Conspiracy Theories

When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008, a story that made the rounds was that some senior Jewish executives in the investment bank founded by Jewish immigrants from Germany in 1850 transferred $400 billion to three Israeli banks. The story was picked up by anti-Semitic blogs and web forums and now forms part of the folklore of conspiracy theories involving the Jews, Israel and the U.S.

The Lehman Brothers conspiracy theory, like the earlier libel widely circulated especially in some Arab countries that the Israeli Mossad knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and warned all of the Jewish employees in the twin towers not to come to work that morning, fits neatly into the Jews-are-trying-to-dominate-the-world mythology so fondly cultivated by anti-Semitic groups of all hues. Generally conspiracy theories are ignored by the mainstream media and the general public for what they are: just unfounded conclusions with no evidence to back them. But such weird theories are often live topics in drawing room discussions or during cocktail hours. They are the gossips the educated today.

Many of us have had personal experiences of being in informal gatherings where we have no option but to question, in vain, one or the other participant backed by few others bombarding one conspiracy theory after another. It is very difficult to counter those who believe in conspiracy theories for the simple reason that they are supported by no evidence and are conclusions based on either selective interpretation of facts or prejudice. A very popular conspiracy theory that has many takers is that the Apollo Moon landing was stage-managed by NASA. When I heard this Moon landing hoax story from an educated person recently, I understood why Buzz Aldrin lost his temper when accosted by a Bible-toting Moon landing conspiracy theorist and punched the latter in the face, though there are punching arguments against the Moon hoax myth (See Phil Plait, the Myth Busters, David Adam). It is, however, astonishing to find that some six per cent of Americans believe that the Moon landings were faked.

No conspiracy theory is as awe-inspiring as that related to Illuminati, originally a movement of freethinkers established in Bavaria in 1776 and attacked by its critics as a group engaged in a conspiracy to overthrow European governments of the time. In contemporary circles of conspiracy theorists, Illuminati refers to an alleged conspiratorial group controlling the world through governments and corporations for the establishment of the New World Order (NWO). These NWO conspiracy theorists often refer to the Great Seal of the United States and its motto ‘Novus Ordo Seclorum’ (new order of the ages) as a proof that there is a plot to take over the world.

The first time I heard of Illuminati from passionate advocates of conspiracy theories, who were trying to figure out all the major events such as 9/11 attacks, invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the terror strike in Mumbai, among others, in terms of a grand plot hatched by the secretive group, I felt like quitting the discussion and keeping mum. The argument was that the most powerful intelligence agency in the world, the CIA, did not gather any intelligence information on the 19 Arab youths who hijacked four commercial airlines and hit the WTC and Pentagon and, therefore, the 9/11 attacks were pre-planned. The commonsense counter-argument that a conspiracy of that scale required hundreds of people for its planning and execution and, therefore, less likely to be kept secret did not cut much ice with them as they switched to the topic of global financial crisis to claim that it was engineered by the U.S. to enforce its domination over the global economy.

Not all conspiracy theories are that funny either. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forged document that claims a secret Jewish cabal plotting to take over the world and made public in 1905, was debunked in 1921 by Philip Graves, a correspondent for the London Times, who exposed that it was plagiarised from a 19^th century fiction. But Adolf Hitler used the Protocol to fuel anti-Semitic feelings among the Germans and as a death warrant against the Jewish population.

Why many people are so passionate about the conspiracy theories? The conspiracy theories are attractive because they are simple. Every development in the world, however, complex and incomprehensible, becomes simple and comprehensible when it is seen as part of an agenda or a conspiracy by a group of powerful people.