Conspiracies: The Facts * the Theories * the Evidence (6 page)

In the run-up to the much-discussed mystical date of 21

December 2012, for example, with end-of-the-Maya-calendar

doom-mongering rife in the alternative world, all number of

imminent disasters were prophesied and speculated on. For all

the attempted debunking, a 5,125-year cycle is, without doubt,

embedded into several calendrical systems around the world and

may speak of some wider cosmological or solar cycle, while the

sense of a shift into a new era is certainly felt by many, even if the events may take decades to unfold. But by early 2012 some

of the gloomier apocalyptic predictions which had been flagged

up to occur
before
the December pivot had remained unfulfilled.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of these were based on rapidly

distributed internet rumours from general y unspecified sources

– never an encouraging sign.

One of the more sensationalist scares involved the return of the

mythic planet Nibiru, based on a Sumerian legend concerning the

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lost planet of the gods that, according to the late (and controversial) alternative historian Zecharia Sitchin, re-enters our solar system every few thousand years from a vast elliptical orbit, creating

gravitational havoc and general upheaval as it does so. A specific take on this erupted in 2010–11, when an otherwise unremarkable

comet named Elenin was widely endorsed as being, in reality,

Nibiru, on its way to Earth at last. Websites swelled with alarming information on the potential effects of Elenin, and millions of hits were made on YouTube clips allegedly showing Elenin/Nibiru

in the sky – plainly defocused shots of Jupiter, Venus and even

the Moon. The unlikelihood that such a blatant phenomenon

could somehow be covered up by a gigantic conspiracy of both

professional and amateur astronomers (and the strange silence

of the general population, none of whom apparently ever looks

at the sky) seemed not to dissuade the faithful. Claims from

NASA – not always reliable, admittedly – that nothing remotely

spectacular could result from such a minor comet did little to still the interest. But, sure enough, Elenin eventual y disintegrated into a smudge of dust, and nothing of note resulted. The voices behind the hysteria, of course, without pause for breath or apology, acted as if nothing had ever been said about Elenin and simply turned

their attentions to other Nibiru candidates, be they errant ‘brown dwarf’ stars invisible to cameras, or other wandering celestial

bodies. Others claimed that Elenin had been secretly nuked by

world authorities.

The strange thing about such fear-mongering in the conspir-

acy world is that it seems to award primary status to tenuously

speculative threats to humanity, based on the word of highly

questionable or unknown informants, while far more ominous

– and verifiable – events lie much closer at hand, yet go largely unremarked upon. While all the Nibiru/Elenin hysteria was going

viral, for instance, official NASA reports on the very strong possibility that the Sun might soon throw out a huge electromagnetic

solar flare, with potential y devastating consequences for global 28

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electricity grids and the entire technological infrastructure of the planet, were barely mentioned in alternative realms. The widely

publicized 2010 gathering of the world’s leading defence ministers and government scientists in the USA to discuss NASA’s concerns

about the worst effects of such an event, and the fact that the

Sun had indeed broken records for sunspot and flare activity in

the previous ten years, seemed not to count for anything among

those more distracted with mystery comets and dubious internet

images.6 The forementioned deep-rooted mistrust in authority

now automatical y results in any declaration issued through it

being treated with suspicion or subdued interest in some quarters.

Yet the Sun’s erratic behaviour can be observably confirmed as one of the biggest potential threats to our civilization today.

What is the root of this tendency to promote more fantastical ideas above threats that are closer to home? Perhaps as long as the mind can hold onto something in a realm of fairytale-like potential rather than face colder realities, a strange safety zone sets in, occupying the imagination and enlivening otherwise mundane lives. A similarly

inherent inertia seems to be present in some of those expecting, or claiming to want, apocalyptic occurrences (something apparent in

both evangelical Christian ‘end-timers’ awaiting the ‘Rapture’ and New Age thinkers seeking ‘Ascension’ into the Fifth Dimension).

By courting hopes for earth-shattering events outside their control, they are simultaneously saved from having to make changes to

their own lives, or the world’s, here and now. Why do anything to improve existence when something might soon come along to turn

it upside down and press the reset button anyway? This abdication of self-responsibility can be seen in the thinking behind a number of conspiracy theories. All the while imminent devastation can be speculated on, the acknowledgement of uncomfortable personal

truths is held off for yet another day. And when one potential fails to deliver, another is quickly latched onto.

When some of those very earth-shattering events might show

some
real
signs of arriving, it is curious to observe how a number 29

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of people unexpectedly retreat from their own position. When the

kind of social upheavals long speculated on in the 2012 prophecy

mindset, for example, seemingly began to erupt around the world

in Arab uprisings, economic crises, riots and demonstrations,

increasingly wild weather and other clusters of abnormal events,

some who had been excitedly postulating on these very kinds of

developments for years suddenly found different things to talk

about. Others shrank away from the stark reality of what was

surely always, in their own philosophy, going to be challenging to live through, and found diversions instead in the love-and-light

realms or simply everyday hobbies.

