The Conspiracy Theorists

Sometime back I wrote on propaganda. Another word which aroused my curiosity was conspiracy and subsequently ‘conspiracy theory.’ The Oxford English Dictionary describes as follows:

Conspiracy theory: The theory that an event or phenomenon occurs as a result of a conspiracy between interested parties; spec. a belief that some covert but influential agency (typically political in motivation and oppressive in intent) is responsible for an unexplained event; so conspiracy theorist.

Some conspiracy theory are serious : The Tatas were involved in causing accident to Sanjay Gandhi’s airplane, The CIA was to blame for assassinating John F Kennedy, scientists consciously manufactured AIDs virus, the theory of global warming is a premeditated fraud, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was still alive a few years back, the Govt. covers up the existence of aliens, etc,.

Some conspiracy theories are quite harmless. Like there are clandestine groups of elves working in inaccessible locations under the guidance and management of the mysterious Santa Claus, distributing presents on Christmas.

The serious conspiracy theories cause immense harm. They generate and stimulate violence. There are conspiracy theorists that create all these theories, there are people who read and talk about these theories and there are those who promote these theories. I suppose most conspiracy theorists conceive these theories quite intentionally. Some do it with an earnest effort while others have some self-centered social objectives and are after money and power.

Some theories are phony while some are later found to be true. They are historical truths which may have been suppressed. It is as one would expect a very complicated task to differentiate true or false conspiracy theories. Not much of substantial information is ever available. There are journalists who write on a particular theory and there are historians who write books and teach in colleges and universities who explore minute details and take testimonies of witnesses to reach a pertinent conclusion. Whatever be the conspiracy theory, sometimes it is best to let history decide the conclusions. The dilemma is that there have been known instances where the political party in power readjusts, fudges or suppresses historical facts by assigning ‘official’ or ‘court’ historians, committed to providing the rulers’ outlooks and exploits.

Since the last 2000 to 3000 years the human mind has maneuvered in poetry, drama, agriculture, philosophy, architecture, history, philology, astronomy, politics, medicine, theology, geography, etc,. The mind has thus not only become much disciplined but also experienced. The mind having delved in so many subjects launches thoughts which are otherwise and many a conspiracy theory evolve.

I wonder how much is factual in whatever we read and learnt in the history classes during our school years!