Alternet, which regularly posts some pretty engrossing articles, has a recent one by Anneli Rufus on the fadism surrounding conspiracy theories and belief in super-secret societies. The argument that in times of crisis, people turn to the occult as a solace and an opiate. While perhaps people are prone to abstract their problems onto a malevolent or benevolent overlord and search for blame or excuses, I do not think that is the whole story. Paranormal facination has its following, more or less mainstreamed, year in and year out, and world governments, rife with error and missed-opportunities, do not exactly convey the united front that the true-believers are expecting. If anything, a quagmire of conspiracies is rather disappointing. Under a perfect regime, all the conspiracy theorists would have been rounded up and disappeared long ago for knowing what they know. Obviously, that has not happened yet. If anything, all the theater is masterful distraction, choreography, so one won't pay attention to the man behind the curtain, but I am not sure what other moves are orchestrated. Belief in whatever mythology has traces of motivation in it; being able to discriminate among the talismen and charms might lead to the top.
