Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source
New Directions in Folklore 2 (formerly the Impromptu Journal) January 1998 Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 2 :: Page 1 :: Page 2 :: Page 3 :: Page 4 :: Page 5 :: Page 6
Consider the Source: Conspiracy Theories, Narrative, Belief
Tyrone Yarbrough, Ph.D.
I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; Isaiah 45:7, NRSV
I. Introduction
Philadelphia, August 30, 1997-- Around 8:20p.m. Brian Williams breaks into the regularly scheduled network programming to announce that there had been reports that "Princess Diana and her companion Dodi Fayed" had been involved in a car accident in Paris. My first reaction: "They interrupted The Pretender for this"?
August 31, 1997--Almost five hours later, Brian Williams reports that she has died. "I wonder how long it will take before the conspiracy theories surface", is my reaction now.
The answer was, not long.
It is a question that I've begun to ask automatically when any tragedy occurs and is broadcast through the ether. A celebrity dies in a car crash; a commuter plane explodes minutes after takeoff; another plane carrying businessmen and government officials crashes overseas; a member of the administration commits suicide; drugs flood the inner cities; a drugs for guns for hostages scheme conducted by the government is exposed; a fatal diseases ravages first one community, then progresses into others; political, religious and cultural leaders are assassinated; cults commit murder and suicide; mysterious sightings are made in the skies; mysterious objects are reportedly found at a crash site in a desert; an entire area is cordoned off by the government, while its very existence is denied.
Official investigations are done by the proper authorities, official reports appear in the media, and official conclusions are drawn and presented. Many accept the official version; others do not. Questions remain. Those questions are raised and voiced, take hold with others, then spread and circulate, forming rumors, which become anecdotes. These anecdotes form the basis of more complex narratives which reflect long held and deeply felt beliefs. These narratives influence and shape the behaviors, actions and attitudes of those who come to believe them.
These events seem to have nothing in common, except that they are public tragedies. However, they share another trait. All are actual events that have formed the bases of what are commonly called conspiracy theories. The word conspire comes from the Latin conspirare--com (with) + spirare (to breathe)--meaning to breathe together. Conspiracies are generally understood to be covert plots by groups scheming to accomplish a specific goal. The goal may be legal or illegal, but the word implies acts that are in their nature subversive. This connotation carries over to conspiracy theories Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source
as well. Conspiracy theories, in part, are explanatory narratives. They account for the recurrent public traumas that seem to haunt society. Those who dare to suggest that political or historical events have been directly influenced by the clandestine actions of powerful elites, however, are often dismissed as delusional, superstitious, obsessed, hysterical, even paranoid.
The pejorative "paranoid" is instinctively applied to anyone who even tells a conspiracy theory, much less believes one. The clinical definition of paranoia is a "mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts. which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others; chronic functional psychosis of insidious development, characterized by persistent, unalterable, logically reasoned delusions, commonly of persecution and grandeur". Unfortunately, most people know the simple connotation of the word (crazy) rather than the clinical definition. And because of this, the word is employed by people who can't spell DSM IV, much less consult it.
As the response to the death of Diana Spencer demonstrates, the impulse to ascribe tragedies to the interference of outside agencies appears to be a widespread occurrence. Conspiracy theories demonstrate that conspiratorial thinking is a normal, if not normative, human response to traumatic events. Conspiracies are generated from all points of the ideological spectrum, and conspiratorial thought is found at all levels of society. Marginalized groups pass on stories of the hidden motives of small, powerful elites aligned against them. Politicians gather followers by disclosing them. Talk radio hosts speculate about them. Businessmen expound upon them. People discuss them everyday. Conspiracy theories provide narrative proof that conspiratorial thinking is a normative, if not normal, response to human events. However, the very idea of conspiracy conspires against open serious discussion of the phenomenon today, not to mention any type of objective scholarly inquiry.
II. Narrative
The speed with which the Diana conspiracies spread was astonishing, even taking the considerable impact of the increasingly ubiquitous computer networks into account. This impact is primarily responsible for the myriad forms that the almost instantaneous responses to the events of her death took. Lamentations, shrines, rumors, reminiscences, jokes, even shrines arose immediately. So did conspiracy theories, a phenomenon that would have been inconceivable ten, even five years ago, when the diffusion of information was (relatively) slower and the open expression of conspiracy theories was (socially) prohibited.
Compare the formation of Diana conspiracies with another recent tragedy; the crash of TWA Flight 800. It took about three months, from July 17 until October 15, 1996 before the various accounts of the crash broke onto the web as fully formed conspiracy theories. In the case of the Paris car crash, dozens of rumors began to appear within a matter of days. Long time conspiracy researchers Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen, authors of The Sixty Greatest Conspiracies of All Time observed on its companion website: (http://www.conspire.com/curren33.html)"We received our first e-mail on the subject -- suggesting that Di was killed by 'MI-5' (sic) -- within minutes (yeah, that's right, minutes) of the initial news bulletins."Between August 31st until her funeral on September 6th, speculations about how and why Diana Spencer died appeared and spread exponentially through cyberspace like a virus.
On Tuesday, September 2, as the steady, incessant, universal coverage of Diana Spencer's death swells, a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer describes how rapidly groups dedicated to her formed on the worldwide web. The Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source
account includes reports of conspiracy theories beginning to circulate through the internet. "Overnight, Diana's death was deemed mysterious enough to warrant its own conspiracy-theory newsgroup, alt.conspiracy.princess-diana putting her in the company of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Area 51, all of which are dissected regularly on-line" (A15).
My own research led me to Black-Ops, a proposed encyclopedia of conspiracy theories which solicits conspiracy theories from on-line contributors. The earliest posting of a message suggesting that Diana's death was part of a conspiracy is dated Tuesday, September 2nd, 07:29:01. By September 18th, there are a total of twenty-six references of varying lengths posted on this site alone.
Discussions conducted on the New Directions in Folklore list could be found in the site's archives. Since I am not on-line, it gives me an opportunity to look in on what is being said by members of an on-going list. Diana Spencer's death is the topic under discussion here, as it has been on numerous other sites on the web. On September 8th and 9th Stephanie Hall, a folklorist and member of the NewFolk list, posts two separate conspiracies on the New Directions website. The September 9th text, taken from a discussion by an Islamic newsgroup, alt.religion.islam, is closest to the form I imagined the conspiracy would take:
Many muslims here in the UK are discussing the sudden and somewhat mysterious death of Diana. The popular theory is that she was killed as the establishment (church of england) could not take in the fact that future king's father in law would be an Arab and more over a muslim - Diana did say that she was going to make a major announcement in a weeks time that would change her life. Some say Mosad would have also been involved for the same aforementioned reason. Now that facts are emerging that the driver was an ex- french special agent and he may have NOT been over the drink/drive limit these conspiracy theories are seeming to have more credibility.
The September 8th version that Stephanie Hall received from fellow folklorist Lani Herrmann seems to have become the dominant conspiracy theory. I read the discussions and print out the texts versions from the NewFolk archives. When I get home I find a letter from another list member and folklorist, Amanda Banks. It includes the same conspiracy theory that Stephanie Hall had passed on, found on another website. In the following weeks I find this version on two other websites. It is commonly attributed to "Ru Mills", usually entitled and always capitalized "WHOEVER CONTROLS PRINCESS DIANA CONTROLS THE WORLD" [sic ]:
Princess Diana and her soon-to-be husband, Dodi Fayed, were fatally injured in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel. The site is ancient, dating back to the time of the Merovingian kings (ca. 500 - 751 A.D.), and before. In pre-Christian times, the Pont de l'Alma was a pagan sacrificial site. Note that in the pagan connotation, at least, sacrifice is not to be confused with murder: the sacrificial victim had to be a willing participant.
In the time of the Merovingian kings, Pont de l'Alma was an underground chamber. Founder of the Merovingian dynasty was Merovaeus, said to be descended from the union of a sea creature and a French queen. Merovaeus followed the pagan cult of Diana. In Middle English, "soul" (Alma) has as etymology "descended from the sea." "Pont," has as a Latin root "pontifex," meaning a Roman high priest. (See also pons, pontis -- bridge; passage.) "Alma" comes from the Latin "almus," meaning nourishing. On e translation of Pont de l'Alma would be "bridge of the soul." another would be "passage of nourishment." All true European royalty is descended from the Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source
Merovingians, which are believed to be descendants of Jesus Christ.
During the Merovingian era, if two kings had a dispute over property, it was settled in combat at Pont de l'Alma. According to legend, anyone killed there goes straight to Heaven and sits at the right hand of God, watching over all his foe was to do. The person killed in combat was actually considered to be the "winner," since he became God's eyes on earth and even could manipulate events.
The current British royal family are imposters. The House of Windsor is a fraud. But the lineage of Lady Diana Spencer goes back to Charles II of the House of Stewart. The House of Stewart is of *true* royal blood. Diana's sons, William and Harry, have 3 quarters true nobility in their blood.
Princess Diana was in a powerful position. Two main factions vied for control over her: (1) the New World Order faction, founded on an alliance between King William III (Bank of England, modern system of finance, and "national debt" all beginning during his reign) and later, the Rothschilds, and (2) the true nobility of Europe.
*Within* the New World Order faction, there are smaller, warring factions, exemplified by Rothschilds vs. Rockefellers. The plan of the New World Order faction was to marry Lady Diana to an American. Even though Bill Clinton has bastard roots in the Rockefeller clan, he is rejected by them and aligned with the Rothschilds. Bill Clinton was the designated future husband for Lady Diana, with Hillary Clinton to be eliminated through divorce or even murder. The Rockefellers were furious; in no way would they allow a marriage between Bill Clinton and Lady Diana. In Great Britain, Prince William would be on the throne by age 25; if Prince Charles did not abdicate, he would be assassinated.
