They're Everywhere...They Control Everything

So runs the conspiracy theory.

Which conspiracy theory, you ask?

To be honest, it doesn't much matter. They're all much the same.
Many of them lift elements from eachother and just change the names.
But the tune remains the same.



Most conspiracy theories have their roots in solid facts somewhere. It's just the connecting lines between the facts that are somewhat tenuous. Often conspiracy theories themselves are joined together by super-conspiracists to create super-conspiracies which, were they to be true would show that a small number of highly intelligent people have been hoodwinking a lot of very stupid people for a very long time.

For example, the observation that the Freemasons are a group of secretive, suspicous types whose reach is long and powerful is accurate.
That the police forces of the UK and other parts of the english speaking world are dominated by masons is indisputable.

That the Masons have a higher eschelon called the Illuminati who maintain the current world order, especially having near perpetual control over the US executive, is something that seems possible when you hear a conspiracy theorist talk, but in fact, is unlikely in the extreme.

Other theories are not just ridiculous, they border on offensive.
The fake Moon landing theory is one such.
The fact that the Russians surely tracked all the Apollo missions closely seems to have escaped the lunatic fringe in this case.
If it was fake, the Russians wouldn't have let them get away with it.

And were the Americans sick enough to fake Apollo 13?

The conspiracy nuts who support this one should be ashamed of themselves.



Then of course, we have the wealth of Alien conspiracy stuff. Sometimes they're just abducting people. For some, the US government is in league with them. For some the Illuminati, who have controlled all governments since Roman times have long been in alliance with extra-terrestial masters.

Oh, and if you really want to delve into theories that are literally out of this world, there's always David Icke.

I think why these sorts of theories make me angry, is what underlies them.

Most are some sort of acknowledgement that something's wrong somewhere, but instead of looking at solutions, they look for spurious explanations.

Instead of realising that millions of people are exploited, simply because that's how the system works, the theorists decide it's designed with that result in mind.

Rather than assuming that those who've found themselves benefitting from our current arrangements simply realise, looking down, that things as they are suit them very nicely, and screw the rest of us, the theorists have them in on a secret passed down within inner circles that were founded long ago in the mists of time.

It comforts. Because if you believe this, then the system is too powerful for you to do anything about. And the enemy who keeps you down is something sinister, maybe not even human, rather than people who think and breathe much like you, who have inherited the reins of a messed up world, but had only a small part in getting it this way.

So at best, conspiracy theories hold us back. They divert our anger and our wish to better the world into a defeatist attempt to invent excuses for it's state.

But there is a dark side. When I compare a lot of UFO literature and conspiracy theory generally I find whole passages which are almost word for word identical to passages in The Protocols of The Elders of Zion.
The forgery that sent shock waves across Europe, that made most Germans and Central Europeans- and Henry Ford- believe that the Jews of the World really were out to get the Gentiles.
That was read fervently by a young housepainter in Vienna.

And when Germany lost the War and suffered hyperinflation, it was all too easy for Germans to see one group which still seemed to be doing OK.

And to believe the conspiracy theory.

And to vote accordingly.



Conspiracy Theory is the attempt to blame someone, somewhere in the past for us not living in Eden today.
It is backward, negative thinking, completely unprofitable, because it never proposes real solutions.

It is usually discrimination and hatred hiding itself as a respectable idea.

There are no grey aliens, no illuminati, no elders of Zion.

There ARE unprincipled people who are happy to make use of a system which benefits them, even if it does involve trampling on the rest of us.