The Truth? You can't handle the truth (Conspiracy Theories)

Member Name: Ian Proudfoot

Product:	Conspiracy Theories
Date:	13/03/02 (568 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intresting ideas

Disadvantages: How much is true

As a wise man once said “look anywhere long enough and your find a conspiracy, in fact the whole world is a conspiracy”. The thing is most people love a good conspiracy theory, as they help explain events and occurrences that seem to be out of their control. It is always easier to look for some vast conspiracy to explain the state of the world than it is too look at your own short comings. Just look at the way in which conspiracy theories have also been a central part of a lot of great novels and films and there is nothing like the state vs. the individual conspiracy to make the writers job that easier and create an affinity with the viewer. Conspiracy theories play on our feelings of paranoid, isolation and bewilderment and like religion attempt to explain the intangible in simpler terms.

However at the same time some conspiracy theories have begun engrained in the minds of the world although there is hardly a shred of truth to back them up. The most dangerous of these being the notorious The Protocols of the Elders of Zion a hoax document that set out the Jewish conspiracy idea that would later form the backbone of the ideas of Hitler and eventually leading to the horrific years of Nazism and the holocaust. Although not as hateful or as dangerous as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion other conspiracy theories have been used to justify actions and ideas that really had no grounding in reality. Which leaves us with two possible reasons for a conspiracy theory to exist, the first being that it a way in which the powerless and bemused can explain why they are downtrodden. The second is as a tool to back up the arguments of an ideology.

Instead of attempting to find certain archetypes and links between the plethora of conspiracy theories out there I am going to concentrate on two of my favourite conspiracy theories and discussion the ways in which they have been sold to the public conscience as the truth and the flaws and problems inhere
nt within them.

First off the Great Satanic abuse conspiracy. The basic premise of this theory is that throughout the world there are Satanic covens that kidnap, abuse and then slaughter thousands of children in the name of the dark lord. Books such as ‘Michelle Remembers’ and ‘Dance with the Devil’ tell graphic and hideous tales of the abuse of children at the hands of Satanic cults. Tales which then find there way into the hands of tabloid journalists who spread the idea that the world is full of these evil people and that not one of our children is safe from the danger. These scary stories then reach into the heart of the concerned community and are taken as gospel by certain groups including the Christian groups as well as social workers. What follows is that fed this information these groups, often in collaboration go out and search for the menace of the Satanic abusers and they find them every where they look, thus completing the cycle of allegations of abuse leading to the discovery of actually cases of abuse.

Nice job, the conspiracy is proven and everything is wrapped up nicely and the children are saved from the hands of Satan. One thing however is lacking throughout the whole episode, hard evidence. Look at the case of the alleged cases of Satanic abuse in the Orkney Isles for instance and the overwhelming domination of a idea (the Satanic abuse conspiracy) over hard evidence and the whole thing becomes rather fragile and misleading. With the Orkney Isles case, allegations where made against a host of families alleged to be involved in Satanic abuse which lead to said families being split up. However the evidence and procedures used in this case as well ask many questions about the reliability of those involved in discovering the alleged abuse and the strength that the conspiracy theory had over actual rational thoughts and actions.

The first major problem was that there always seems to be a lack of ha
rd evidence in these cases. The original tales of Satanic abuse always involve a lot of elaborate ritualism (altars, special daggers, black candles, etc) as well as the wholesale slaughter of young ones. No evidence is ever found of such ritualism and neither are the bodies of dead children ever found and if a child does go missing you think someone might notice?

So with the actual physical evidence of abuse the next step the investigating parties take is to talk to the alleged victims; the children. The thing is instead of approaching the investigation with an open mind those involve have an agenda and a cause to make. This leads to leading questions being asked to the children to fit the idea of the conspiracy. So children are asked about events that could be even slightly being conceived as being part of a Satanic ritual and are even sometimes rewarded if they give information that fits what the investigators are looking for.

The thing is that because the investigators believe in the conspiracy they have to have the results that back it up, even if it leads to people being incorrectly accused of abuse and families being needlessly split up. With the case of the Satanic abuse conspiracy it seems that certain groups (mainly fundamentalist Christians) have used to strengthened their own beliefs in the existence of the Devil at the expense of reality.

The second conspiracy theory I want to look at is the all encompassing USA government and Aliens conspiracy. This takes it all manner and weird phenomena including Roswell, Area 51, the Mothman Prophecies, Men In Black, The Space Race, the internet and everything and more that was covered by the X-Files. The basic premise for this conspiracy is that the US government and perhaps the World Government (but that’s another kettle of conspiracy fish to be opened) is in league with aliens and/or has it’s hands on alien technology. It is argued that every major technology breakthrough
since the dawn of time is down to the influence of Aliens on humans. From us being genetically engineered apes to the stealth bomb everywhere you look it’s Alien hands that have been pulling our strings.

The current conspiracy is that the US government in return for getting hold of hi-tech alien technology has made a deal with our Alien friends allowing them to experiment on us. Hence the abduction of three million Americans every year by UFOs as well as crop circles and cattle mutilations. You know those little grey boys in their saucers get so bored sometimes that they like to cut up a few cows whilst waiting for the next clear galactic runway to Alpha Centuri. The US government of course doesn’t care about any problems this might create because they’ve got new and bigger weapons to bully the world with. However the cover up must be done to prevent the taxpayer from really knowing where their cash is going.

Another fantastic theory. Umm all sounds to convenient to me. If anything the alien conspiracy reeks of a cover up and disinformation to me. A perfect shield to cover up what the American government is really up to, like testing LSD and other mind altering drugs on it’s own unexpected public (see the MK Ultra and MK Artichoke episodes for more information on this), running covert drug smuggling and gun running operations (Irangate) and destabilising democratically elected governments and supporting dictatorships in South America.

No aliens are far more interesting and they make explaining complex technological breakthroughs so much easier. Sure there is a possibility for the existence of aliens but do you really believe that they would want to be involved with the real conspiracy that is the way the US government conducts itself outside of the public eye. The alien and government conspiracy for me is one of deception and smokescreens. The truth is out there but bug eyed monsters are a hell of a lot more inte
resting aren’t they.

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