Then, Prince Harry and the living Lady Diana would have moved to the U.S. Harry would become a U.S. citizen and go into politics, becoming perhaps a U.S. Senator. By then, whoever controlled the two boys -- Prince William and Prince Harry -- would control the world.
But in her last visit to the White House, circa January 1997, Lady Diana informed Mr. Bill Clinton that in no way, shape, or form would she *ever* marry him. (While in America, Lady Diana also met with John Kennedy, Jr.) Diana chose, instead, to marry for love. (Jackie Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis for power; he could protect her.)
Dodi Fayed, beloved of Lady Diana, is a cousin of Adnan Khashoggi, a CIA asset involved in sales of arms to Iran -- he and Oliver North. Adnan Khashoggi is part of the Saudi royal family. Through marrying Dodi Fayed, Diana would have been marrying into the Saudi royal family. She might have had to convert to Islam.
British intelligence (MI-6) arranged the deaths of Lady Diana and Dodi Fayed. It was imperative that the Saudi royal family not have control over Diana. The driver of the ill fated Mercedes was a "Manchurian candidate" (brainwashed tool), with connections to the French military. How did so much alcohol get into his system? Amounts suggested in mass media reports are truly staggering -- so much alcohol that the driver would have had to been carried to the car. The way it happened was, the driver was made to swallow special slowly-digestible balloons containing high-potency alcohol. While he drove, the balloons were slowly digested and he became dangerous behind the wheel. Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source
But even within British intelligence there are factions. A rogue faction in MI-6, powerless to prevent the assassination, arranged for the deaths of Lady Diana and Dodi Fayed to happen at the Pont de l'Alma. Clearly, it was known that a death at that historic location would not only "send a signal"; it would eventually lead to the creation of a "Saint Diana." In Roman paganism, Diana is "Queen of Heaven," a triple-goddess. "Al-mah," in mid-east language, means "moon goddess." One aspect of the Roman triple goddess is the "lunar virgin." The *al-mahs* served as maidens of Diana, the lunar virgin. In France, the Cult of Diana was so powerful that it wasn't until the Middle Ages until the French gave up, worship of the pagan goddess. The *true* KnightsTemplar (not to be confused with imposters) are sworn to protect the Merovingian blood -- i.e., that of the *true* royals, such as Lady Diana. Before too long, Project Blue Beam holographic imaging will be used to create "miraculous appearances" of Lady Diana. Children at various locations will be randomly selected to witness "saintly apparitions." These children will receive a "message" from "Diana." Some of the children will claim that "Diana" has given them healing powers -- and what is more, these children *will* be able to "heal." Locations of these "miraculous appearances" will become known as places of healing and sacred shrines. "Saint Diana's" two children, William and Harry, will become akin to two living Jesus Christs, walking the earth. It will be the start of "the new religion." Who controls the new religion controls the world.
I would guess that most people would consider this text proof that believers in conspiracy theories are deranged. At first glance, this text appears to be a disordered, rambling rant that starts in the middle of something and lands in the middle of nowhere. A close reading of the Ru Mills text, however, shows that it is based on traditional motifs found in conspiratorial narratives. Like most well developed conspiracy theories, it is densely packed and hard for the uninitiated to follow, which is not a surprise since full narratives are told to receptive audiences.
Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 2 :: Page 1 :: Page 2 :: Page 3 :: Page 4 :: Page 5 :: Page 6 Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 2
New Directions in Folklore 2 (formerly the Impromptu Journal) January 1998 Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 2 :: Page 1 :: Page 2 :: Page 3 :: Page 4 :: Page 5 :: Page 6
Consider the Source (Page 2)
Tyrone Yarbrough, Ph.D.
II. Narrative (continued)
Once you become acquainted with conspiracy lore the underlying rationale of Ru Mills's text is easy to understand. In "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" Richard Hofstadter observed that the essential element of conspiracy theories was a belief in the existence of a "... vast, insidious, preternaturally effective international conspiratorial network designed to perpetuate acts of the most fiendish character" (1966:14). And the conspiracy outlined in "Ru Mills" text certainly qualifies.
One of the major narrative threads can be found in a book called Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1983). It argues that, contrary to the canonical gospel accounts, Jesus of Nazareth survived crucifixion, fathered children who left Palestine and migrated to the South of France. These children founded the Merovingian dynasty, and who ruled between the fifth and eighth centuries CE until they were overthrown (King Dagobert II, a Merovignian was assassinated and the Roman Catholic Church is supposed to have conspired in his death. The Vatican is this conspiracy's omnipotent, omnipresent "they". Well, one of them).
So, according to this narrative, the descendants of Jesus formed a royal and divine bloodline, a literal embodiment the divine right of kings. They have a connection to a small village in the Pyrenees called Rennes-le-Chateau, which is seen as significant for several reasons. First, and this is an indirect allusion to the Diana conspiracy, it is a sacred site that has geographic and geometric significance. It is regarded by believers as a "geometric temple". The references to Pont de l'Ama as a pagan sacrificial site is probably related to this belief. Second, Rennes-le-Chateaus has been controlled throughout history by the Celts, Romans, pagans, Visigoths, Cathars, Catalan bandits and the Knights Templar. Consequently, many legends have grown up around this village, especially legends of treasure hidden by the Cathars, Merovingians and the Knights Templar. Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail contend that the secret treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau is the Holy Grail which according to legend, the Knights Templar rescued from Palestine during the European occupation of Palestine. However, the authors also claim that the "Holy Grail" is a not an actual cup used by Jesus of Nazareth at the Last Supper. Instead, it is a metaphor. In medieval texts it is referred to as Sangraal or Sangreal, which is translated to mean "royal blood".
The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail further assert that two modern dayoff shoots of the Knights Templar--the French Priory of Zion and the Italian version known as the Propaganda Duista (P-2)--have as their goal the restoration of all the monarchies of Europe, specifically those descended from the Merovingian bloodline. Their purpose is to unite Europe under this dynasty, establishing a European theocracy.
The logic underlying this narrative, derived from the British Royal Family, Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 2
Priory of Zion, and the New World Order conspiracies, is that Diana's death was no accident. It was another act in a centuries old battle for world domination between the Vatican and the British royal family (and the New World Order by extension). Her "willing sacrifice" puts her son in direct succession to the throne, which means that the House of Windsor (the imposters), will be replaced by a "true royal" descendant of the Merovignian bloodline and form a united theocracy.
The New World Order is a phrase often invoked in certain conspiratorial circles. It refers to an Anglo-American elite whose purpose is to create a one world government. "It is centered on Wall Street and nurtured in New England prep schools and Anglophilic Ivy League Universities. ....[T]he Eastern Establish is the bane of anti Communists, who see the Rockefellers aiding and abetting, in fact, masterminding the international Communist conspiracy" (Vankin 215, 1991). The Rockefellers are prominent characters in New World Order conspiracies, as are their associate organizations: the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderburg Group and the Round Table Groups that were founded by the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes.
The Project Blue Beam reference may be a reference to Project Blue Book, which are files of the United States Air Force recording all reports of UFO sightings (with the exception of the alleged Roswell, New Mexico crash in 1947) and scientific explanations for each. This speculation is my own, inspired by the rise in the use of conspiratorial motifs in popular culture. The X-Files, for example, bases much of its backstory (in the words of creator and producer Chris Carter, it's mythology) from UFO conspiracies, which in turn always link up with the New World Order narratives. The holographic imaging equipment that will be used to create miraculous appearances of Diana sounds much like the advanced technologies supposedly recovered from crashed UFOs that powerful world governments have been fighting to develop. Philip Corso, a retired Air Force officer was interviewed on the ABC News program Nightline during the fiftieth anniversary of the 1947 Roswell incident. His book, The Day After Roswell , claims that most of the technological innovations since the alleged crash had come from recovered alien technology. This idea has shown up on X-Files, and in films like Independence Day and Men in Black.
Popular culture is the major distributor of conspiracy theories to the general public. Unlike the true believers of various conspiracies who conduct their own research, form communities and exchange information, mass media audiences are passive bearers and come to their knowledge of conspiracies out of awareness. Once I began researching conspiracy theories, I was struck by how many of them I had heard of before. Over the past three years, I have become amazed at how many books, films, television shows and comics have been making use of conspiracy narratives as source material. During the 1996-96 television season New York Undercover did shows on the C.I.A. crack connection and the Martin Luther King assassination; Early Edition did a two part show on the JFK assassination; the movie Conspiracy Theory was released this summer and The Shadow Conspiracy came and went a few months earlier. My interest in conspiracy theories ran parallel with my interests in popular culture and my attempts to understand the reaction to Diana's death.
The question that arises is why have conspiracy theories seem to have become so prevalent at this time. Vankin and Whalen attribute their ubiquity to the easy access that people have to the internet, access which is often the source of moral panics used to justify governmental attempts to regulate the web.
And, if one were given to cynicism, we could say with good reason. Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 2
In No Sense of Place, Joshua Meyrowitz draws a connection between the way in which social information is mediated and how that mediation shapes social behavior. "The more a medium of communication tends to separate what different people in a society know, the more the medium will allow for many ranks of authority; the more a medium of communication tends to merge informational worlds, the more the medium will encourage egalitarian forms of interaction" (1989: 64). The emergence of new information technologies presents a challenge to society in every sense of the word, the most obvious being challenges to the status quo. The internet, potentially, can merge informational worlds. It gives people access to information that they have not had before, and being a more "egalitarian" form of interaction, it can destabilize social hierarchies.
The internet began as a network for academics, scientists and government officials, and then rapidly began to be used by anyone with access to a computer. The proliferation of the personal computer made the net increasingly attractive to commercial business, which in turn help to open it up for everyday use. And because it was an unregulated media, people formed communal networks dedicated to their interests. These interests could be centered around fandom (television, film, books, music), politics, education, art, and previously taboo subjects such as sex or conspiracy theories.
