12-31-05 Conspiracy Theories
There are two things that the internet has made more prolific. The first is porn, and the second is conspiracy theories.
The first speaks for itself. Despite any cultural taboos and/or rhetoric to the contrary, THE MARKET has made it abundantly clear that there're not only enough consumers of porn in our society to make this type of online business wildly successful, there's also an abundance of people willing to supply it. It's all about supply and demand, and our society is certainly demonstrating the viability of this particular market.
The latter item is more about the internet becoming a platform for people to publish on. This is about "free speech", I'd have to say. You can publish what you want, and publishing on the internet is not only easy, it's got a built in distribution system. Of course, there has to be something to draw people in.
A few years ago, I did a search of the web on the word "conspiracy" and found all sorts of entertaining stuff. Today, I thought I'd do that again. I got over 35 million hits on Google, and 53 million hits on Yahoo.
Like more traditional media (newspapers, Radio, and TV), once somebody originates a story, everybody else runs with it. This is especially true of conspiracy theories. The ones that existed prior to the World Wide Web found a new home there. These include the JFK assassination (et al), UFO's, and the Illuminati, among others.
Prior to the WWW, you could read books on these subjects. But until the blossoming of these conspiracy theories on the web, there was very little Radio, TV, or newspaper material being done on those subjects. Today, however, due to the demonstrated viability of using this subject matter for public consumption, this fodder has been exploited by some of the most reputable media businesses.
The History Channel does regular shows on UFO's, and even Bryant Gumbel did a big special on this. The JFK assassination and the conspiracy theories surrounding it have been covered over and over again on TV. The grandfather of all secret society conspiracy theories, the Illuminati, has spawned countless TV and radio shows, as well.
Why is this subject matter so successful as a media product? Because it caters to the concept of "something going on behind the scenes". Anyone who's lived in the world beyond their teens can understand that our interactions with other people grow more and more complex, the larger the group you're involved with is. There develops layers of political activity within any group, and the more people that are connected to the activity, the more layers come into play. It's just a fact of life.
Consequently, the idea that any "official story" might be all there is to it is, frankly, 100% refutable in theory. Anyone can theorize another angle, because we can all easily come to doubt that any "official story" has presented all the facts. We can do this because we know how the political complexities of any large group can exist.
We also know that anyone who has something to hide will do whatever needs to be done in order to keep it hidden. It's fundamental in human nature.
The "hook" with a conspiracy theory is the presentation of any anomalies that the "official story" doesn't clearly explain. When anything that doesn't quite jive with the official story is explained by a different theory, doubt concerning the official story can be brought into the picture. Once doubt about the official story is fostered, other anomalies can be presented to line up with the alternate theory.
This is the method that was used by Woodward and Bernstein in the process of bringing down the Nixon administration.
However, where the Washington Post spent all that time playing the game of adhering as strictly as possible to journalistic ethics in presenting anomaly after anomaly as verifiable news items, one at a time, and refraining from publishing any theory to explain them, most conspiracy theory websites tend to put the cart before the horse. They make the theoretical assumption first, then spend the rest of their time pointing to things and saying, "See? Lookit that! Huh? Huh?"
The market for conspiracy theories caters to those who already have a doubt or two about any official story. They're looking for anomalies in the official story, anyway, so the presence of these millions of websites is a testament to the decreasing lack of trust in our society towards the government.
Lack of trust in the government?
Well, that's where it all tends to center because the overwhelming majority of conspiracy theories are all concerned with the government, or people within the government, conspiring to promote false offical stories regarding the JFK assassination, UFOs, and the existence of secret societies trying to control entire nations and the world. It's easy to make these cases because the "hooks" are easy to find and develop into believable concepts.
The facts, however, are usually difficult to discern. Instead, one has to swim through the arguments with a jaundiced eye. After spending lots of time over the years entertaining myself by perusing this sort of thing, I've yet to come to any conclusions about any of them. They persist in my thoughts, however, as possibilities. Many are plausible, even the most outrageous. But the bottom line is that hard evidence is difficult to find.
