Conspiracy Theory: As American as Apple pie

by smkovalinsky | September 11, 2009 at 05:51 pm

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I recall reading a book in 2001, at the opening of our present decade. It was a library book which I could not put down for days: The New Radicalim in America: 1889-1963 by Christopher Lasch. It was engrossing and compelling precisely because it revealed just how the radical fringe in America, complete with conspiracy theories, has tended to evolve and become incorporated within the mainstream. This has been increasingly true regarding spiritual ideas and religious ideology beginning in the period just prior to the Civil War. In addition, the American Revolution was based on principles which may have seemed a conspiracy theory against Great Britain and the Monarchy. Protestanism was born of a conspiracy theory - in the mind of Martin Luther - about the papacy and the Church. In the 1790s, Thoman Paine radicalized American thinking with his treatise, The Rights of Man.

The Journal of Parapolitics - which label conspiracy theories as "clandestine politics" - admits that even when conspiracy is collective delusion, nonetheless, it points to very real fears, with very real foundations. The law of causality cannot dismiss the conspiracy theorist as mere "kook". Within the sphere of the human psyche, there may be truths which can only express themselves within this larger context. Conspiracy theories, as Freud said of neurosis, have an important purposive function within the body politic. An excerpt from the Journal :

Although this apocalyptic conception is generally regarded nowadays as the fantastic product of a paranoid mindset, in the past it was often accepted as an accurate description of reality by large numbers of people from all social strata, including intellectuals and heads of state. (6) The fact that a belief in sinister, all-powerful conspiratorial forces has not been restricted to small groups of clinical paranoids and mental defectives suggests that it fulfills certain important social functions and psychological needs.(7)
First of all, like many other intellectual constructs, conspiracy theories help to make complex patterns of cause-and-effect in human affairs more comprehensible by means of reductionism and oversimplification. Secondly, they purport to identify the underlying source of misery and injustice in the world, thereby accounting for current crises and upheavals and explaining why bad things are happening to good people or vice versa. Thirdly, by personifying that source they paradoxically help people to reaffirm their own potential ability to control the course of future historical developments. After all, if evil conspirators are consciously causing undesirable changes, the implication is that others, perhaps through the adoption of similar techniques, may also consciously intervene to protect a threatened way of life or otherwise alter the historical process. In short, a belief in conspiracy theories helps people to make sense out of a confusing, inhospitable reality, rationalize their present difficulties, and partially assuage their feelings of powerlessness. In this sense, it is no different than any number of religious, social, or political beliefs, and is deserving of the same serious study.

In his book, Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 2008) Mark Fenster's introduction is entitled, "We are all Conspiracy Theorist Now". Scholars for 9-11 Truth are no different in degree, if somewhat in kind, from those who harbor vast suspicion of Barack Obama. New Scientist magazine ran a piece called, "The Lure of the Conspiracy Theory". Expository accusations are the foundation of the prosecutor within the legal system: The criminal has conspired: to kill for insurance money, to get back at a business partner. In the political domain, within many spheres of ideology , the conspiracy theory is the underpinning for all ideology and action. The Lyndon LaRouche organization views the entire history of Europe and America as a vast , secret undertaking of the Illuminati.

In medicine, many nutritional medical doctors write books about the vast conspiracy of the American Medical Assoication, particularly with regard to its treatment practices of cancer and psychiatric illnesses. Minorities such as gays and African Americans , and in particular, feminists, began their civil rights battles with an anger voiced at a conspiracy: Be it that of the patriarchy, the white dominance, or the heterocentric and phallocentric bias of American males.
In philosophy, we call discourse about where knowledge comes from, 'epistemology'. There is an idea that the conpirsacy theorist has "epistemic privilege" over the oppressor. A Journal of Philosophy defines conspiracy theory thusly:

A conspiracy theory is a proposed explanation of an historical event, in which conspiracy (i.e., agents acting secretly in concert) has a significant causal role. Furthermore, the conspiracy postulated by the proposed explanation must be a conspiracy to bring about the historical event which it purports to explain. Finally, the proposed explanation must conflict with an ‘official’ explanation of the same historical event.
‘The last part of this definition rules out the possibility of an official explanation of an event qualifying as a conspiracy theory, no matter how conspiratorial it is.‘

Source: all-embracing.episto.org

One thing is clear: America was founded by rugged individualist who questioned the authority of the official dogma: beginning with Great Britain's Monarch and British Rule. Small wonder, then, that the conspiracy theory flourishes like some wild ivy among the secure oaks of our national landscape.

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Rhonda J Mangus

at 18:16 on September 11th, 2009

Thanks for this, smkovalinsky. As I have said elsewhere, "Just let me add for the benefit of any "doubting Thomas":), conspiracy is very real and conspiracy theorists are necessary to exposing conspiracy. It is a part of world politics, has happened, and will continue to happen. IMO, anyone attempting to suppress 'conspiracy theorists' theory' are in fact attempting to suppress a necessary avenue to truth."

Rhonda J Mangus

at 18:18 on September 11th, 2009

And let me add, No More Games - Net - 9/11, Conspiracy and Closed Minds on 9/11.

Roy C

at 20:37 on September 11th, 2009

I am such a Lasch fan. Culture of Narcissism, Revolt of the Elites, and the True and Only Heaven. Read them all and C of N, twice more in sections. I have also read his daughter's book, Race Experts.

I am now reading The New Radicalism.

He is one of the few academics to get what narcissism is and had some appreciation of Carl Jung, to boot.

Conspiracy is best understood by the "fact" of development. Suddenly in evolution, "everything is mammalian". Conspiracy?

OK.

But in government and in society, the best minds do get together and talk and influence each other. There is no need to formally conspire. The "collusion" happens all by itself.

Tomitheos

at 22:18 on September 11th, 2009

I find these secret theories intriguing, but the word 'conspiracy' seems to make most persons' eyes' glaze over in one-on-one conversations, and tends to kill the fun in group settings as well, at least in my experience.

I don't know why but maybe the majority of the general population can't handle the real truth or understand the overseerers' underlined intention(s) and thus we require them to manufacture these untruths simply because we cannot see the big picture.. or if we did, maybe there would be more social upheavals resulting in more chaos and more loss.

We just need a new word for this phenomena.. a word that defines what high iq people that run the world have to tell lower iq people that live in it in order to keep things the way they are. Is there one word for that?

Spydermonkey

at 10:46 on September 12th, 2009

The word I use would be "sheeple" people that want to be lead without deep thought for the leader & direction.

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