The expansion of the internet provided another channel of communication for conspiracy theories, one freer and more sympathetic to the open expression of belief in them. It provide a safe site where people could discuss their ideas, and before long, dozens or newsgroups and websites had formed. Before computers were widely available, conspiracy theorists circulated their beliefs by word of mouth, in underground broadcasts, alternative presses, and the circulation of unpublished xeroxed written works and documents. These narratives that have been circulating within a extensive information underground for generations. This information undergound formed precisely because the open expression of conspiracy has been unacceptable.
Virtual communities are much like proto-folk groups, that is, how we have imagined the folk to be at the beginning. Before the formation of these so- called virtual communities, conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists were primarily spread by face to-face interaction. And conspiracy lore functions like folklore in its respective groups. Conspiracy theories, like folklore, functions as phatic communication; they act to create, maintain, and strengthen social relationships, as well as to pass on information.
The correlation between virtual and folk communities provides a useful entry for folklorists interested in the study of contemporary culture. It moves us from the misrepresentation of folk groups as a static, separate, antiquarian remnant of the past to a dynamic community fully participant in modern life. These conditions make conspiracy theories ripe for folkloristic analysis, since Folklore Studies include the analysis of the materials that cultural groups produce, as well as the process by which cultural production takes place. The discipline's established interest in narrative and folk belief could be applied to the analysis of conspiracy theories and to the process of conspiratorial thought and activities. The on-going circulation of new and old conspiracies calls for the use of folklore methodologies, especially those developed for legendry and belief. The broad scope of conspiracy theories requires a knowledge of culture that is holistic and qualitative, rather than reductionist and quantitative, in order to accurately model complex phenomena. A consideration of population dynamics demonstrates the significance of this idea and how conspiracy theories emerge in groups.
Population dynamics make comparisons between different-sized populations Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 2
and calculates their growth through a procedure mathematicians call normalization. Normalization simplifies the mathematics of population dynamics. Typically, a linear formula, known as an exponential growth equation, is used to model a population that varies. Its values are set between 0 and 1. The formula represents the population with variables such as Xn, Xn +1, Xn-1 and Xn = 1. Xn = 1 represents 100 percent of the maximum possible population. Xn = 0.5 represents half the value or 50 percent. The exponential growth equation allows you to compare the preceding year's population with the current year's population. The type of population being represented is irrelevant; the formula provides ratios of populations for salmon, rabbits, gypsy moths, bacteria, influenza viruses, or human beings.
Linear equations give quantitative information about the growth of populations. They describe how they rise and fall; how they multiply and die out. Exponential growth equations provide portraits of the periodic behavior of populations. However, the equation describes a process in which the population in any one year is directly proportional to the population the year before. This produces a strictly linear result. Emphasizing the linear characteristics of a population leaves out the nonlinear, seemingly chaotic behaviors they often undergo. This exclusions masks a great deal about the qualitative character of populations.
In 1845, P.F. Verhulst introduced a new term to the exponential growth equation that described the way a population develops in a closed area. He multiplied Xn by a new term (1-Xn) which, in effect, multiplied Xn by itself. This procedure introduces feedback and nonlinearity into the equation, which results in yearly population growth dependent on what came before, nonlinearly. Such factors as the effect of the various environmental factors on the way populations develop could now be calculated.
Verhulst's equation has significance that extends beyond the quantitative measure of populations:
Verhulst's modified equation has a host of applications. It has been pressed into service by entomologists to compute the effect of pests in orchards and by geneticists to gauge the change in the frequency of certain genes in a population. It has] been applied to the way a rumor spreads. At first a rumor will expand exponentially until nearly everyone has encountered it. Then the rate will drop off quickly as more and more people say "I heard that one." Verhulst's equation also applies to theories of learning. What is learned now is related to the amount of information learned previously. Learning first increases, but after some time the learner becomes saturated so that more effort brings only minimal results (Briggs and Peat 1989, 56- 57).
Rumor, gossip, learning, narratives, as well as conspiracies are iterative phenomena, recurrent events that move through populations as part of the social dynamic of cultural groups. The rapid rise and spread of conspiracy theories around the death of Diana Spencer is an example of the continuous feedback that chaotic behaviors produce in living cultures.
Feedback, or iteration, using the output of one function as the input of another, continually "reabsorbs or enfolds what has come before" (66) indicates the presence of chaos. This is not the chaos of randomness and disorder. Instead, it is the chaos found in nonlinear dynamics, more commonly known as chaos theory. There are two distinct streams of chaos theory--the strange attractor and the order out of chaos branches. The first emphasizes the hidden order that exists within seemingly random patterns. It separates the word chaos from its connotations of randomness and Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 2
reveals the deep structures of encoded order that exist within chaotic systems.
The second branch investigates the spontaneous self-organization of systems that emerge "far from equilibrium". Commonly called dissipative structures, these systems are able to maintain their identity by remaining open to the flux of their environments. Since the emergence of chaos theory in the mid-nineteen eighties, more and more links have been made between abstract sciences and physical systems. Culture is one of those systems. Culture can be viewed as a complex organic or living system, once we recognize the prevalence of chaotic behavior in physical and cultural systems. Culture can be modeled as a living system that exhibits the characteristics of chaotic behavior: nonlinearity, complex forms, recursive symmetries between scale levels, sensitivity to initial conditions and feedback mechanisms (Hayles:11-14, 1990).
Nonlinear modeling of culture is achieved in the introduction of James G. Miller's living systems theory (1978, 1990) which defines all living entities as complexly structured open systems. Miller identifies eight levels of increasing complexity as living systems: cells, organs, organisms, groups, organizations, communities, societies, and supranational systems (1990). When we consider social systems accordingly, the interaction of the physical and the cultural becomes an essential element in understanding complex phenomena. A system does not exist in total isolation. Instead, a living system has boundaries that are permeable, which allows the system to import the energy essential to maintain itself.
Energy in a living system comes in the form of matter or information. Information energizes the social system, allowing it to survive while, at the same time, permitting exchanges with other systems. Informational input makes it possible for a system to carry out essential activities such as production, reproduction and the maintenance of its structure. "Information input from the environment makes it possible for systems to orient themselves in space-time, to react and adapt to changing circumstances, to find food and possible for systems to orient themselves in space-time, to react and adapt to changing circumstances, to find food and mates, and to receive feedback about the results of their actions" (1990:160).
Systems may be closed or open. Open systems are characterized by permeable boundaries that permit continuous interactions with their environments. This allows open systems to maintain their boundaries. "The family... is an open system with members frequently entering and leaving the system whenever someone goes to work or school. Information from the environment enters the system whenever someone turns on a television set, a radio, reads a newspaper, or answers or uses the telephone" (Fisher 1978: 200). Living systems are characterized by openness, nonlinearity and interdependence. A culture, community or group is a living system that maintains its boundaries through information, which is passed along by its members. This information does more than simply transmit social data. It maintains and strengthens social relationships.
However, there are degrees of openness in a system, and higher level living systems invoke closure, or establish patterns to eliminate uncertainty. Simply put, people use information to reduce uncertainty. Once zero uncertainty is obtained there are no other alternatives that one need choose from. This results in order, rules, regulations, or constraints on the system. Rank orders result, hierarchies are established, institutions form and take power. Worldviews emerge.
Alan Dundes has shown that folklore can be used as source material for the examination of the worldviews of different cultures. Worldview is the patterned cognitive sets by "which people perceive, consciously or Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 2
unconsciously, relationships between self, others, cosmos, and the day-to- day living of life" (Dundes 1980:69). Such genres as myths, legends, folk tales, folk belief, proverbial expressions or even items of folk speech are reflective of these unconscious, unstated values that cultures make as matters of course.
What is left out is the presence of conflict. Although order is established in a system, the closure can be challenged by alternate views. Accordingly, worldviews are not universal. They are symbolic representations of global concerns that have been locally manifested by specific cultures. Challenges to established worldviews are seen as threats to order and met with resistance and sometimes with violence. There are sanctions for daring to challenging a system's conventions and traditions and beliefs. These sanctions are often official and carried out by the formal institutions of power, but there can be unofficial sanctions, carried out by other members with which one has social interaction.
Chaotic behavior occurs on both the physical and living levels. Patterns within apparently randomly generated numbers, chemical processes or geological phenomena are chaotic. This suggests that culture is a living system that exhibits chaotic behavior. Conspiracy theories pass on social information while simulataneously creating, maintaining and strengthening social relationships. The problem is that the information being distributed is officially frowned upon.
Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 2 :: Page 1 :: Page 2 :: Page 3 :: Page 4 :: Page 5 :: Page 6 Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 3
New Directions in Folklore 2 (formerly the Impromptu Journal) January 1998 Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 2 :: Page 1 :: Page 2 :: Page 3 :: Page 4 :: Page 5 :: Page 6
Consider the Source (Page 3)
Tyrone Yarbrough, Ph.D.
III. Conspiracies
The following are brief examples of some topics that have generated conspiracy theories that I have come across during my research:
Rex 84
During the Reagan administration, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency drafted legislation that, in the event of a national emergency, would suspend the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, eliminate private property, and the detainment of citizens to one of twenty-three concentration camps. Code named Rex 84, its stated purpose was the apprehension and detainment of illegal aliens; its implications meant the implementation of martial law. Twenty-three sites detention facilities were authorized under Rex 84 in the United States.
AIDS
June 9, 1969. Dr. Donald MacArthur, the Department of Defense's Deputy Director for Research and Technology, appeared before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on DOD appropriations. Dr. MacArthur requested funding for Chemical-Biological warfare programs, and spoke about Synthetic Biological Agents: "Molecular biology is a field that is advancing very rapidly, and eminent biologists believe that within a period of five to ten years it would be possible to produce a synthetic biological agent that does not naturally exist and for which no natural immunity could have been required (quoted in Keith, 1993:241). MacArthur went on to predict that within that same five to ten years, it the creation of a new synthetic infective microorganism "which would differ in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organisms" (Vankin and Whalen 1995:295). The difference would be that it would destroy the human immune system.
