Conspiracies: The Facts * the Theories * the Evidence (7 page)

unhealthy development of the Holocaust denier (or questioner)

on the one hand (the ultimate expression of attempting to

disempower an event that was an acknowledged major factor

in the rise of the Jewish state from 1948), and the view that any challenges to Israel are inherently anti-Semitic on the other.

The anti-Zionists – some of whom at least attempt to make a

clear distinction between their abhorrence of extremist Zionism but toleration of normal Judaism – hold that they are simply speaking their personal beliefs and demand to know why they should not be

allowed to do so. This area creates some discomfort in the Western freedom-of-expression debate, for if citizens are truly as free as their leaders like to boast, should they not be permitted to speak 33

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their thoughts, no matter how reprehensible others may consider

them to be? This debate has surfaced a number of times when

prominent questioners of the Holocaust (such as author David

Irving, at one point incarcerated in Austria) have been imprisoned for airing their beliefs. Even people personal y disgusted by these opinions have raised concern about the implications of such prosecutions, including the renowned linguistics professor and US

rights campaigner Noam Chomsky7 – Jewish himself – feeling that

such legislation steers too close to the stifling principle of ‘thought crime’, as first imagined in
Nineteen Eighty-Four
, George Orwel ’s nightmare vision of absolute totalitarianism.

Conversely, some people feel so strongly about these issues that

they see such laws as being justified, considering that even if the documented accumulation of factual evidence for something as

significant as the Holocaust is unconvincing for a small minority, the looks in the eyes and tones in the voices of those who lived

through the events tell more than enough to make picking through

the fine detail a needlessly painful exercise. The problem lies in the issue of boundaries. Where should punitive censorship stop?

A number of US neoconservatives, for example, have proposed

similar laws to stop people questioning 9/11, laws which would

bring with them accompanying small print on internet restriction, as anti-piracy copyright legislation has in recent times, creating a dangerously loose thread that could be pulled on all freedom of

speech. It is perhaps not too extreme to imagine a fascistic regime coming to power that might eventual y restrict opinions on almost anything it didn’t like, adapting and extending existing legislation that began with the restriction of views in just one area.

These concerns il ustrate the difficulties that can arise in the

world of conspiracy theory, demonstrating how real extremism

occurs, but also highlighting how simple
accusations
of extremism can be used unfairly to taint every – sometimes legitimate – line of inquiry. There are many sensitive issues around what constitutes

genuine freedom of speech. These undercurrents are what have

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what is conspiracy theory?

allowed the right-wing US politicians, in particular, to try to crush alternative political thinking. Many of them have directly accused conspiracy theorists of being not only innately anti-Semitic, but also of actively or intellectual y supporting ‘terrorism’. This has been especial y aimed at those who believe 9/11 was coordinated

by internal US sources: for if Middle Eastern terrorists are
not
solely seen to be responsible for the atrocities, the much-promoted
raison d’être
of the last decade or so of US global policy is implicitly undermined.

Pol s and surveys demonstrate, perhaps inevitably, that a maj-

ority of people in the Islamic countries support the alternative

version of 9/11, and it is a truth that fanatics of all persuasions do have a tendency to subscribe to conspiratorial views. However, given the underlying neoconservative implication that a large

number of Muslims could, at heart, be potential terrorists,

these statistics are then foolishly misused to demonstrate that

interest in conspiracy theory amounts to implicit support for

the likes of al-Qaeda, and that all such believers are likely to

exhibit dangerous behaviour that needs to be curbed. There

has already been a growing spate of Americans being sectioned

under misused mental health laws for expressing fervent belief in conspiracy theories. The mindset behind this worrying caricature

of truthseekers as terrorist sympathizers and therefore probable

perpetrators of future atrocities was perhaps best summed up

by President George W Bush’s notorious and misconceived

2001 statement that ‘either you are with us, or you are with the

terrorists.’ It was also, of course, the same president who famously exclaimed, ‘Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories.’8

Evidence and Discernment

Why, however, should we not tolerate conspiracy theories?

Because the likes of Mr Bush tell us not to? Because the media

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refuse to deal sensibly with them? Because academics claim they

constitute a form of mental illness? Because people are frightened to hear about them? None of these stands up to much application

of common sense. The motivation behind people’s belief in

conspiracies can be complex and subtle, and may vary from

theory to theory. Sound-bite psychology that purports to explain

away the conspiracy phenomenon under one umbrel a does a

disservice to too many human beings with intuitions, feelings and thought processes that deserve a little more respect, even if they may not always be right.

If there is perceived evidence of any kind to support a

controversial belief, then it is probably wiser to allow that

evidence to be examined pragmatical y so that the ultimate truth

of the situation can organical y emerge, as it inevitably does in the absence of coercive censorship. The refusal of the mainstream to

‘tolerate’ any serious investigations of many of the areas covered in this book has led only to resentment and to an ever-growing

proportion of the population that does not feel its views are

represented or understood by an establishment that seems more

concerned with navel-gazing protectionism than with presenting

an accurate picture of the world. It is, in the final assessment, evidence, openness and discernment that will settle matters – not denial and avoidance.

