Good introduction! I particularly like how you characterize conspiratorial thinking as ahistorical or synchronic. It is worth mentioning that the view that over time people, culture, economics, institutions, social structures etc. undergo a perpetual process of change and continuity (e.g. historicism - see Tyson Retz) is the weird epistemic position. It requires a very complex understanding of people and institutions, the interplay between the general and the particular, and lots of detailed knowledge of histories composed at various scales from micro to macro.
That said, you may have engaged in a bit of that yourself when you began to link contemporary conspiracism to the medieval Church. There is great continuity in the manichean narrative and in the ability of people to regard themselves as heroes in the struggle of good vs. evil. However, there is something particularly modern about these conspiracy theories as well. The vastness of knowledge, the inter-connectedness of populations across the world, the struggles of contemporary capitalism and the states that support it are all just really hard to digest and understand. The modern conspiracy theory, beginning with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, departs from earlier ones in that it attempts to contend with a vastly more complex reality in which people one will never meet face-to-face appear to have power over one's own life. The Enlightenment and the culture of capitalism have promoted the idea that we are responsible for making sense of the world, of realizing who we are as individuals, and of acting with agency to control our fate. All of those ideas would have been really strange to people before the 18th century. They help to explain the appeal of conspiracy theories in our context.
Thank you! These are excellent comments, especially your note about the comparative strangeness of diachronic history. That makes a lot of sense in support of where I’m trying to go.
I wasn’t trying to go too far with bringing in the medieval Church. My goal was to identify the source of the supernatural dimension of the Devil’s earthly helpers.
Good introduction! I particularly like how you characterize conspiratorial thinking as ahistorical or synchronic. It is worth mentioning that the view that over time people, culture, economics, institutions, social structures etc. undergo a perpetual process of change and continuity (e.g. historicism - see Tyson Retz) is the weird epistemic position. It requires a very complex understanding of people and institutions, the interplay between the general and the particular, and lots of detailed knowledge of histories composed at various scales from micro to macro.
That said, you may have engaged in a bit of that yourself when you began to link contemporary conspiracism to the medieval Church. There is great continuity in the manichean narrative and in the ability of people to regard themselves as heroes in the struggle of good vs. evil. However, there is something particularly modern about these conspiracy theories as well. The vastness of knowledge, the inter-connectedness of populations across the world, the struggles of contemporary capitalism and the states that support it are all just really hard to digest and understand. The modern conspiracy theory, beginning with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, departs from earlier ones in that it attempts to contend with a vastly more complex reality in which people one will never meet face-to-face appear to have power over one's own life. The Enlightenment and the culture of capitalism have promoted the idea that we are responsible for making sense of the world, of realizing who we are as individuals, and of acting with agency to control our fate. All of those ideas would have been really strange to people before the 18th century. They help to explain the appeal of conspiracy theories in our context.
Keep it up!
Thank you! These are excellent comments, especially your note about the comparative strangeness of diachronic history. That makes a lot of sense in support of where I’m trying to go.
I wasn’t trying to go too far with bringing in the medieval Church. My goal was to identify the source of the supernatural dimension of the Devil’s earthly helpers.
Christianity is just such cosmic theory that functions to offload misfortune, evil, suffering onto
non-believers. This cosmology underpins western thinking/culture.