> I think that probably a distinction should be made between those
> conspiracy theories which originate "among the people" as it were
> and those which are deliberately engendered by some state or
> organized group with definite political purposes in mind. The belief
i think, in arguing this, that you make Mistake Number One in addressing the problem by attending to the 'origin' of phenom- enon X. conspiracism is, first and foremost, a search for the origins of a given phenomenon; only last and hindmost does it address the CONSEQUENCES of the phenomenon, if it bothers with them at all.
conspiracism is only the most grotesque manifestation of this culture's overweening obsession with historicizing everything it encounters, wherein all things are reduced to repetitions of prior events and processes.
on that basis, i'd be bullish in predicting that it'll wane in the Very Near Future, but for one thing: an imaginary social formation can serve just as well as a real model for present and future activities.
cheers, t