The propensity to retreat in the face of unexpected confirmation

is something conspiracy theorists should be wary of. If, for

instance, whistleblowers suddenly proved beyond any doubt

that 9/11 was indeed a New World Order-sponsored inside job,

not only would there be an enormous psycho-social blow to the

percentage of the population who had not previously believed this, but the political fallout would be equal y devastating. One might even envisage open war erupting between various NWO factions

and the rebellious masses, tearing the world apart in the process.

If truthers are going to push ahead with seeking validation for

their beliefs, they need to be ready to stand up for themselves in the battle that might possibly follow a whol y successful exposure

– with likely retribution waiting in the wings.

The safe psychological remove that can result from speculation

on the extremes of all manner of theories must, then, be brought

into a fuller light of awareness if the theorists themselves are to serve their sometimes valid concerns better. The risk of retreating too far into a siege mentality that has more to do with escape

than seeking empirical verification needs to be avoided. Worse,

a total refusal to countenance
any
information presented by the establishment can risk taking people to places that marginalize

them so far from normal society as to be harmful to their own

prospects of living a reasonable life.

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The question is, are all beliefs relative and therefore acceptable, or are there limits which should be imposed, or self-imposed, on

how far people should take their quest for truth, and how much of it they express in public?

Drawing a Line?

To some degree, where one draws the line with alternative views

on world events is a matter of sensitivity. Some are happy to

explore the more likely geopolitical intrigues without too much

concern, comfortable that enough evidence speaks for itself to

make a serious case for conspiracy that even the public instinc-

tively senses in its gut (JFK, David Kel y, etc.). Other ideas – however unfairly – are comfortably categorized in the popular mind

as essential y harmless eccentricity (Paul-is-dead, crop circles, etc.) and are therefore tolerable as light entertainment. But the challenging of certain specific events or core dogmas can meet

a sudden wall of harsh resistance and be collectively branded as

unquestionably distasteful. This is where conspiracy theory enters dangerously inflammatory territory.

‘Inflammatory’ can, of course, constitute different things to

different people. One subject that rocks between this and the

novel eccentricity box, for instance – the claimed Moon landings

conspiracy – crosses the threshold one way or the other, depending on an individual’s emotional attachment to it. Those who viewed

NASA’s achievement of setting men on the Moon as the ultimate

pinnacle of humankind’s evolution, offsetting the unfortunate

misdemeanours of the times (Vietnam, Watergate, etc.), can

become passionately outraged at those who dispute the claim and

believe that some or all of the supporting evidence might have

been fabricated (
see
chapter 4). On the other hand, people who never real y cared one way or the other about the Moon missions

can be almost amused to consider that it might all have been an

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elaborate hoax, delighted to hear that even modern history is not beyond doubt, giving rise to an odd feeling of nihilistic liberation.

As with the McCartney case, the tracking of clues and new

information can become an absorbing hobby for easier-minded

researchers, but the more world-weary feel the weight of such a

potential y huge deception in quite a different way, aghast to learn that humanity might have allowed itself to be so manipulated,

and wanting in turn to expose the situation for the long-term

betterment of civilization.

Of the areas of concern that fall very firmly into the danger

category, however, causing severe conflict and risking the rep-

utations and careers of those wandering even slightly close

to them, there is one primary exhibit. In recent decades, an

extremist minority theory has arisen that the historical records

for the Nazi persecutions of the Jewish people in the 1930s

and 1940s have been exaggerated, even fabricated, to support

a Zionist plot for world domination. There is a long history,

of course, of animosity towards Judaism, resulting in many

appalling atrocities around the world. Already scapegoated in

a number of countries as being responsible for society’s woes,

the Jews were greatly damaged by the 1903 appearance of a

Russian document entitled ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’.

General y held to be an outright forgery, it purported to be a

record of the minutes of a meeting of Jewish elders in which

they outlined their nefarious plans for global hegemony. Despite

endless condemnation of the document and its questionable

origins, it would nevertheless fuel the hate campaigns of Adolf

Hitler’s Nazis and numerous racist tracts.

Although the Protocols are largely agreed to be fake, some

conspiracy theorists have claimed they embody many truths

about the plans of the New World Order instead. But for the

vocal minority that still believes the document to be genuine,

particularly among the racist element, the notion that some or

many of the claimed events of the Holocaust might have been

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embroidered, however astonishing this may seem in the face of

the evidence, is not such a big leap for them to make.

The outrage expressed over this area, however, creates problems

for those who would never subscribe to such a view, yet at the

same time maintain that virtual y nothing in history has ever

been accurately reported without some ideological or political

colouration. By loose implication (promoted by the likes of Aaronovitch’s
Voodoo Histories
), this belief has quietly allowed the propogation of a false mainstream association which implies that

the majority of conspiracy theorists are anti-Semitic at heart, by default. This in turn has been used unfairly to discredit perfectly reasonable areas of investigation, and created an atmosphere where even justified criticisms of the state of Israel and its politics (and occasional y, by association, US policies) can be slammed as racist.

This overly zealous kick back at those who question anything

even remotely connected with Judaism has, by the inevitable law

of polarities, actual y helped stimulate a small but fanatical sect of equal y hypersensitive anti-Zionists. The resulting conflict

mentality, in turn, produces the problem that no speculation

becomes off-limits; because neither side respects any lines in the sand, there is little left to lose by going to extremes and seeking out any minutiae that might unsettle the opponent. Hence the