When asked by Representative Robert L.F. Sikes if the U.S. government were already doing such research, MacArthur responded in the negative. When Sikes asked if this was due to lack of interest or lack of money, MacArthur replied, "Certainly not lack of interest" (Krupney: 241).
His requested for funding was granted. The first cases of AIDS appeared in Africa in 1977 and 1978.
Cannabis
Cannabis, or hemp, is a plant that was grown and cultivated in the United States for many purposes. Its fiber is a source of linen and cloth. It was used to make rope. Its medicinal uses include bronchial dilation, relief from pain and migraine headaches, and glaucoma treatment. It is a hallucinogen. Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 3
It is also a fine source of high quality acid-free paper. Environmentally, it is a better method of production because it is non-polluting and it takes one acre to produce hemp paper. It takes four and a half acres to make paper from wood pulp. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp and the Declaration of Independence is written on Dutch hemp paper. Ninety percent of the world's paper was manufactured from hemp. However, it was a labor intensive crop, so with the advent of industrialization, wood pulp replaced hemp as a source of paper.
In the mid-nineteen thirties a device was invented that made hemp cheaper to produce. The newspaper owner and industrialist William Randolph Hearst had enormous holdings in paper mills. Cheap hemp would have sent him into bankruptcy. It was at this time that stories of the harmful effects of marijuana began to appear in the newspapers, Hearst's newspapers.
Concurrently, The DuPont family, who held the patent for the wood pulping process, developed rayon and nylon, synthetic fibers, which were in direct competition with natural hemp. Andrew Mellon, chairman of the Mellon Bank and the main financial backer of the DuPonts, also happened to be Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He appointed Harry J. Anslinger Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslinger testified before Congress about the dangers of cannabis, citing it as a violence inducing killer weed that would turn innocent young men into ax-murderers, push virginal young white girls into sexual relations with "Negroes", and drive all to commit suicide. Anslinger read most of his testimony from Hearst papers. He was also married to Andrew Mellon's niece.
The reefer madness scare of the nineteen thirties ignited a moral panic, turned public opinion against the safe use of cannabis and convinced Congress to pass the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937, effectively banning cannabis for all uses.
Medical Experimentation
1931. The Rockefeller Institute deliberately infected several Puerto Rican citizens with cancer. Thirteen died. Dr. Cornelius Rhoades, the chief pathologist for the study, was later placed in charge of two chemical warfare projects in the nineteen forties, and was given a seat on the Atomic Energy Commission. He was also awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States government. When asked about the reasons for the cancer study, he said: "The Porto Ricans (sic) are the dirtiest, laziest, most degenerate and thievish race of men ever to inhabit this sphere... I have done my best to further the process of extermination by killing off eight and transplanting cancer into several more... All physicians take delight in the abuse and torture of the unfortunate subjects" (Vankin and Whalen:297)
1932-1972. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was conducted. Three hundred ninety-nine Black men suffering from the disease were invited to participate in the study at Tuskegee Institute's hospital. They were told that they had "bad blood" and were led to believe that they would receive medical treatment. The study was conducted by the Public Health Service, the forerunner of the Centers for Disease Control. The purpose of the study was to observe the course of the disease over time. Penicillin was developed as a treatment for syphilis while study was on-going. The men were not informed. Treatment was withheld.
1950. A U.S. Naval minesweeper sprayed a rare bacteria called serratia over the city of San Francisco. Eleven people were hospitalized; one died. The family of the victim filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, which found that three hundred open air germ tests were held between 1950 and 1969. Toxins had been released into the New York Subway system and the Pentagon air-conditioning system. Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 3
During World War Two, a Japanese military doctor named Shiro Ishii conducted experiments on prisoners. The Ishii Corps initially ran their tests on Koreans, Russians and Chinese POWS. When the U.S. entered the war, Americans, British and Australians were used. These men were sprayed with unknown substances, probed anally with glass rods and injected with serum. Those that died were dissected and autopsied.
The prisoners were infected with diseases such as anthrax, plague, botulism, meningitis, tetanus, and tuberculosis. They were forced to run until they collapsed from exhaustion. Some were forced to stand naked in weather reaching forty degrees below zero. The Ishii Corps developed toxins for use in germ warfare. The Japanese government was one of two that had abstained from signing the 1925 Geneva Convention treaty banning the use of biological weapons. Thousands were infected with the results of the Ishii Corps's research, including several Chinese cities.
After the defeat of Japan, the U.S. War Department and General Douglas MacArthur made a deal with Ishii. In exchange for his human experimentation files, Ishii and the other scientists would receive immunity prosecution for war crimes.
The United States was the other nation to abstain from the Geneva Convention treaty.
Assassinations
On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley, Jr. fired six shots at Ronald Reagan. The sixth shot ricocheted of the bulletproof presidential limo and struck Reagan. Had Reagan suffered a direct hit, he would have died because Hinckley was using explosive bullets. Had Reagan died, George Bush would have ascended to the Presidency.
John Hinckley, Jr. was under a psychiatrist's care and had been prescribed psychoactive drugs. He had reportedly stalked Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. He had previously been arrested in Nashville when three handguns were found in his luggage. Although he had transported weapons across state lines to a city to be visited by Jimmy Carter, who was still president at the time, he was fined and released after five hours in custody.
An interesting fact went uncommented on in the mainstream press at the time, and even to this day. The Bush and Hinckley families were long time friends. George Bush and John Hinckley, Sr. met in Texas during the nineteen sixties. They were both in the oil business. On the date of the attempted assassination, John Hinckley's older brother, Scott had a dinner date with George Bush's son, Neil.
George Bush had a long list of membership's in secret societies, and had lengthy connections to the "Eastern Establishment", and was head of the C.I.A. The C.I.A. has admitted conducting mind control experiments, known as MK-ULTRA. < Psychoactive drugs were used on mind controlled assassins.
IV. Emergence
After the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963, an interesting item began to circulate orally and in print media. Certain correspondences between Kennedy and another murdered president were found:
Lincoln was elected president in 1860, Kennedy in 1960. Their names both consist of seven letters. Lincoln had a secretary named Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 3
Kennedy and Kennedy had one named Lincoln. Lincoln and Kennedy were assassinated by John Wilkes Booth and (allegedly) Lee Harvey Oswald, respectively, men who went by three names and who advocated unpopular political positions. Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and fled to a warehouse; Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a theater" (Paulos 1995: 51).
Mathematician John Allen Paulos used a version of this item in A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper to demonstrate his general thesis; that the mathematical ignorance of the general public contributes to general social ignorance and gullibility on a variety of subjects. Paulos applies mathematical knowledge to the ways that information is conveyed in newspapers and provides a typical example of the common skepticism that the very idea of conspiracy engenders:
There are so many ways in which events, organizations, and we ourselves may be linked that it's almost impossible to believe in the significance of all of them. Yet many do, sometimes arguing that the probability of this or that coincidence is so low that it must mean something. Such people fail to realize that though it is unlikely that any particular sequence of events specified beforehand will occur, there is a high probability that some remarkable sequence will be observed subsequently. This is especially so when is inundated with so much decontextualized information (49-50).
For Paulos, conspiracy theories are outside the bounds of acceptable thought and are evidence of irrational, unsophisticated minds. This is understandable. For a mathematician, belief in conspiracy must represent the antithesis of scientific thought. Instead of generating and validating hypotheses, conspiracy theorists haphazardly string together coincidence, clumsily arriving at preconceived notions: "In the throes of obsession, the conspiracy theorist searches not for arbitrary coincidences but only for those that support his beliefs--and because of the myriad connections among items in the paper, he is almost always successful" (50).
He is not alone in this attitude. There is an almost universal scorn for conspiracy theories and their advocates, which accounts for the involuntary charge of paranoia when the very idea is raised. This automatic rejection extends itself to scholarship. Jeffrey Bales observes that "[v]ery few notions generate as much intellectual resistance, hostility, and derision within academic circles as a belief in the historical importance or efficacy of political conspiracies" (1). And by large, conspiracy theories are political.
The problem with this criticism is that it violates the very logic of scientific and scholarly inquiry. The bias against conspiracy leads one to present assertion rather than proof. It utilizes ad hominem argument rather than falsifying a specific theory. In fact, because there is such a social taboo against conspiracy theories, they are suppressed. This makes it impossible to test any theory, regardless of its source.
It is obvious that Paulos never bothered to speak to anyone who believed in a specific conspiracy. In fact, were we to re-examine his example, the synchrony between Lincoln and Kennedy, we would be hard pressed to understand how this particular item disproves the existence of conspiracies. Paulos lists a number of common incidents in the lives of two slain American presidents, but these are coincidences, not a theory that explains why they were murdered. Where's the conspiracy? What is the conspiracy? Who is behind it? What is the significance connecting incidents that occurred over a one hundred year period? More important, where is the narrative?
Paulos does not provide one. What he does present is a series of short Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 3
nonnarrative statements. When they are passed on in face-to-face interactions then linked to some explanation, they meet Gordon Allport's and Leo Postman's definition of rumor: "a specific proposition for belief, passed along from person to person, usually by word of mouth, without secure standards of evidence being present" (cited in Turner,1993: 4). Paulos's logical rationalism demands secure standards of evidence, and he presumes that the notion of conspiracy is wrong on its face, and so he does not bother to examine how conspiracy theories are researched or generated. He just asserts that it is done through casual glances through newspapers and the stringing together of coincidences to support a predetermined position. A true conspiracy theory might allege that a secret society was behind both assassinations. Their purpose would be to seize control of the United States government or the world (which, in some minds, means the same thing). Said secret society would be opposed to "our" way of life. As such, they would be alien or foreign (which is not always the same thing). They would be a different religion, have values others than those "we" value. They are ruthless, corrupt, depraved. They are almost omniscient in their knowledge of events, omnipotent in their ability to manipulate them, almost omnipresent in human history and human affairs.