This, then, is the purpose of the following chapters: to present

a selection of widely discussed conspiracy scenarios, arranged

in thematical y linked categories, and to consider the evidence

for them, attempting to reach beyond traditional y entrenched

polarities. It would be impossible to cover every theory ever

suggested, thus only those with a fair starting threshold of

evidence, or which have been raised to prominence over the

years, are included here. The investigation seeks to find the

essence of the beliefs around them and applies logical analysis

to see where the balance of probability lies, without condemning

deeply felt opinions.

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what is conspiracy theory?

One of the reasons that people believe conspiracies must be

rife in our world today is because history is strewn with former

examples of covert plots and scandals, and it is valuable to look back into the past before turning an eye to more recent times.

In Summary . . .

Conspiracy Theory: Arguments Against

Conspiracy theorists are held in general contempt by the mainstream
media and authorities – The academic world holds that belief in
conspiracy is shaped by social background and psychological

make-up, and not necessarily supported by evidence – There are
unquestionable tendencies towards certain personality profiles within
the conspiracy community – Truthseekers can lack discernment

in their biased analysis of chosen areas – Claimed evidence could
merely be the result of ‘apophenia’, of seeing meaningful patterns
where there are none – The tendency to question everything can
lead to extremism and social y marginalizing views.

Conspiracy Theory: Arguments For

The media’s sidelining of conspiracy theories is unfair and based
on an uninformed view of what the term means – The many public
exposures of corrupt officials and criminality within systems
perfectly fit the dictionary definition of ‘conspiracy theory’, making
it very likely that all manner of other, more powerful, secret cabals
must also exist – The academic viewpoint rarely addresses the
actual evidence for conspiratorial beliefs, which can be strong in
some areas – The psychological tendencies of certain people may
be the very attributes that enable them to see the hidden truths
behind a situation – For every false pattern that may present
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itself, other strange synchronicities can emerge which are harder
to dismiss – The more extremist ideologies are held only by a
minority – It is evidence that must be used to discern the reality of
something, not beliefs.

ConClusion

By its technical definition, conspiracy theory would appear to

be a perfectly acceptable sphere to explore. Its dismissal by the mainstream has created an atmosphere of denial that cannot be

continued indefinitely. Sooner or later, the evidence to support

some, if not al , of the theories will have to be properly faced if civilization is to move forward in a spirit of inclusiveness. There are some flaws in the thought processes behind conspiracy thinking,

generating polarities where a self-protected extremism can

grow, and academic observations do have something interesting

to say about the psychological tendencies of the truthseeking

community. But the reason why many people believe in conspiracy

theories as often as not lies in the verifiable reality that evidence for them exists. If the intuitions that some develop through their personal background enable them to identify crucial factors in

certain situations, it might be better to treat their faculties as a gift, rather than a pathology. Discernment and a conscious application

of logic plainly need to be nurtured, but the characterization of all conspiracy theorists as psychological y damaged fanatics is

a dangerously dismissive policy that does nothing but restrain

legitimate lines of questioning in potential y important areas.

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CONSPIRACIES

Those who believe that conspiracies are rife today point to the many
precedents from history which categorical y demonstrate that certain
events have been engineered or manipulated, either to undermine
regimes or to boost otherwise unachievable mandates for political or
religious forces. Sometimes the mere spreading of a theory has been
the conspiracy itself. Both the Roman period and the 16th and 17th
centuries make for good examples that show human nature appears
to have changed little over the centuries.

i) anCienT ConspiraCies

Plots of Older Civilizations

In the conspiracy pantheon there are countless theories
about
ancient times, especial y concerning extra-terrestrial bloodlines being seeded aeons ago by the arrival of the ‘Anunnaki’ or all

manner of godlike beings. It is believed by some that these visitors gave rise to alien/human hybrid races whose occult knowledge

may have been handed down through generations to inform

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the structures of global power today; these areas are explored

in chapter 7. What needs to be established in this section is that conspiracy thinking is nothing new in our world.

Conspiracies, or theories about them, have probably been

present in every culture since one tribe of early hominids was

accused of interfering with the running of another by stealing

food and water, or by an elder doing it himself and blaming it

on outsiders, justifying the massacre of local enemies. Tales of

scapegoating and sleights of hands from powerful individuals

to trigger desired actions that might otherwise be distasteful to the general population seem to run through most great empires,

from the Assyrians to the Egyptians. Greek mythology is famously

a rich source of conspiracy theories, with the wooden horse of

Troy being perhaps the most famous example of a trick being

used to launch an act of aggression. Even the gods were said to

indulge regularly in plots and schemes with or against mankind

(or among themselves) to sway opinion and mould the fortunes of

war, as classic works such as the
Iliad
or
Odyssey
reveal. The Old Testament provides more tales of subterfuge and deception on a

grand scale, albeit with divine retribution never far behind.

However, of all the innumerable examples, it is the Roman

Empire that gives perhaps the most resonant comparison to