Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories are a form of intricate reasoning characterized by elaborate conclusions about secret plots, cover-ups, and schemes often believed to be designed and crafted by public entities such as governments, economic growth and management agencies, multinational corporations, and religious organizations. In recent years, conspiracy theories have become more pronounced within global pop culture, largely due to the proliferation of popular literature and film with foci on secrecy. At least one function of this form of reasoning serves to provide a discourse for the extraordinary and ultimately gives rise to an antithesis of reenchantment in the face of what may appear to be secularizing society.

The term conspiracy originates from the Latin term conspirare, referring to something agreed on or united in plot. The literal translation is “to breathe together,” derived from the prefix com (“together”) and the suffix spirare (“to breathe”). Although common law would define conspiracy as an agreement between two or more individuals to break the law, its more popular reference connotes an exploration of trivial events, the individuals that are allegedly involved, the perceived covert agreements and activities that conceal truths, and the perceived suppression of inquiry into such truths.

With the onset of the information age, the reach of conspiracy theories has grown beyond national, cultural, and social boundaries, becoming yet another global phenomenon. The content of at least seven general conspiracy theories has extended onto a transnational scale, including the extraterrestrial debate embodied within the ancient astronaut thesis; the government-concealed truth behind UFO/alien encounters; the propaganda production of the moon-landing hoax; corporate takeovers, globalization, and the emergence of the new world order; U.S. government involvement in the events of September 11, 2001; the revisionist discourse of an official Holocaust narrative; and the cover-up of Jesus Christ's bloodline. The two latter conspiracy theories are particularly germane to the context of global religion.

The conspiracy theories surrounding the official Holocaust narrative emerged shortly after World War II when defeated Nazi officers and soldiers began to destroy evidence of gas chambers and records of executions in an attempt to deny and/or conceal their organized effort to exterminate Jews and others they considered “less desirable.” In general, the main tenets of this conspiracy hold that (1) the Nazis never actually had an official policy for exterminating Jews, (2) stories of the use of gas chambers were fabricated, and (3) the total number of Jews killed in the Holocaust was an exaggeration, as the actual figures were much smaller. According to these conspiracy theorists, the Jewish people created the “Holocaust myth” to garner international sympathy and support for justifying the creation of the state of Israel.

The origins of this type conspiracy theory may lie within the late-19th-century text titled The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The text was actually a propaganda tool first published in full in 1905 by the Tsarist mystic Sergei Nilus that portrayed the Jews as a tightly organized cabal conspiring to take over the world. Although this piece was debunked several times as a hoax, it nonetheless circulated well beyond Paris where it was first distributed. Today, the text can be readily found translated in a variety of countries including Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

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