Although Paulos does not present a conspiracy theory, to be fair, the idea is implicit in the Lincoln-Kennedy synchrony. Establishing connections between two martyred presidents suggests that there is some underlying significance to them. However, the mere existence of this item does not prove that conspiracy theories are, a priori, false. It is interesting to note that Paulos refers to Oswald parenthetically as Kennedy's alleged assassin. It is an expression of doubt that, as opinion polls consistently show, he shares with the majority of Americans.
Still, the conclusion that Paulos reached is obvious. Only kooks and paranoids could possibly believe in conspiracies. Everyone knows, for example, that Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth. That's what our history books say. And everyone knows that Booth had made an earlier attempt to kidnap Lincoln. And everyone knows that Booth had taken a shot at Lincoln during that attempt. And that eight other men were charged and tried with conspiring to kill Lincoln. And, of course, everyone knows that four of these co-conspirators were hung for their part in the assassination.
In fact, given the atrocious manner in which history is taught in this country, it is possible that most everyone does not know these details of the Lincoln assassination. What is most frightening is that the same can be said about any historical occurrence. Historical ignorance is much greater than the mathematical ignorance Paulos decries.
Bales notes that the few scholars who seriously examine conspiracy as a subject find it necessary to speak cautiously, to qualify and justify their interest and to make it clear that they don't believe in conspiracy theories generally. As a result, most academic studies tend to adhere to a presumption against conspiracy.
Richard Hofstadter's "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" set the standard for modern academic analyses of conspiracy theories which, as we have seen, is consistently and decidedly anti-conspiratorial. What is often overlooked by those who casually invoke Hofstadter is that he is analyzing a specific style of American political thought, not the truth or falsity of conspiracy theories. Hofstadter takes care to distinguish between what he termed the paranoid style and clinical paranoia: "... the clinical paranoid sees the hostile and conspiratorial world in which he feels himself to be living as directed specifically against him; whereas the spokesman of the paranoid style finds it directed against a nation, a culture, a way of life whose fate affects not himself alone but millions of others" (4). Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 3
There certainly are conspiracy theories that are preposterous, nonsensical, wrong, even dangerous. This does not justify a blanket dismissal of the entire phenomenon. In fact, it is necessary to distinguish between passive and active bearers of conspiracy theories. The former could be anyone who has heard one and passes it one, either as factual or for entertainment. The latter are engaged in researching and uncovering conspiracies. These are the ones who are labeled conspiracy theorists. Paulos's depiction of conspiracy theorists as obsessed, irrational, uninformed kooks who get most of their information from newspapers and generate predetermined theories is a caricature that is easily dispelled by the simplest ethnographic investigation. Whether one agrees or disagrees with them, whether one likes them or not, conspiracy theorists tend to follow the rules of empirical logic, not depart from them. Many of them conduct research, interview informants, search historical archives, explore databases, read histories and scholarly studies as well as incalculable numbers of newspapers and magazines. They just reach conclusions that are socially unacceptable.
John Whalen, a free-lance journalist became fascinated with the men and women who researched conspiracies. Consequently, he became interested in conspiracies and in the people labeled conspiracy theorists. Contrary to the stereotype, he found them to be "... a group of citizens trying to read between the lines, seeking out alternate sources of information, basically doing what informed citizens are supposed to do" (1997:2). After two years researching conspiracy theories Jonathan Vankin came to distrust the easy caricature of conspiracy researchers as simple minded paranoids. Instead of dogmatic clods he found, "with almost no exceptions", highly intelligent, surprisingly normal people free of mental pathology (1991:257-259).
People who come to believe in conspiracies are not "paranoids" either clinically or as the term is popularly used. They are people who led quiet, ordinary lives who had an experience that "turned" them. It could have been an assassination, a plane crash, the sighting of an UFO, or the threat of a foreign power imposing its ideology on the world. Or it could be simply discovering how the world really works. This is well-known occurrence, like solving an equation or understanding a joke. There is a sudden shift, a jump from one level to another, like a light switch being turned on. An abrupt, discontinuous transition from one state of understanding to another occurs-- we "get it".
This is commonly referred to as a conversion experience. One of the features that mark this is suddenness of onset, a class of phenomena that includes abrupt changes in religion, politics, ideology or personality. Suddenness of onset shares several of the preconditions necessary to bring about a conversion:
(a) a state of "preparedness," in which the individual's system of core personal constructs (ways of construing and responding to events) are unstable, either because they are highly fluid or overly rigid but fragile; (b) a motivation (not necessarily conscious) to change, or at least a positive attitude toward change; (c) an immediate environment, sometimes including a specific triggering event, that is conducive to change; and (d) an ideology that helps legitimize the change, and that lends social support for its maintenance. (Averill 1985:102-103).
This is part of the power of conspiracy theories. They can inspire believers with an almost evangelical zeal. Conspiracy theories clarify all. They are the motive force in history, provide explanations for traumatic events. They divide the world into good and evil, simplify events, identify those responsible and alert the unsuspecting masses to danger, providing a call to arms or a come to Jesus summons. The "They" of conspiracy theories are Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 3
Evil Incarnate and failure to oppose them can result in the collapse of all that one holds dear. And when the latter happens, it happens because belief in conspiracies are arrived at through some experience. Conspiracies are affecting, they have emotional content and influence. They are felt and that affect is disturbing. Encountering a conspiracy theory and examining it in depth draws you into a different world, one that is no longer safe, warm, closed and secure. The narrative logic of conspiracy theories disrupt conventional wisdom, for good and for ill.
Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 2 :: Page 1 :: Page 2 :: Page 3 :: Page 4 :: Page 5 :: Page 6 Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 4
New Directions in Folklore 2 (formerly the Impromptu Journal) January 1998 Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 2 :: Page 1 :: Page 2 :: Page 3 :: Page 4 :: Page 5 :: Page 6
Consider the Source (Page 4)
Tyrone Yarbrough, Ph.D.
V. Ethos
There is a surface resemblance between rumor and legend, a resemblance that folklorists have recognized, although they have had trouble with the distinctions between the two as analytic categories. This is due to the interdisciplinary nature of Folklore Studies. The disciplinary boundaries of fields such as social psychology tend to be closed, while folklore tends to maintain more permeable boundaries. For example, Patrick Mullen and Patricia Turner have each cited Allport's and Postman's definition in their work. Neither is able to let the definition go unchallenged. Postman and Allport are able to construct a denotative definition that conforms to the standards of social psychology. Mullen and Turner recognize the disciplinary constraints that limit the definition from a folkloristic perspective.
In I Heard it Through the Grapevine (1993) Patricia Turner remarks on "the subtle nuances that distinguish" rumor from legend, while at the same time, noting how both forms transmit the specific body of African-American folk belief she examines. An account of the origins of AIDS in the Black community can be conveyed in a "brief, oral, nonnarrative statement based on hearsay", or in "a narrative account set in the recent past and containing traditional motifs" told as true (4). This is especially vexing for some folklorists since the basis of the distinction between myths, legends and folktales has been whether or not they are believed to be true. Myths and legends are meant to be believed. Folktales are known to be fiction. Legends, as folklorists define them, are narratives set in the recent past, told as true. The Norwegian folklorist Reidar Christiansen equates legend with history, since they are intended to be factual and are set in the recent past.
Rumor, on the other hand, is commonly regarded as unreliable and subject to distortion. Rumor is, therefore unofficial discourse, nontraditional, without institutional sanction. The audience for folktales and legends are aware that one form is fiction and the other is factual. Rumors are erroneous; its tellers and audiences believe what is obviously false to be true.
However, contemporary, or urban, legends are regarded in the same way as rumors. When initially formed, they contain nontraditional elements; they can be short; they are told as true; they are set in the recent past. And once the audience becomes familiar with them, they can even be recounted briefly: "Did you hear about the Kentucky Fried Rat?" "The mouse in the Coke Bottle?" "The Vanishing Hitchhiker?" Initially, they are believed since they are transmitted face to face through the personal social network of family, friends and acquaintances. As they become more widely circulated and better known, they are received more doubtfully.
Mullen points out that contemporary legends are composed of verbal expressions that form a basic core of the narrative. These expressions are identified as beliefs, statements, legend motifs and memorates, and can Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 4
apply to rumor as well. The focus on the structural features that distinguish rumor from legend is a distraction, since they share overlapping characteristics, but may vary in context, function, style as well as structure (96). Although rumors and legend are distinct phenomena, they are, at times, dependent forms. Perhaps it is best to see the relationship between rumor and legend as an aggregate process. Rumor does not have to cluster around a legend in order for one to originate; legend is not necessary for the formation of rumor. However, it can occur. A rumor can form the basis of a legend and a legend can arise out of folk belief.
The best demonstration of this point can be found in traditional folklore genres. Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature indexes the smallest elements in a tale that persist in tradition. The numbering system from Francis James Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads are used to identify folksongs. Thompson lists Motif V361 as "Christian child killed to furnish blood for Jewish rite." Child Number155 is the ballad "Hugh of Lincoln." It is probably best known among high school graduates in the English speaking world as Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Prioress's Tale", but it is also found in Christopher Marlowe's "The Jew of Malta." All are based on the legend of Hugh of Lincoln (c.1246-1255), an English child supposedly tortured and murdered by Jews in Lincoln. Miraculous accounts clustered around this figure, such as his identification of his murderers from beyond the grave.
