>But how does one explain the vibrancy and the appeal that
>conspiracism has had for many on the left and among progressive
>circles in recent years?
It's a lot easier than dealing with the complexity of real life - the complicated ways that classes and institutions work, the role of contingency and chance, etc. It provides a highly simplified way of understanding the world - a small group of omniscient and almighty people run things, and the rest of us are mere pawns. Of course, if they're omniscient and almighty, there's little we can do to resist them (though you gotta wonder how the conspiriacy theorists have managed to figure it all out). So it's really a counsel of despair, as I believe Brad DeLong once described neoliberalism.
Doug