none of them!
conspiracy theories are quite fashionable these days. they appeal to the paranoid undertones which define our times.
i recently read of an australian girl saying: “there are so many conspiracy theories out there, i don’t know which one’s to believe”.
notice the distinction: it’s not whether or not to believe them, it’s which one’s to believe…
that about sums it up…
well, i just got done reading jon ronson’s brillant book them: adventures with extremists [isbn: 0-7432-3321-2] and i really recommend it. hilarious, disturbing one critic calls it. with a great sense of humour ronson dispells some of the weirder conspiracy theories out there – david icke, for instance, who says that the secret people in power have all descended from lizards – without minimizing the importance of some of the clandestine meetings among world leaders which do happen. as the book progresses, what become clear is that the two sides of this, the crazed conspiracy theorists on one hand and the secretive worldleaders waering drag and pissing on trees on the other, create eachother – the worldleaders feeding the conspiracy theorists and maybe even vis versa.
bilderberg group member: “let’s face it. nobody rules the world anymore. the markets rule the world. maybe that’s why your conspiracy theorists make up all those crazy things. because the truth is so much more frightening. nobody rules the world. nobody controls anything”
ronson: “maybe that’s why you bilderberger’s love to hear the conspiracy theories. so you can pretend to yourself that you do still rule the world.”
“maybe so”
…
“is there really, as the extremists claim, a secret room from which a tiny elite secretly rules the world? and if so, can it be found? this book is a journey into the heart of darkness, involving PR=savy ku klux klansmen, the story of ruby ridge, a harem of sex slaves, and nicolae ceausescus’s shoes. while jon ronson attempts to loacte the secret room he is chased by men in dark glasses, unmasked as a jew in the middle of a jihad training camp, and witnesses CEO’s and leading politicians – like dick cheney – undertake a bizarre owl ritual in the forests of northern california”
jonronson.com
guardian pre-print part1
guardian pre-print part2
guardian pre-print part1
louis theroux book review