This Christian narrative is clearly linked to the folk belief known as the blood libel, which portrays Jews as child killers. This idea served to establish Jews as distinct from Christian. It presents them as Other, and in doing so it makes Judaism a depraved, corrupt, alternate practice rather than the antecedent from which Christianity developed. It also served to justify the oppression and murder of Jews. After all, if Jews will kill children, they will do anything.
The blood libel has been a component of many rumors, legends and folk belief, but these components do not function as a whole. It is possible to have read Chaucer and not recognize the influence the blood libel had in the construction of the tale. It as an aggregate of separate components (rumor, legend, belief), as are certain conspiracy theories.
The blood libel continues to have motive power. In May, 1969 a rumor swept the city of Orleans in France that women's clothing shops and boutiques were engaging in white-slave trafficking. French women were being drugged in the fitting rooms, then held prisoner, transported underground to the Loire river, where they were taken by submarine to be carried overseas to serve in brothels. By May twentienth, it was rumored that twenty-eight young women had disappeared from Orleans. There were several constituent elements that went into the formation of this rumor. The anti-Semitic notion that Jews engaged in ritual murder was one of the most prominent features (Watzlawick 1979: 77-79).
The Orleans rumor was a contemporary manifestation of the anti-Semiticism undoubtedly influenced by the folk belief of the blood libel. It is another reason why conspiracy theories are generally regarded with revulsion. Many of them express repugnant beliefs such as anti-Semitism. Consequently, conspiracy theories are seen as dangerous because of this underlying ideology. The charges made by militia movements that the United States is under the control of a Zionist Occupation Government and the idea found among extreme fundamentalist Christians that there is a plot by the New World Order to overthrow the United States government and, by extension, Christendom comes out of this idea. Similarly, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, purportedly an outline of the strategy for world domination by international Jewry, still has currency among anti-Semitic groups today, Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 4
although it has been revealed to be a fraud as early as 1921 (79). Yet the book continues to be sold and purchased at conventions held by the militia movements and others.
As Watzlawick states in his discussion of Orleans, it is the existence of such ideas that matters, not the truth of them. And, as Turner has demonstrated, ideas can be conveyed by a variety of forms. In this case, rumor, legend, and folk beliefs served as form of ritual condensation. Certain ideas are projected onto the external world, used to explain why things are and then used to justify actions taken in defense. In the case of the Orleans rumor, the presence of anti-Semiticism drew attention to the story, which helped to disprove it. Similar cases have resulted in pogroms.
However, as has been said before, conspiracy theories exist at all levels of society. They are a traditional response. As Hofstadter wrote:
In the history of the United States, one finds it, for example, in the anti-Masonic movement, nativist and anti-Catholic movement, in certain spokesmen for abolitionism who regarded the United States as being in the grip of a slaveholders' conspiracy, in many writers alarmed by Mormonism, in some Greenback and Populist writers who constructed a great conspiracy of international bankers, in the exposure of a munitions makers' conspiracy of the First World War, in the popular left-wing press, in the contemporary American right- wing, and on both sides of the race controversy today, among White Citizens Councils and Black Muslims (9)
American anti-Communism, for example, led to its share of conspiratorial scenarios that many in this country accepted without question. The anti-Masonic movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are another example.
Illuminati panics occurred throughout Europe during this period. The Scottish scientist John Robison wrote a fairly self-explanatory tract Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies in 1797. In it he alleges that social upheavals of the time (such as the French Revolution) could be traced to secret societies, particularly the Order of the Illuminati. Founded by a Bavarian university professor, Adam Weishaupt, the Illuminati were a branch of the Freemasons, comprised of like minded select members of the Masonic leadership. Weishaupt was an intellectual who held both progressive and mystical ideas, which called for replacing monarchies and authoritarian states with democracies. Weishaupt did not manage to institute a revolution, although he did succeed in taking over the leadership ranks of the Masonic lodges in Europe.
The Illuminati provided a site for the free exchange of radical ideas, which led the Bavarian government to close it down once those ideas became known. According to Robinson, the Illuminati went underground to pursue its anti-Christian, anti-property, licentious schemes.
In the pre-Revolutionary War United States, the idea of conspiracy was a consistent theme. Robinson's book created a hysteria in the post- Revolutionary War period among the clergy and Federalists, who were concerned about the spread of democracy. The secrecy of Masonic practices led many to believe that they were actively plotting to overthrow the government consistently cropped up in anti-Masonic political activities. The Masons were seen as the source of all evil and misfortune. The belief in an inhuman, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent clandestine organization society, determined to overthrow a peaceful, God fearing society is at the root of ZOG and New World Order conspiracies.
Reidar Christiansen equated legend with history, noting that the "implicit Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 4
belief in the constant interference in everyday life by non-human powers has ceased to play a decisive part" in contemporary worldview (1964:xx). This observation connects legend to history, a well as to rumor, belief and worldview. Worldview, is the patterned cognitive sets by "which people perceive, consciously or unconsciously, relationships between self, others, cosmos, and the day-to-day living of life" (Dundes 1980:69). The genres we have mentioned are reflective of unconscious, unstated values. Which leads us to ask, what values are conspiracy theories reflecting?
Belief studies in folklore usually center around a Western sacred/secular division. However, belief is a characteristic of subjects other than religion: history, morality, politics, ethics, law, medicine, social as well as religious belief can be likened to ideology: This term is regarded as a pejorative (as is conspiracy), however this is an intentional, political distortion of the word's original meaning. Ideology, as originally coined by Antoine Destutt de Tracy, meant the study of ideas. This study brought Destutt to a shocking conclusion: ideas based on experience were valid. Those based on convention, such as religion or state authority, were not. Among those who were disturbed by the democratic implications of Destutt's theories were the church and Napoleon Bonaparte, who denounced ideology as false or dogmatic beliefs. "When the word ideology is used by conservatives or reactionaries, it implies, ...that people who express opposition to established authority are ideologues--troublemakers and revolutionaries who hold dangerous and false ideas. Their ideas are then put down as false and mere expression of group self-interest." (Kohl 1992:166)
For Karl Marx and Friederich Engels ideology was the expression of the ideas of the dominant class in a society. As such, ideology was representative of the values of those who control society, a.k.a. the elite, the insiders, they, them. Seen this way, ideology is the result of an historical process arising out of specific economic relationships and political structures, not universal truths.
This redefinition of ideology is limited in the same way that Napoleon's was limited. Both regard ideology as the province of those they oppose. And Marx' and Engles's redefinition has an additional flaw. It analyzes what Parkin called the dominant meaning system. Parkin says that there are three meaning systems in western industrial societies: dominant, subordinate or radical. Dominant meaning systems support the social structure; subordinate meaning systems accept the dominant structure, but demand a place within it for specific groups; the social structure is rejected by radical meaning systems, which propose an alternative and oppositional system to replace it.
With the advent of mass media, ideas could be circulated in new and different ways, which meant that new and different readings could be given to them. Texts can be open, (have multiple readings available) or closed (have one preferred reading). According to scholars such as Eco, Parkin, Hall and Morley, mass media "texts"are closed and so can be responded to or "read" in three ways. Hall and Morley, following Parkin's theory, say that alternate readings arise according to the social positions or cultural experiences of the audience, which given the diversity of mass media audiences, differs from that of the author. These readings can be dominant hegemonic, negotiated or oppositional. (O'Sullivan, et al. 1-2; 174-175; 238- 240: 1994).
Without belaboring the point, ideas other than those sanctioned by a society's elite existed. Elites could determine what ideas would and would not be officially accepted and uttered, but they could not eliminate other ideas. Folk groups no doubt held ideas that adhered to the dominant meaning system, but they also held subordinate and radical ones, too. Power is one example; conspiracy seems to be another. Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 4
I have tried to establish that, rather than being anomalous delusions of paranoid individuals, conspiracy theories are in fact, a widespread, traditional response to historical, social and political occurrences. As such, they give us insight into folk conceptions of power. They are manifestations of political philosophies, and should not be dismissed.
As conceptions of power, the fact that conspiratorial behavior is a feature of politics is essential to keep in mind, since conspiracies do in fact happen. To disregard them automatically serves only to mask an essential and regular feature of the nation state, whether they be repressive or open. When one considers the vast networks that form once conspiracy theories are believed, the need for more in-depth knowledge of the phenomenon is obvious. The bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, or the Aum Shinri Kyo gas attack in Tokyo are examples of how a small effect can lead to a dramatic event.
Despite the general contempt with which conspiratorial thinking is met, conspiracy theories are a frequent, widespread, and traditional phenomena which, given the prevalent impact of electronic media, seem more pervasive than ever. They form the basis of television shows and movies, they are the subject of serious discussion on the worldwide web. Conventions are held on everything from UFOs to the true identity of Jack the Ripper, from the assassination of John Kennedy to the proof of the existences of shadow governments headed by the Elders of Zion, the Freemasons, the Illuminati or the Trilateral Commission.
The problem is that what seems to be nonsense to one is perfectly logical to another. And as we have seen in Folklore Studies issues of belief have nothing to do with the presumed sophistication of believers. Dismissing conspiracy theories out of hand ignores the wide range of responses that accompany conspiratorial thinking, and it conceals a central flaw as well. Conspiracies happen. Conspiracy is a criminal act which carries criminal penalties in many societies. If the idea of conspiracy is silly, why criminalize it? Failed conspiracies have often been documented historically. If failed conspiracies have occurred, why is it unthinkable to believe that successful ones have occurred ?
Part of the answer lies in Christiansen's observation about the addition of skepticism to contemporary worldview, which raises the subject of ethos, or source credibility. In rhetoric, ethos was a means of persuasion. For Aristotle, ethos was based on the character of the speaker. An ethical speaker had certain traits that made him a reliable source. An ethical source was a man of good character, possessed of wisdom and goodwill. Over time, the concept shifted from the character of the source to the perception of the receiver. An ethical source is now dependent on how an audience receives the argument. This the ethos of a persuasive argument polysemic; it is capable of having multiple meanings and, therefore, having variable effects on audiences.
