The Metropolis

The Conspiracy Theories Day Conference is not just happening Sunday. It goes way way way up the ladder..

Alan Hindle | Friday 23 September, 2011 16:17

The Conspiracy Theories Day Conference at Conway Hall will bring together sceptics, humanists and hopefully secret agents from other planets to discuss what conspiracy theories are, why we believe them and what theories, if any, actually hold any water. Amongst the guest speakers will be David Aaronovitch, author of Voodoo Histories, Jamie Bartlett and Carl Miller from the thinktank Demos, and Karen Douglas of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. The day starts at 10:30am and goes to a quarter past four, which leaves plenty of time afterwards in the pub for discussion, debate, ranting, howling, fighting and the casting of hexes.

Personally, I think conspiracy theories are unassailable by logic because humans beings are not rational. We convince ourselves that we are reasonable, but are only able to do so, all evidence to the contrary, because we aren’t. What makes conspiracies so attractive, I think, what makes us want to believe them, is that to invest in a conspiracy somehow puts you in possession of a secret truth that separates you from the hoi polloi. Everybody else are suckers, but you know better. The more proof that can be provided showing there isn’t a conspiracy only strengthens your conviction that there is, because if you aren’t right why then are They spending so much time and energy trying to make you look foolish?

And yet, conspiracies do exist. Until recently nobody seemed to care much about corporations buying up our lives, governments and a large portion of the media crawling into bed with big business, ponzi schemes, price fixing or loosey goosey wheeling dealing in the back rooms of banks. Talking about these things ten years ago, someone had only to call you a conspiracy nut for everybody to suddenly imagine an aluminium foil hat on your head and dismiss you as a crackpot. Today social networking and cellphone cameras are allowing everyday folks to put authority on the spot. Maybe there genuinely is a new attitude creeping into the public mindset that we are going to start taking power and reason back. Now when someone tries to spin a web of bullshit you have only to say “If such a thing is happening, why hasn’t somebody Tweeted about it?” and the gossamer threads of crap are blown away. It feels like there is a revolution of accountability in the air, not just in the Arab and Islamic cultures, but also here in the west, though perhaps a little more nebulous.

There is also a part of me (sometimes it seems the majority of me) that wants to believe in conspiracies because they make life seem more interesting. Romantic. Fun. The psychology underlying a conspiracy says something about the people who subscribe to it, but also there’s a narrative in every conspiracy, especially the outlandish ones, that reveals a piece of who we all are. And, of course, sometimes they are completely true. Like Bigfoot. Who they are hot on the trail of in Indonesia, where he is known as the orang pendek, and is a shorter version of Gigantopithecus, which they found bones for in China, and which lives today in the basements of ancient temples in Malta. Cellphone cameras don’t work around him because of his ‘vibes’ and teeth made of crystal. True.

Conspiracy Theories Day Conference at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Sunday 25 Sept, 10:30- 16:10. £10 or £8 for British Humanist Association and South Place Ethical Society members, and students. Nearest tube station, Holborn.

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