The first speaks for itself. Despite any cultural taboos and/or rhetoric to the contrary, THE MARKET has made it abundantly clear that there're not only enough consumers of porn in our society to make this type of online business wildly successful, there's also an abundance of people willing to supply it. It's all about supply and demand, and our society is certainly demonstrating the viability of this particular market.
The latter item is more about the internet becoming a platform for people to publish on. This is about "free speech", I'd have to say. You can publish what you want, and publishing on the internet is not only easy, it's got a built in distribution system. Of course, there has to be something to draw people in.
A few years ago, I did a search of the web on the word "conspiracy" and found all sorts of entertaining stuff. Today, I thought I'd do that again. I got over 35 million hits on Google, and 53 million hits on Yahoo.
Like more traditional media (newspapers, Radio, and TV), once somebody originates a story, everybody else runs with it. This is especially true of conspiracy theories. The ones that existed prior to the World Wide Web found a new home there. These include the JFK assassination (et al), UFO's, and the Illuminati, among others.
Prior to the WWW, you could read books on these subjects. But until the blossoming of these conspiracy theories on the web, there was very little Radio, TV, or newspaper material being done on those subjects. Today, however, due to the demonstrated viability of using this subject matter for public consumption, this fodder has been exploited by some of the most reputable media businesses.
The History Channel does regular shows on UFO's, and even Bryant Gumbel did a big special on this. The JFK assassination and the conspiracy theories surrounding it have been covered over and over again on TV. The grandfather of all secret society conspiracy theories, the Illuminati, has spawned countless TV and radio shows, as well.
Why is this subject matter so successful as a media product? Because it caters to the concept of "something going on behind the scenes". Anyone who's lived in the world beyond their teens can understand that our interactions with other people grow more and more complex, the larger the group you're involved with is. There develops layers of political activity within any group, and the more people that are connected to the activity, the more layers come into play. It's just a fact of life.
Consequently, the idea that any "official story" might be all there is to it is, frankly, 100% refutable in theory. Anyone can theorize another angle, because we can all easily come to doubt that any "official story" has presented all the facts. We can do this because we know how the political complexities of any large group can exist.
We also know that anyone who has something to hide will do whatever needs to be done in order to keep it hidden. It's fundamental in human nature.
The "hook" with a conspiracy theory is the presentation of any anomalies that the "official story" doesn't clearly explain. When anything that doesn't quite jive with the official story is explained by a different theory, doubt concerning the official story can be brought into the picture. Once doubt about the official story is fostered, other anomalies can be presented to line up with the alternate theory.
This is the method that was used by Woodward and Bernstein in the process of bringing down the Nixon administration.
However, where the Washington Post spent all that time playing the game of adhering as strictly as possible to journalistic ethics in presenting anomaly after anomaly as verifiable news items, one at a time, and refraining from publishing any theory to explain them, most conspiracy theory websites tend to put the cart before the horse. They make the theoretical assumption first, then spend the rest of their time pointing to things and saying, "See? Lookit that! Huh? Huh?"
The market for conspiracy theories caters to those who already have a doubt or two about any official story. They're looking for anomalies in the official story, anyway, so the presence of these millions of websites is a testament to the decreasing lack of trust in our society towards the government.
Lack of trust in the government?
Well, that's where it all tends to center because the overwhelming majority of conspiracy theories are all concerned with the government, or people within the government, conspiring to promote false offical stories regarding the JFK assassination, UFOs, and the existence of secret societies trying to control entire nations and the world. It's easy to make these cases because the "hooks" are easy to find and develop into believable concepts.
The facts, however, are usually difficult to discern. Instead, one has to swim through the arguments with a jaundiced eye. After spending lots of time over the years entertaining myself by perusing this sort of thing, I've yet to come to any conclusions about any of them. They persist in my thoughts, however, as possibilities. Many are plausible, even the most outrageous. But the bottom line is that hard evidence is difficult to find.
posted by Jeff Barnard at 5:38 PM
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