On Aug 24, 2010, at 11:20 AM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
> You mean what you wrote or what Ginzburg is talking about? If Ginzburg, then no, it's not just another conspiracy theory. 9/11 truthers, Oswald didn't act alone, and no one stepped foot on the moon are just another conspiracy theory. What Ginzburg is talking about happened in a particular time and place where it was possible for a small number of people to pull off a coordinated campaign that would have a big impact in the real world. We no longer live in that time, just as we no longer live in a time where we can know everything, like Athanasius Kircher did. History is sussing out the particulars.
For an academic exploring an intellectual life that's probably true. But what Ginzburg reveals conforms to my sense of 'history' and as you say - we can't all know everything. (Although it never hurts to emphasize that point.) Yet a sense of history is an important component of life for me. So I draw on what I can that's available in popular channels to construct a reasonable hypotheses. And when the 'particulars' become available to me, and they conform to my hypotheses, they reinforce that 'sense'. 'Just another conspiracy theory' was my way of pre-dismissing my own observation. But my read of the Ginzburg clip sounds like a conspiracy, although referenced as a 'large-scale, coordinated campaign'.
martin