CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND AMERICAN CULTURE

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CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND AMERICAN CULTURE
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WHAT ARE CONSPIRACY THEORIES?

• secret agreement between two or more people to
  perform an unlawful act
• a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act
  (especially a political plot)
• a group of conspirators banded together to
  achieve some harmful or illegal purpose
• (Source www.wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)
• Dean's definition groups of people controlling
  information and manipulating local and global
  affairs for their own 'hidden agendas'. Directly
  concerned with the processes and exercise of
  political power.
• A conspiracy theory is the construction of an
  argument for the existence of a conspiracy or
  conspiratorial acts.

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CONSPIRACY CONCEPTS

• Secrecy those in positions of power (i.e.
  Governments, corporates, military) are
  withholding information and knowledge from the
  public/citizens to further their own interests,
  in violation of codes of ethics that govern
  society and democracy.
• Paranoia psychological condition that has now
  become representative of a general worldview and
  sense of self. A paranoid state is one in which
  established criteria of trust and identification
  with other people and the functioning of the
  society around you begin to break down.
  Individuals feel they no longer know who or what
  to trust or believe in e.g. they're out to get
  me - persecution complex.
• Truth that there is such a thing as a true
  cause or meaning to events.
• A what happened?
• - causality makes sense
• - witnesses had the same sensory experience of
  events
• - empirical evidence of events
• B why did it happen?
• - Implicit/explicit meaning of events different
  people interpret events in different ways,
• - Most conspiracy theories concerned with
  uncovering the 'true' meanings behind historical
  events.

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THE BADDIES

• The Freemasons
• The Illuminati
• The Military-Industrial complex
• The New World Order
• The CIA/FBI/NSA/MI5/Mossad/SIS
• The Vatican
• The Nazis
• The Jews
• The Mafia
• The Bilderbergers
• The Federal Reserve Bank
• The IMF/World Banketc.

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CONSPIRACY THEORY/ CONSPIRACY FACT

• Conspiracy fact - Rainbow Warrior bombing in
  Auckland Harbour 1985 French Secret Service
  carried out terrorist bombing and were captured
• BUT if agents had gotten away with it it
  would now be in the realms of conspiracy theory

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CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND AMERICAN HISTORY

• Conspiracy theories have a long history in
  American politics and culture e.g.
• the founding fathers were 'freemasons' the
  eye in the triangle on the dollar bill is a
  masonic symbol for the new world order
• 1898 Spanish-American war begins when the US
  warship 'Maine' is bombed and sunk in Havana
  harbour suggestions that US govt destroyed ship
  themselves as a pretext for war and establishing
  an 'American empire'.

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• Most contemporary conspiracy theories are
  expressions of cultural anxieties related to
  changes and events in American society and
  politics after WW2. e.g.
• - America now the world's sole superpower
  creating a global empire through military
  force/economic strength/media influence
• - corruption of American political system by
  'military-industrial complex' leading
  politicians do not serve the people but dominant
  corporate/class interests. Subversion of
  constitutional rights/ideals of America in the
  process.
• - 'culture wars' between right-wing American
  ideologies (e.g. fundamentalist Christianity) and
  progressive liberalism major social changes due
  to movements such as immigration, feminism,
  humanism
• - fears of the effects of modern technology and
  science on human identity and society e.g. media
  networks can also be used for surveillance
  scientists working for private agendas of
  corporations instead of public good

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KEY MOMENTS IN AMERICAN CONSPIRATORIAL HISTORY

• 1947 alleged UFO crash in the desert near
  Roswell, New Mexico.
• Conspiracy theories - US military develop
  secret technology from the wreckage and/or enter
  into alliance with aliens.
• 1950's cold war against Communism. McCarthy
  trials of Communist sympathisers.
• Consolidation of US intelligence services.
• 1963 JFK assassination. Warren commission lays
  blame on 'lone gunman' Lee Harvey Oswald.
• CT - conspiracy involving politicians,
  military, CIA, the Mafia, Cuban dissidents.
• 1968 Assassination of Martin Luther King and
  Robert Kennedy.
• CT assassinations by US intelligence
  services.
• 1969 NASA moon landings.
• CT US govt hoax staged for propaganda
  purposes against Russians.

