[OT] Do you subscribe to any conspiracy theories?

[willpax]

I've written a book on the creation of an anarchist "conspiracy" in the late 19th century, and have an abiding interest in conspiracy narratives in general.

I tend to see them as more than simply human pattern recognition gone wild, although that plays a large role. You tend to see conspiracy theories crop up among people who, on some level, feel that the world has become incomplrehensible and/or out of control. You don't understand why something is happening, so you create an answer that makes sense and allows for some kind of human agency--the conspiracy theory.

Industrialization in the 19th century removed local economies from local control and created much hardship. Why were things so grim and so completely out of insitutional control? Answer: an international anarchist conspiracy to undermine civilization. Did it exist? No. Did it justify a vast expansion in police power in the service of large corporations? Yes. Is there some one person or group coordinating all this? I seriously doubt it, although that implies that there is really no one in contol, which is a concept many people remain uncomfortable with.

Of course, I think of the World Trade Organization as a vast conspiracy, but I don't want this thread to descend into mere politics.

 

[Jezrael]

Pentaverate

Well it's a well know fact that there's a group of the five wealthiest people in the world known as the Pentaverate, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers. And meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion known as, the Meadows. So who's in this Pentaverate, you might ask? The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettes, The Rothchilds and Colonel Sanders before he went tets up. Oh, I hated the Colonel with his wee beady eyes, and that smug look on his face. "Oh you're gonna buy my chicken, Oohh." Did you know he puts a chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly?

 

[Dr Midnight]

Cool stuff, EN, thanks.

Darkness is one of them, and cannot be trusted. You can tell because he said "trust me".

 

[EricNoah]

Of course, I think of the World Trade Organization as a vast conspiracy, but I don't want this thread to descend into mere politics.

Well good thing you didn't even bring it up! Whew, dodged a bullet there!

 

[Dr Midnight]

http://www.freemason.com/home.htm

Looks nice. Kinda like a secret fraternity of goody two-shoes.

 

[GMSkarka]

I often hear people say that they don't believe conspiracy theories because they don't believe that people could keep things quiet.

Well, that's kinda Catch-22, isn't it?

If they exist, then they weren't kept quiet...that's where the conspiracy theories come from. There's a big difference between "not keeping quiet" and "releasing full documentation and proof."

Personally, I have no problem with the concept that the simple EXISTENCE of some conspiracy theories points to the fact that some people couldn't keep quiet, even if only on a small scale.

As far as what theories I believe:

The JFK thing is pretty scary--I don't know what theory I believe, but something happened there. I once read that the odds of so many people connected to the investigation (Ruby, witnesses, investigators, etc.) dying prematurely within the following 10 years was several hundred thousand to one, against.

And, more mundanely, the "vast right-wing conspiracy" touted by Hilary Clinton during the impeachment scandal stands as a pretty open fact. I'm not sure you can call it a conspiracy when the right wing made it obvious from day one that they didn't consider Clinton a legitimate leader, and took every effort to undermine him at every step. Hell, David Brock, former conservative darling hatchet-man for the American Spectator, admitted in his book, "Blinded by the Right" that there was a definite witchhunt going on, directed by influential conservatives. Add that to the fact that the Whitewater investigation wrapped up a couple of months ago with a very very quiet, back-pages-of-the-newspapers announcement that no wrong-doing by the Clintons had been discovered, and it starts swaying from the realm of "crackpot theory" into "quite verifiable."

GMS

 

[Lars Frehse]

One book on this subject that really rocks is "Foucault's pendulum" by Umberto Eco.
Also, you could read any novel by Thomas Pynchon.

 

[Vuron]

I just got an anonymous email from a member of the enboards that said, "You'll stay out of our business unless you wish to see you account deleted." Considering that my email is only accessable to moderators and administrators I have some suspicions as to who is threatening me.

Also, Eric Noah killed my dog and blamed it on Morrus!

 

[EricNoah]

I just got an anonymous email from a member of the enboards that said, "You'll stay out of our business unless you wish to see you account deleted." Considering that my email is only accessable to moderators and administrators I have some suspicions as to who is threatening me.

Also, Eric Noah killed my dog and blamed it on Morrus!

Vuron,

Making baseless accusations against the "people in power" is your surest ticket to Banville. Consider yourself warned.

 

[Lizard]

Government, Aliens, Hitler's and/ or Disney's head, the Illuminati, corporations? Anyone like to entertain any of the large number of conspiracy theories perhaps a little more than others? I'd like to read about it. You always hear that there are people who believe in something beyond what we're told... I'd like to know if there are any of them among us.

No.

I do, however, believe in conspiratorless conspiracies, that is, things which have all the traits of a vast conspiracy except for the fact no one is doing any conspiring. Emergent properties. A lot of people walking in the same direction can look like a parade -- but it isn't.

People who believe in conspiracies are very often people who don't understand evolution. (I say 'understand' rather than 'believe in', because evolution isn't something to believe in. Not believing in evolution is like not believing in gravity. It's happening all around us. It's why pennicillin doesn't work as well as it used to.) I remember reading a conspiracy site (a right wing one, but there's plenty of left-wing ones as well) where they basically said "Only an idiot would believe that these things just HAPPENED!"

Well, they did "just happen". Conspiracy theories make the world seem SAFE, even when the conspirators are plotting or causing the deaths of millions. If there's someone BEHIND all the evil, all the terror, all the pain, then, it can be STOPPED. But if there isn't -- if it's all just random and uncontrolled -- then we can never be safe. It's better, in some people's minds, to have *someone* in charge -- even someone evil. The thought of a universe which is not malign, but merely *indifferent*, is terrifying to a lot of people.

Too bad. Fact is, no one is in charge, life is random, and anything which happens to you is probably a coincidence.

http://www.mrlizard.com/coinc.html