnipresent that it has engendered its opposite, anti-conspiracists dedicated not just to debunking a particular theory but attempting to de-legitimize any consideration of conspiracy as a part of serious discussion. The very term “Conspiracy Theorist” has become a derogatory epithet. A synonym for “credulous fool”, “con artist” or “whacko”.
Considering the irrational assertions of many conspiracists, as well as their imperviousness to any evidence or fact that contradicts their cherished beliefs, this whole scale denunciation has great appeal. There is, however, a small problem with relegating conspiracy to the ash heap of swindlers and the delusional: conspiracy is a fact of human history.
Almost from the moment history began to be written historians have regaled their readers with accounts of conspiracies great and small, many of which played pivotal roles in subsequent events. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Persian King Darius came to the throne by means of deception. The Spartans were reportedly incited to make war against the early Athenian democracy by a conspiracy of the Athenian nobility who bribed the Oracle of Delphi to that end. No one who has studied the history of Rome can fail to recognize the central role that conspiracy often played. The assassination of Julius Caesar by the conspiracy of Brutus and Cassius is only the most famous example.
One needn’t go back so far as that. The entire history of Europe from the Middle Ages to the first World War is rife with conspiracies that had momentous results. Shakespeare’s Richard the Third is arguably one great conspiracy theory translated into drama. The Italian Renaissance produced the Medici’s and the Borgias among many lesser examples. Nor are “false flag” operations some recent product of contemporary paranoia. The operations of Russia’s Tsarist intelligence service in the 19th century were so widely known that they inspired Jos. Conrad to write “The Secret Agent”, the story of a Russian double agent in Britain who is instructed by his superiors to plant bombs in London in order to foment a government crackdown on Anarchists. Conrad’s view of the Russian intelligence service was confirmed following the 1917 revolution when it was revealed that Father Gapon , the Priest famous for leading a mass march of workers that was fired on by Tsarist troops thus touching off the 1905 revolution, had been a Tsarist agent. It shouldn’t be forgotten that WWI itself was sparked by the successful conspiracy of Serbian nationalists to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.
Of course these are all examples from the “Old World”. The US, with its notions of “exceptionalism”, is supposedly exempt from this history. To believe this requires a willful blindness that is breathtaking, considering that the Republic itself is the product of a revolutionary conspiracy. The political career of Vice President Aaron Burr was destroyed by accusations of conspiracy and treason. According to contemporary accounts, conspiracy figured prominently in the secession crisis of 1860 and it is indisputable that a conspiracy headed by John Wilkes Booth, a man with direct connections to the Confederate intelligence service, assassinated Pres. Abraham Lincoln. In a broader context, the entirety of the US government’s policy towards treaties with the western tribes can be viewed as a gigantic conspiracy to dispossess them. Certainly the violence and terrorism in the southern states during reconstruction was nothing less than a vast conspiracy to establish and enforce white supremacy, often perpetrated by the very same people who had attempted to destroy the Union via secession.
Of course this is all old news. Surely we’ve progressed beyond this sort thing in the present day? Not at all. Judging by the history of the last 40 years, conspiracy is alive and well in the highest echelons of US government. From the sleaze of Watergate through the bloody mindedness of Iran-Contra to the murderous Invasion of Iraq, one word describes the common pattern of deception and subversion in pursuit of criminal enterprise by the highest officials in the land. That word is conspiracy.
To be clear, this is not intended as a defense, much less a validation, of birthers, truthers, alien abductees or any of the other forms of low grade hysteria infecting the public discourse. What’s intended is a warning to those who think that the proper response is to simply denigrate any suggestion of conspiracy as self evident lunacy and unworthy of any consideration whatsoever. That response is as ostrich like and potentially as disastrous as the attitude that uncritically accepts any theory, however fantastic, that confirms the prejudice of the true believer. One can’t effectively indict one side for ignoring fact while engaging in the same sin.
Categorical responses that simply deny that conspiracy theories require serious examination won’t do. Such an approach is at variance with reality. Consequently, it actually strengthens even the most lurid and ludicrous theories by equating them with proven instances of conspiracy. What is required is a critical mindset capable applying rational criteria to allegations of conspiracy. One that doesn’t insult the intelligence of people who have the common sense to recognize that conspiracy is a historical and political fact of life.