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• 1974 Watergate scandal and impeachment of
  President Richard Nixon suggests deep levels of
  corruption and abuse of power within American
  political system.
• 1980's conspiracy theories surrounding Roswell
  crash and 'UFO cover-ups' penetrate mainstream US
  culture.
• 1994 Waco massacre cultists killed in
  standoff with federal agents.
• CT federal govt covered up abuse of police
  power.
• 1995 Oklahoma City bombing biggest act of
  internal terrorism in the USA.
• CT anti-federal government right-wing
  militia networks responsible.
• 2001 9/11 attacks in NYC.
• CT American govt staged attacks or let them
  take place to further secret agendas for 'New
  World Order' of American/corporate imperialism.

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CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN AMERICAN MEDIA

• Conspiracy theories have long been a staple of
  certain pop culture genres e.g. spy and crime
  novels and films. Media like the internet and
  radio offer alternative cultural spaces for
  discussion of ideas that are usually very
  critical of the existing political/economic
  systems in modern America. The current awareness
  of conspiracy theories in popular culture is
  largely the result of Hollywood TV shows,
  documentaries, and feature films dealing with
  conspiratorial themes.
• 1960's films dealing with Cold War paranoia
• e.g. The Manchurian Candidate (John
  Frankenheimer 1962) communists in US govt.
• Mid-1970's in wake of Watergate affair many
  films dealing with conspiratorial themes
• e.g. The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula 1974)
  political conspiracy
• Capricorn One (Peter Hyams 1978) faked NASA
  mission to Mars

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• 1990's development and popularity of the
  internet enable conspiracy theories to cross out
  of underground/crank culture and cross-over into
  other mainstream media, leading to increasing
  popular interest in and acceptance of conspiracy
  theories.
• 1991 JFK (Oliver Stone 1991) revives popular
  interest in conspiracy theories surrounding the
  JFK assassination.
• 1993 - The X-Files TV series begins. Major story
  arc that of super-conspiracy involving alliances
  between US government and aliens, based on
  genuine conspiracy theories.
• Very successful and influential helps
  establish conspiracy theories as mainstream
  cultural forms and as marketable genre in their
  own right. Other conspiracy themed TV series
  follow e.g. Millennium and Dark Skies.

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• 1990s - major Hollywood films with
  conspiratorial themes
• - The Net (Irwin Winkler 1995)
• - Conspiracy Theory (Richard Donner 1997)
• - Enemy of the State (Tony Scott 2001)
• - Fahrenheit 911 (Michael Moore 2004)
• 2000's media such as websites, TV
  documentaries, magazines and radio shows
  especially devoted to disseminating and arguing
  about conspiracy theories.
• Particularly concerned with paranoia surrounding
  American government policy and practice after
  9/11 attacks.
• Conspiracy theory websites some of the most
  numerous and popular on the internet e.g.
• www.rense.com
• www.prisonplanet.com
• www.loosechange911.com

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Celebrity conspiracies

• Elvis Presley faked his own death (1977)
• John Lennon murdered by CIA brainwashed assassin
  (1980)
• Kurt Cobain murdered (hit authorised by Courtney
  Love) (1994)
• Princess Diana killed by British Secret Service
  (1997)

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BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

• The NSA (National Security Agency) uses the
  ECHELON network to monitor every email, fax, and
  phone call via landline, cell, microwave,
  fibre-optic cable or satellite.
• Based in USA Monitoring bases in Canada, the
  UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand
  (Waihopai near Blenheim)
• Massive computers using voice-recognition and
  optical character dictionaries filter for
  keywords, and messages are flagged up, recorded,
  and transcribed for analysis
• (McConnachie/Tudge, The Rough Guide to Conspiracy
  Theories, 2005)