The Nature of Conspiracy Belief by Barkun
合集下载
- 1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性，平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
- 2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
- 3、如文档侵犯您的权益，请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间：9:00-18:30)。
On one level, such ideas might be attributed simply to the anxieties of a deeply shaken people, desperate to make sense of the shocking events. On another level, however, these and similar beliefs alert us to the existence of significant subcultures far outside the mainstream . Sur facing in times of crisis and bound up with heterodox religion , occult and esoteric beliefs, radical politics, and fringe science, they have had a long-standing and sometimes potent influence in American life. It is with these beliefs-which in chapter 2 I refer to as stigmatized knowl edge-that I am concerned . Binding these disparate subjects together is the common thread of conspiracism -the belief that powerful, hid den , evil forces control human destinies.
A Culture of Conspions in Contemporary America
Michael Barkun
l ' ;,TTVE RSTTY OF CA LI FORNTA PRESS Berl;cfc), / Los A 11geles / London
They also form part of a conspiracist subculture that has become more visible since September II, 2001. Immediately after the terrorist at !.Id,s, strange reports burgeoned on the Internet; many never migrated 10 mainstream news outlets. Among them were that Nostradamus had lilretold the attacks; that a UFO had appeared ncar one of the World
McCaslin told police he had entered the Bohemian Grove in order to expose the satanic human sacrifices he believed occurred there . He fuily expected to meet resistance and to kill people in the process. He had developed his belief in the Grove's human sacrifices based on the claims of a radio personality, Alex Jones, whose broadcasts and Web site pre Sl:I1t alleged evidence of ritual killings there. Similar charges against tl1e Bohemian Grove-along with allegations of blood drinking and sexual perversions-have been spread for several years on the \iVeb and in fringe publications, some of which also suggest that the Grove's guests include lIonhuman species masquerading as human beings. These and similar tales would be cause for little more than amusement were it not for in dividuals like McCaslin, who take them serioLlsly enough to risk killing ,lIld being killed. I
xii
I'R l. h'\ Cl'.
the ideas in this book bct()re audiences ofcolleagues, which gave me the chance both to shape inchoate ideas and to modit)r them in light of the listeners' comments. Much of the material on the Illuminati in chapter 3 was first presented at a conference titled "Millenarianism and Revolu tion," organized by Richard H. Popkin at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA in 1998. The examination of "inner earth" ideas in chapter 7 was facilitated by an invitation from Mary N. Mac Donald to participate in a 2000 lecture series called "Experiences of Place and the History ofRe/igions," at the Center for the Study ofWorld Religions at Harvard University. An opportunity to discuss the role of nativism in conspiracy theory was afforded when Richard Landes asked me to deliver the keynote address at the I999 International Conference on MiUennialism at Boston University. In similar fashion, I was able to deVelop ideas about the movement of fringe ideas into the mainstream at a conference, "American Apocalypse: Beyond the Fringe and back to the Center," held in 1999 at the University of Pennsylvania to mark the opening of the Millennium Archive collected by Ted Daniels.
CHAPTER I
The Nature of Conspiracy Belief
On January 20, 2002, Richard McCaslin, thirty-seven, of Carson City, Nevada, was arrested sneaking into the Bohemian Grove in Northern California. The Grove is the site of an exclusive annual men's retreat attended by powerful business and political leaders. When McCaslin was discovered, he was carrying a combination shotgun-assault rifle, a .+s-caliber pistol, a crossbow, a knife, a sword , and a bomb-launching device. He said he was acting alone.
Many individuals have graciously given their time to read manu scripts, provide materials, answer queries, and otherwise be of assis tance. They have also saved me from numerous errors of omission and commission, and I am responsible for any that remain. Joscelyn Godwin, at neighboring Colgate University, shared his knowledge of esoteri cism, as Chip Berlet did his equally formidable command of American conspiracism. Vance Pollock responded patiently to numerous queries about William Dudley Pelley. Brad 'Whitsel, of Pennsylvania State Uni versitY-Fayette, was an important SOurce of "inner earth" material. Sue Lewis and Candy Brooks prm'ided valuable assistance in manuscript preparation. I am also grateful to Matthew Kalman, Philip Lamy, Mark Pitcavage, Jeffrey Kaplan, and Charles Strozier. And, ofcourse, my debt to Janet, my wife, for her unfailing love and support is beyond measure.