This shift has been observed in folklore, especially in genres such as legend, now differentiated as contemporary legend, and also in folk belief, which has not been explicitly distinguished as a modern form. The point is that the credibility of these forms, and of rumor and conspiracy theories, does not have to be judged according to their source, but by their varied reception.
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New Directions in Folklore 2 (formerly the Impromptu Journal) January 1998 Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 2 :: Page 1 :: Page 2 :: Page 3 :: Page 4 :: Page 5 :: Page 6
Consider the Source (Page 5)
Tyrone Yarbrough, Ph.D.
VI.Belief
Although he clearly rejects the specific conspiracies cited as historical examples, as an American historian, Hofstader was concerned with demonstrating the existence of the paranoid style and its frequent reappearance in political movements in this country. His use of the term is intentionally pejorative since "the paranoid style has a greater affinity for bad causes than good" (5). This explains why Hofstadter locates the paranoid style in minority movements, rather than the mainstream of American political thought. He is unable to see this style as representative of a norm. His list of what he calls minority political movements is so extensive that it begs the question: who is left in the mainstream, once he has presented his short list of the paranoid style? Hofstadter, like many others, is under the influence of American exceptionalism, the peculiar form of nationalistic ethnocentricism that infects much of American political thought. It represents America as a nation unique and apart. It is a country that has been the fairest, most just, most open, most progressive in history. It sees Americans (read:white) as a chosen people, and their ascension as preordained, inevitable. According to American exceptionalism, there is the only civil, rational discourse of two party democracy, not conflict. It certainly does not see the politics of this exceptional country as being capable of anything as tawdry as clandestine schemes, social injustice, imperialism or conspiracy.
Consequently, the anti-conspiratorial bias, whether said theory is the most far fetched of narratives or the simple assumption that conspiracy is a regular feature of political statecraft, obscures our view of how power is used. In "Popper Revisited, or What Is Wrong With Conspiracy Theories?" (1995) Charles Pigden challenges the conventional wisdom that conspiracy theories are wrong because"things just don't work that way". Taking a cue from Karl Popper's denunciation of "the conspiracy theory of society" in The Open Society and Its Enemies, Pigden examines the reasoning behind the blanket rejection of this idea.
To the contrary, Pigden argues that conspiracy is a reasonable explanation for many social and historical events, and that it is often appropriate to conclude that they have occurred. Using several historical examples, Pigden shows that conspiracies have happened, then asks why the idea that conspiracy is a feature of politics has become such a ridiculed notion. While he does not claim that conspiracy explains everything, he regards the argument that they never happen as equally suspect.
Popper defined the conspiracy theory of society as follows: "It is the view that an explanation of a social phenomenon consists in the discovery of the men or groups who are interested in the occurrence of this phenomenon (sometimes it is a hidden interest which has first to be revealed) and who have planned and conspired to bring it about" (quoted in Pidgen, 6). As he examines the idea closely, Pigden finds that Popper's description of conspiracy is one that no one believes. According to Popper's definition the Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 5
explanation of social events always consists of the discovery of men or groups who are interested in its occurrence; that the explanation of these events are due solely to the discovery of such groups; and that the outcome of these events are absolutely the result of the direct design of conspirators. Taking the argument to its logical conclusion, conspiracy theories cannot be true because there are examples of failed conspiracies (6-7). It is an idea which has given intellectual cover to right-wing conspirators because it asserts that conspiracies cannot be true under any circumstances.
In the end, Pigden argues that Popper's definition is false since conspiracies have often played a part in historical events, and their influence is dependent on both the historical circumstances and the power available to conspirators. After all, anyone can plot, but if they cannot implement their plans, it does not matter if they do. So, although some events are attributable to conspiracy, no one need argue that they always are in order to maintain a belief in conspiracy theories. Even if all social phenomena can't be attributed to conspiracy, it can be included as a social factor, along with the circumstances that permit men to engage in conspiracy. Pigden regards Popper's attitude toward conspiracy theories as being similar to superstition, an idea reinforced by Popper's claim that they are a secularized form of religious belief. "The idea that what goes on in the world is due to the machinations of the men in power is the secular successor to the view that events are controlled by the conspiracies of gods" (8).
Two problems present themselves in Pigden's critique. First, he uses superstition pejoratively, ironically, to defend the notion of conspiracy. If we recall Christiansen's observation that although the "implicit belief in the constant interference in everyday life by non-human powers has ceased to play a decisive part" in contemporary worldview, "traces of such belief may still color and influence the belief of individuals everywhere" (xx).
Second, he insists that Popper's definition is one that no one asserts. However, as we have seen, it is asserted explicitly and implicitly. If the logical conclusion of Popper's arguments are that conspiracy theories assert that events can always be explained in terms of successful conspiracies, then those who maintain to this day that the Illuminati are operating behind the scenes, or that the New World Order is trying to establish world dominance are arguing just as that. And Hofstadter's essential elements of conspiracy certainly follow Popper's reasoning.
Pigden is correct in arguing that the wholesale rejection of the concept of conspiracy is due to the bias that Popper and others exhibit, but he is doing a critique of dominant hegemonic readings of conspiracy. The official view in a democracy, where politics are supposedly conduct openly, is that conspiracies do not take place. Ever.
As this nation's experience with Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the current investigations of the Clinton administration demonstrate, this is far from true. Pigden is correct to be suspicious of the rejection of conspiracy theories, however, there has been a long folk tradition of defining conspiracies as Popper has done.
This does not mean that Popper was correct in providing support for the general skepticism that greets conspiracy. Curiously enough, Pigden's redefinition of conspiracy as "... my theory that it is often appropriate to cite conspiracies in the explanation of events" (9), puts him in agreement with the oppositional readings of power which support conspiracy theories, although it sometimes aligns him with people with which he would not wish to associate.
Which is precisely the point. Folk ideas can reflect dominant, subordinate or radical meaning systems, and in doing so, it becomes more and more Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 5
difficult to claim that "the folk" believe one exclusively. Folk ideas compete and overlap; they can result in good or evil. Pigden concludes that despite the moral presumption against conspiracy, it is a widespread occurrence. We all do it: "... conspiracies can be innocent or even laudable. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with covert plans or covert action or, if there is, the ends can (sometimes) justify the means" (29). Some may blanch at this morally relative notion, but to do so misses the point that Pigden is trying to get across, which is that conspiring is behavior we all can potentially engage in, given the proper circumstances and the opportunity:
Even when the conspiracies are genuinely sinister, we tend to take too lurid a view. Don't think of stage villains and ranting Richard IIIs. Don't even think of the prawn dinner in Apocalypse Now with the clear if euphemistic order to halt the colonel's mission "with extreme prejudice." That is still a bit too overblown. Think, if you like, of Nixon or (if you must have a myth) of the scene in Robocop II in which the suave executives of Omni-Consumer Products conspire to murder the mayor of Detroit. They talk in oblique terms of their surveillance ability and of just how far with the plan they are prepared to go, and the scene ends with the nicely ambiguous instruction that there cannot be any witnesses. In real life, the language of conspiracy can be as understated as that. Once you understand what conspiracies are like, you will realize that there are a lot of them about and that you may even be a conspirator yourself. Whether this is good or bad depends on the details of the conspiracy. (29)
Pigden's position permits us to work from a presumption other than that of blind skepticism. As folklorists, we see that conspiracy theories are a complex phenomena that manifest themselves in many forms across genres: from ritual to song, from narrative to belief. What is important in this approach is not the truth of a particular conspiracy theory, but the effect it has on the behavior of people. Even Hofstader noted that "[st]yle has to do with the way in which ideas are believed and advocated rather than with the truth or falsity of their content" (5).
An example from American history can demonstrate this point. Reinhard Gehlen was Adolph Hitler's chief of the Foreign Armies East, in effect the head of Nazi Intelligence as well as the most senior officer on the Russian Front. He conducted espionage against the Soviet Union, using torture and murder as interrogation techniques. on four million Russian prisoners. His methods resulted in a massive amount of information on the USSR.
By 1944, Gehlen and other high ranking members of the Nazi party realized that the Third Reich was headed for defeat. Gehlen decided to have all of the intelligence that he had gathered microfilmed, stored in steel drums and buried in the Austrian Alps. As the Allied armies approached, Gehlen made certain to surrender to the United States army. He was imprisoned as an internment camp at Salzburg. Within a month, his name was removed from all American lists of Nazi POWS and he was moved to Fort Hunt near Washington, D.C. Gehlen began to receive visits from U.S. army intelligence generals, President Truman's national security advisor and Allen Dulles, a member of the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
One year later, Gehlen had returned to Germany.
Had the United States government followed the Yalta Accord, they would have been required to turn Gehlen over to the USSR. Instead, the American government made a deal with him. Not only would Gehlen turn over his massive cache of files on the Soviet Union to the U.S., he would also serve as an intelligence source on the Russians. In other words, the United States collaborated with a known Nazi who had committed mass murder in return Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 5
for information. In doing so, the government permitted Gehlen to utilize a network of Nazi SS officers, fugitive war criminals and fascist sympathizers. In effect, they helped establish the post-war Organization of Former SS Members (Organisation der Ehemaligen SS-Angehorigen), known as Odessa. And Gehlen wasn't the only high-ranking Nazi to make such a deal. Other Nazi war criminals were used for intelligence work: Klaus Barbie, Franz Alfred Six, Emil Augsburg and Otto Skorzeny were among the hundreds of fugitives on the payroll of the U.S. government.
