What is reality? Conspiracy theories and the New World Order…

Something that has always fascinated me is the conspiracy theory, and the person who would believe in them. Because such a person has a radically different view of reality than I do.

I am an Occam’s Razor type of person. I always look for the simplest explanation. A hallmark of conspiracy theories is that they are never simple. For me, the idea that more than a handful of people could keep anything a secret for years, even across generations, is frankly unbelievable, no matter what their motivations. When the conspiracy theory involves pragmatic people like scientists (global warming conspiracy theories) or doctors (vaccine conspiracy theories), where keeping silent means violating their professional ethics, I can’t believe it at all. That’s why I will always tend to favor the opinions of large group of scientists or doctors or other respected professionals over organizations or groups I know nothing about, namely the theorists.

In essence, I believe most people are, in general, decent sorts who will not for long periods of time keep a secret that goes against their principles, and there isn’t enough money to throw at all of them to coerce them to do so. Even if they are not decent or principled, they will be gossipy or stupid. And a conspiracy depends on everyone involved keeping quiet.

I first got introduced to the idea of conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists via The X-Files, where the theorists are generally depicted as being right. I was an avid fan but still had a hard time keeping the complex conspiracies straight. I imagine the actual conspirators don’t find it much easier. I also learned quite a bit about the details of the most prevalent conspiracy theories (such as JFK’s shooting and “we never landed on the moon”) via the excellent book The Big Book of Conspiracies, which relates the theories in comic book format.

Last weekend I spent a whole afternoon immersed in the details of the granddaddy of all conspiracy theories: the New World Order conspiracy. I don’t have the energy to summarize all of the details here, but Wikipedia has a wonderful article on it. The New World Order theory combines elements from many other conspiracies, including black helicopters, barcodes and the mark of the beast, the projected 2012 apocalypse and lizard alien overlords, to portray pretty much everything that has happened in history in a paranoiac light.

The goal of the New World Order is — what, exactly? That part is not entirely clear, but it generally has to do with bringing the entire world under a single government headed by the elite or possibly aliens or even the Antichrist. It seems rather laughable that economic and political unions that become mired in bureaucracy or corporate interests that crash the global financial system or ineffective international organizations can possibly get it together enough to overthrow all of the world’s governments and bring us all under one rule. But then again, I am not a conspiracy theorist.

Sidenote: One of the most fascinating parts of the New World Order conspiracy theory is exactly how this overthrow would be accomplished. A radical population reduction or even genocide is advocated as an initial step, accomplished through epidemics or environmental disasters. So the New World Order conspiracy may be responsible for everything from AIDS to the 2004 tsunami. This explains why so many people refused to get the swine flu vaccine.

Which brings me to my point: This is not a worldview I share, or could probably even begin to understand. But it is one that is held by lots and lots of people, from many facets of society. The Wikipedia article points out how the New World Order theory, once solely the belief of militant extremists and millennialist Christian fundamentalists, has now crossed over to New Agers and is seeping into the popular culture.

For me, this is science fiction. For these people, this is perfectly believable. People who feel out of control of their own lives, fearful of the increasingly complex world we live in and hopeless about the future seem more inclined to turn to conspiracy theories for some measure of comfort. Rather than believing that world events are the result of explicable (if complex) natural, social and economic forces, they would prefer to believe that an all-powerful cabal is running absolutely everything.

For the theorists, that is reality. Perhaps it gives their lives purpose to believe they are participating in a global or even cosmic struggle for freedom. Perhaps it makes their personal story more exciting. These motivations make it easier for me to understand why people would want to believe in such a theory, even if they don’t make the theories themselves any more believable.

For more: Arthur Goldwag’s blog; The Conspiracy Skeptic

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• Freemasons: Fact vs. Fiction (time.com)
• Why People Believe in Conspiracies (scientificamerican.com)