2
THE NATURE OF C ONSPIRACY RELIEF
Trade Center towers just as a plane crashed into it; that the attacks had been planned by a secret society called the llluminati; that U.S. presi dent George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair had advance knowledge of the attacks; and that the attacks signaled the coming of the millennial end-times prophesied in the Bible.
A Culture of Conspions in Contemporary America
Michael Barkun
l ' ;,TTVE RSTTY OF CA LI FORNTA PRESS Berl;cfc), / Los A 11geles / London
They also form part of a conspiracist subculture that has become more visible since September II, 2001. Immediately after the terrorist at !.Id,s, strange reports burgeoned on the Internet; many never migrated 10 mainstream news outlets. Among them were that Nostradamus had lilretold the attacks; that a UFO had appeared ncar one of the World
McCaslin told police he had entered the Bohemian Grove in order to expose the satanic human sacrifices he believed occurred there . He fuily expected to meet resistance and to kill people in the process. He had developed his belief in the Grove's human sacrifices based on the claims of a radio personality, Alex Jones, whose broadcasts and Web site pre Sl:I1t alleged evidence of ritual killings there. Similar charges against tl1e Bohemian Grove-along with allegations of blood drinking and sexual perversions-have been spread for several years on the \iVeb and in fringe publications, some of which also suggest that the Grove's guests include lIonhuman species masquerading as human beings. These and similar tales would be cause for little more than amusement were it not for in dividuals like McCaslin, who take them serioLlsly enough to risk killing ,lIld being killed. I
xii
I'R l. h'\ Cl'.
the ideas in this book bct()re audiences ofcolleagues, which gave me the chance both to shape inchoate ideas and to modit)r them in light of the listeners' comments. Much of the material on the Illuminati in chapter 3 was first presented at a conference titled "Millenarianism and Revolu tion," organized by Richard H. Popkin at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA in 1998. The examination of "inner earth" ideas in chapter 7 was facilitated by an invitation from Mary N. Mac Donald to participate in a 2000 lecture series called "Experiences of Place and the History ofRe/igions," at the Center for the Study ofWorld Religions at Harvard University. An opportunity to discuss the role of nativism in conspiracy theory was afforded when Richard Landes asked me to deliver the keynote address at the I999 International Conference on MiUennialism at Boston University. In similar fashion, I was able to deVelop ideas about the movement of fringe ideas into the mainstream at a conference, "American Apocalypse: Beyond the Fringe and back to the Center," held in 1999 at the University of Pennsylvania to mark the opening of the Millennium Archive collected by Ted Daniels.
CHAPTER I
The Nature of Conspiracy Belief
On January 20, 2002, Richard McCaslin, thirty-seven, of Carson City, Nevada, was arrested sneaking into the Bohemian Grove in Northern California. The Grove is the site of an exclusive annual men's retreat attended by powerful business and political leaders. When McCaslin was discovered, he was carrying a combination shotgun-assault rifle, a .+s-caliber pistol, a crossbow, a knife, a sword , and a bomb-launching device. He said he was acting alone.
Many individuals have graciously given their time to read manu scripts, provide materials, answer queries, and otherwise be of assis tance. They have also saved me from numerous errors of omission and commission, and I am responsible for any that remain. Joscelyn Godwin, at neighboring Colgate University, shared his knowledge of esoteri cism, as Chip Berlet did his equally formidable command of American conspiracism. Vance Pollock responded patiently to numerous queries about William Dudley Pelley. Brad 'Whitsel, of Pennsylvania State Uni versitY-Fayette, was an important SOurce of "inner earth" material. Sue Lewis and Candy Brooks prm'ided valuable assistance in manuscript preparation. I am also grateful to Matthew Kalman, Philip Lamy, Mark Pitcavage, Jeffrey Kaplan, and Charles Strozier. And, ofcourse, my debt to Janet, my wife, for her unfailing love and support is beyond measure.
2
THE NATURE OF C ONSPIRACY RELIEF
Trade Center towers just as a plane crashed into it; that the attacks had been planned by a secret society called the llluminati; that U.S. presi dent George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair had advance knowledge of the attacks; and that the attacks signaled the coming of the millennial end-times prophesied in the Bible.