Nazi scientists were secretly imported into the country through a project codenamed Paperclip by the U.S. War Department. According to their own intelligence reports, approximately seventy-five percent of the German scientists were "ardent Nazis". Many had conduct experiments on prisoners in concentration camps. Truman had approved "Paperclip" on the condition that no Nazis were brought into the country. This would have eliminated scientists such as Werner von Braun, who was an SS major, and Arthur Rudolph. Each had been assessed as security risks.
The War Department solved this problem by sanitizing their reports. Paperclipped reports were rewritten, allowing many Nazi veteran entrance into the United States.
The obvious question to ask is why? Gehlen was considered a valuable asset because of the intelligence he gathered on the Soviet Union. During the post-war years, American anti-communism had reached a new pitch, and Gehlen took advantage of it. Nazis were fervent anti-communists as well and as Allen Dulles said of Gehlen, "He's on our side, and that's all that matters" (quoted in Vankin and Whalen, 305). The German scientists who were smuggled in became essential to American research in fields such rocket science. Von Braun, one of the developers of the V-2 rocket used to bomb England during the war, turned his invention into the Saturn-5 for NASA.
Gehlen's spy network, called the Org, was funded by over 200 million dollars from the U.S. government. He gained tremendous influence over American foreign policy during the Cold War. The Org submitted reports on Russian military strength, which Allen Dulles passed on without change. These reports greatly exaggerated Soviet military preparedness, once claiming that they were massing to attack West Germany by 1946 with a ten to one troop advantage over Western forces. At this time, Soviet forces were, in fact, recovering from the losses they incurred fighting the Nazis. They were miltarily underequipped and had no combat troop advantages. Additionally, Gehlen often advised the United States to launch a first strike assault against the Russians, advice they came perilously close to taking. By providing the U.S. government with erroneous information about the Soviet military buildup, Gehlen's Org helped to increase hostilities between the U.S. and the USSR, and escalate the Cold War. His intelligence reports contributed to the decision to engage in an arms race that lasted over forty years.
Finally, Gehlen's Org helped to establish the C.I.A. He managed the agency's anti-Soviet assets in Eastern Europe in the postwar era. In this position, he had incredible influence on NATO's policy regarding the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Europe. Some have estimated that Gehlen's Org was responsible for seventy percent of the information regarding these areas.
Many claim that Gehlen's true purpose was to re-establish the Third Reich. Odessa was the organization used to help high-ranking Nazis escape during the collapse of Germany. Three things were done to help accomplish this: 1) the founding of the Org from the Nazi wartime intelligence network; 2) Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 5
creating "Ratlines", which would relocate high-ranking officials to South America, Central America, Mexico, the Middle East and Indonesia and; 3) the transfer of Third Reich assets, which were used to establish front companies. Many of these companies are respectable businesses today.
The question why rears it head. Martin A. Lee supplied the following answer: "Gehlen's strategy was based on a rudimentary equation--the colder the Cold War conditions got, the more political space for Hitler's heirs to maneuver. He realized that the Org could flourish only under Cold War conditions; as an institution it was therefore committed to perpetuating the Soviet-American conflict" (37:1997).
This is the stuff of conspiracy. Those unfamiliar with these details may reject them immediately, and this is understandable. After all, we are taught that we live in a free society, that such things are not in the national character of this country. And, of course, this is the type of thing we are never taught in high school history classes. This particular narrative, however, has been written about many times, in several books of varying quality, all of which can be found in a library. There have been two biographies published on Reinhard Gehlen in this country: Gehlen, Spy of the Century by E.H. Cookridge and Gehlen: Germany's Master Spy by Charles Whiting. There are Gehlen's memoirs, which were published in 1972. Heinz Hohne and Hermann Zolling published The General was a Spy the same year. Within the last decade Christopher Simpson (Blowback,1988), Mary Ellen Reese (General Reinhard Gehlen and the CIA,1990) and Martin A. Lee (The Beast Reawakens, 1997) have all examined the Gehlen case. All corroborate a central fact. The United States government collaborated with a Nazi mass murderer because they believed that it was in their interest. In doing so, tens of thousands of Nazi officials escaped prosecution for war crimes, and many of those who were tried had their sentences reduced or commuted. Former Nazis were returned to postions of power in the West German government as the U.S. shifted from a policy of denazification to re- armament. All this was accomplished in large part with millions of U.S. tax dollars. This, in turn led to the reestablishment of fascist organizations in the post war era, one that chronically reemerges throughout the world today. However, this is not the type of information that people want to know, so they don't seek it out. It is the type of information that lays bare how nations make decisions and use power in what they conceive to be their interests. As someone once said, "Power corrupts. What the hell else is it for?"
I mentioned previously that conspiracy researchers come to their beliefs through a conversion experience. They experience an abrupt, discontinuous transition from one state of understanding to another. This experience can be frightening because it throws you into conflict . When incompatible, competing ideas are confronted, worldviews are challenged, and in some cases, destroyed.
And the destruction of a worldview can lead you to a terrifying idea. Reality is a construction. Worldviews are not universal. They are symbolic representations of global concerns that have been locally manifested by specific cultures. Challenges to established worldviews are seen as threats to order and met with resistance and sometimes with violence. There are sanctions for daring to challenging a system's conventions and traditions and beliefs. These sanctions are often official and carried out by the formal institutions of power, but there can be unofficial sanctions, carried out by other members with which one has social interaction.
Why this is so has been explained by noncontingent reward experiments. Noncontingency results when contexts are established which require one to find order where there actually is none. A task is established for a group of people in which a reward or punishment is part of the outcome. The Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 5
subjects proceed on the assumption that the outcome is contingent upon their performance. A correct response will be rewarded, an incorrect one will be punished.
The tasks are complicated, and solving them requires a great investment of mental and emotional resources on the part of those involved. There is, however, no actual connection between the subject's performance of the task and the reward or punishment received.
When informed of the true nature of the experiment, the subject's initial reaction is disbelief, that it cannot be true. The solutions that they have constructed are so elaborate that they are convinced that their solutions must be right.
As we know, it is extremely disturbing to be made aware that our worldviews are just that. They are perspectives, not universals, and there is no objective relationship between the world and how we perceive it. The cultural values that people construct are patterns used to organize and constrain the system they live in. Realizing that the world is noncontingent with our perceptions is disorienting. Our worldviews do not just become ungrounded, they are known to be so.
Real world encounters noncontingent experiences occur all the time. Information and ideas that we hold true are disproved. The most common response when people are confronted with contrary information is to reject the information and cling to the construction. In fact, the constructions will be elaborated upon, made more complex to account for the contradictory information.
I began this article with a quotation from Isaiah to illustrate this point. These lines were taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Christian Bible, one that has met with much resistance by many because its method of translation has called many preferred Christian readings into question. One of the aims of the NRSV was to replace much of the archaic language of the KJV. For example, Isaiah 7:14, which is rendered in English in the KJV as "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel", reads "Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel", in the NRSV. This has been a source of great controversy because this passage has often been invoked as a prophecy of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The NRSV translation, which used Hebrew texts as a primary source, removes the Christian reading of a Hebrew text.
Yet strangely, the English translation of Isaiah 45:7 remains unchanged in the KJV and the NRSV. Isaiah 45:7 is spoken by the god Yahweh, who says: "I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things". The archaic words, weal and woe, are retained in both versions. In Hebrew, however, the words are neither weal nor woe. The actual lines read:
I form light and create darkness, I cause good and I cause evil I the Lord do all these things".
Isaiah 45:7 is an example of the everyday conspiring that many of us engage in, especially when belief is in question. In contemporary monotheistic religions, god is absolute good. In fact, the deity is incapable of evil. Good and evil are absolute opposites, set apart by a rigid, clear dividing line for all to see. The original Hebrew rendering of Isaiah reveals a more complex idea of god, a more ambiguous one who is capable and responsible for good and evil in the world. In the past, before the emergence of devils and demons, god was the source of both good and Newfolk: NDiF: Consider the Source Page 5
evil. The KJV and the NRSV translations share a Manichean view of the universe, and one would guess, a fear of conceiving of a deity as both god and devil.
In this, the translators of both the King James and New Revised Standard versions conspired to create a particular reality. It presents the Manichean view of the world as the only possible one. This tendency shows itself in many areas where ideology is at stake. This is obvious in the case of religion, and also in concepts such as race, gender, class or nation.
Conspiracy theories usually are founded on part of what I've come to call grand master narratives. Like unified field theories, master narratives explain everything. Human beings hate uncertainty; this is why totalizing explanations are culturally constructed. The example of biblical translation demonstrates this. Biblical texts are sacred narratives that become organizationally closed, especially with the power of the state behind them. Once people come to accept the idea that one god exists and that god is all good and all loving, it becomes a fact. Pointing out the many inconsistencies there are between the original Hebrew and the subsequent English versions is likely to infuriate one who literally believes it, and who have never noticed those inconsistencies. It also frightens them because it disrupts the belief that the questions the myths address have been settled. Uncertainty enters again.
People die in car accidents everyday. When a celebrity dies in a car crash, she becomes like the rest of us, subject to randomness. For many, this is intolerable. Instead of being blessed, charmed, special, a princess, Diana Spencer was revealed to be just another poor sucker who never saw it coming.
The desire to cling to a belief in a contingent, ordered universe has, for a long time, suppressed the open expression of contrary notions. Folklore genres provide outlets for the expression of such ideas. Jokes, anecdotes, song parodies and rumors are examples; conspiracy theories are an under- examined genre that can be seen as a response to the recognition that we live in a noncontingent, relative social world. Some conspiracy theories permit us to maintain a belief in a comfortable reality. And others don't.
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New Directions in Folklore 2 (formerly the Impromptu Journal) January 1998 Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 2 :: Page 1 :: Page 2 :: Page 3 :: Page 4 :: Page 5 : : Page 6
Consider the Source (Page 6)
Tyrone Yarbrough, Ph.D.
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