Conspiracy Theories and Their Fruit
Sometimes it seems as if modern society is riven by two extremes. On the one hand, we have the conspiracy fanatics. On the other, the nihilists.
The "conspiracists" believe that dark forces, hidden and subterranean, control society by various means, but almost always by use of money. These "forces" have successfully insinuated themselves into the fabric of society to the point that they are able to influence and shape all governmental and economic and social interaction. They conspire against the rest of us. They have a secret plan to divide, conquer, and pillage.
There have been various candidates about which conspiracists mutter darkly: the Jews, bankers, capitalists, the masons, the Roman Catholic Church, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or whatever. Each of these "candidates" are believed actually to control the estates of government, the media, holding or controlling or manipulating all the levers of power. Each--and sometimes all--are at work.
The Left and their minions are reflexive conspiracists because they believe that money and capital control almost everything, which means that the Moneymen are conspiring against us all. But it is not just the Left. Secular libertarians have also fallen prey to conspiracy theories. In this version, everything that happens is a government plot controlled by some dark, sinister forces.
At the deepest level, conspiracists are reflexively testifying to a great truth--that the world is indeed controlled by a Conspiracy, a total and exhaustively universal Conspiracy, that plans and governs how many hairs grow upon one's head, and the exact span of days allotted to each and every creature. This holy and good Conspiracy (literally, "breathing together") represents the reflections and discussions, the decrees and plans of the Persons of the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). An example of the work of this All Controlling Conspiracy can be found in Psalm 2.
When men deny the one true God, they invent other entities and speculations to replace Him. As we have noted there are plenty of available candidates. But a common thread ties all secular, God-denying conspiracy theories into a common frame: namely, the conspirators (whoever they are conceived to be) are evil; we (the rest of us) are innocent and pure; we are their victims. It is a diabolical mindset. It is profoundly superstitious. It is also, therefore, ignorant.
The flowering of conspiracy theories create a culture where truth and truthfulness and truth-telling long ago left town. Most things are framed as representing the "Big Lie". Planes fly into the Twin Towers--the product of an actual, real conspiracy--and within an instant it is believed by thousands upon thousands to be a government machination, to further the interests of Those Who Really Run Things--whoever they may be.
Every calamity, every damaging event is seen as caused by the conspiratorial forces of evil--however those forces may be conceived. Occasionally really stupid people mouth off in public about these dark forces, allowing us to make sport of them. (See, for example, these references to the vacuous ramblings of a really superior conspiracist intellect at work.)
But one thing is sure: conspiratorial mindsets become inflamed at a time when governments and governors are not truthful. When politicians, representatives, and rulers lie and exaggerate and make sport of dissembling for their own nefarious (usually self-centred) purposes, ordinary people eventually grow to mistrust their representatives and rulers. When that situation arises--as it has now in the West--the authority of governments shrinks exponentially. Cynicism rules. And into the vacuum comes dark mutterings about those who are "really pulling the strings". Conspiracy theories bloom like Mao Tse Dongs' "Hundred Flowers".
At such times, governments grow to impotence and incompetence. The pendulum swings in favour of the nihilists and the anarchists. The best government becomes no government at all.
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