False. Here's the editorial that so irritated Biehl. I hope this will make it clear that the rejection of left and right isn't the same thing as the convergence of left and right. - Tom
Conspiracy Theory vs. Alternative Journalism?
With the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma last March conspiracy theories from the right have been making their rounds on talk radio, in the "patriot" and "militia" press, as well as through the Internet. Right-wing populist paranoia has been fueled by unanswered questions about the bombing and a steady stream of attempts by the mainstream press to place all responsibility for this disaster on the militia milieu. Following on the heels of the 1993 ATF massacre of the Davidians in Waco and the 1994 attack on white supremacist Randy Weaver's household in Idaho, these populists are wondering whether they're now being targeted by the powers that be in a way similar to that in which the new left was targeted in the '60s and '70s by COINTELPRO and other programs.
People who a few years ago often seemed to be enthusiastic supporters of "conservative" government interventions like the "war on drugs," massive prison building schemes and international military invasions, have-in small but increasing numbers-now begun to question some of these same maneuvers from "patriotic" perspectives. For whatever this (often quite naive) questioning is worth, it should be encouraged by alternative media, rather than despised or ridiculed for its confused and at times nativist origins. It's not as if the left hasn't always nurtured its own share of confusion, from Social Democracy to Maoism.
Left and right have both proved their bankruptcy throughout this century. And neither can lay legitimate claim to our loyalties. It's way past time that both traditions received the scathing critiques they deserve, so that we can take what is best from them and discard what is worthless. It may be true that the left has often added far more of value to the defense of community and international solidarity than the right has ever even been able to conceive. But both left and right have ultimately colluded in their support for the two "opposing" sides of capitalist development. Neither has been able to slow or stop the destructiveness of the technological Frankenstein, nor the accelerating breakdown of communitarian institutions and convivial relationships. Technotopia, ecological degradation, wage slavery and the reduction of life to eternal commodity consumption remain the dominant trends as we approach the millennium. All of these trends remain aided and abetted by right and left in their struggles for control of the top echelons of the onrushing juggernaut.
Given the immense amount of confusion on both left and right concerning this situation it should be not be surprising that conspiracy theories are running amok. Lacking any coherent and fundamental understanding of the growth and development of technology, corporate capitalism and the modern state, people are often left trying to explain destructive structural trends and unexpected institutional decisions as the machinations of cabals of malevolent individuals or esoteric high level conspiracies. This has given "conspiracy theory" a bad reputation in many circles, despite the fact that in actuality theories of conspiracy tend to shade over insensibly all the way through to structural theories. After all, it would be extremely naive to believe that individuals in powerful positions weren't conscious of many of the implications of their power as well as ready to work (conspire) with other powerful people and factions in order to advance both their personal and their institutional interests. We can't help but see bits and pieces of the evidence for this daily in the news.
The opaqueness of corporate and government institutional power, along with the generally misinformational slant of the mainstream corporate media, makes the disentanglement of the webs of deceit surrounding the operations of that power extremely difficult. But this is one of most important tasks of alternative journalism. In one form or another, this is what every serious alternative media publication or program is working towards, whether it be through exploding the consistent lies of America's biggest newspaper, drawing our attention to the desperate plight of the indigenous peoples of southern Mexico, documenting the increasingly predatory strategies of corporate capitalism, describing the detrimental effects of the computer on society, or attempting to make sense of the bizarre details of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The best alternative journalism is committed to investigating and exposing the workings of the real world, whether this leads down the road to conspiratorial or structural explanations, or both. But it also never loses sight of the fundamentally structural nature of our present social and ecological crises. Alternative journalism may sometimes include the exposure of conspiracies, but conspiracy theory is not the same thing as alternative journalism.
Jason McQuinn, Editor