Yes, everything *is* a conspiracy

“Allt är en konspiration: En resa genom underlandet” is a book by Swedish reporter Kent Werne. In English translation, the title would read “Everything is a conspiracy: A journey through Wonderland”.  It´s very well written (although a grammar Nazi like me – or myself? – spotted both weird spelling mistakes and “Swenglish” words). Above all, it´s obvious that Werne knows his material almost by heart. The book, which deals with conspiracy theory or rather conspiracist thinking, lands somewhere mid-between the scholarly, the journalistic and the irreverently funny. A kind of strange blend of, say, Michael Barkun and Jon Ronson. 

Werne has dived into the history of conspiracy theory, which (in its present form, at least) begins with the French revolution, or rather the royalist reaction to the same, and follows the trail forward to the anti-Semitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, Nesta Webster and the John Birch Society. Then, he takes us on a breathtaking tour through the contemporary conspiracist landscape. Werne has interviewed Tea Party supporters in Ohio, attended a monster mass meeting featuring David Icke, and tried to approach Swedish conspiracy theorists. He tries to give as broad overview as possible of the “wonderland”, from people who are at least outwardly sane (such as the Birchers) to those who are quite frankly borderline clinical (and wear actual tinfoil hats). And yes, the author has been forced to leave out probably over half of Wonderland, since that would make this volume unmanageable! Roswell and Area 51 are mentioned only in passing…

Along the way, Werne makes two perhaps important observations. One is that conspiracy theory is often used by the rich and the powerful to gain or retain influence. Think Trump, Nixon or just about any authoritarian leader in the world you can think of. Some even believe in conspiracy theory themselves. This sounds basic bitch, but apparently some sociologists have argued the opposite: that conspiracy theory is only held by marginalized and stigmatized groups. In reality, conspiracist thinking can become a lethal force and even lead to genocide. (I suppose you *could* argue that Hitler was marginalized…OK, maybe not.) The second observation is that leftists (the good guys in the author´s mental universe) can also fall for conspiracy theory. It will be very interesting to see if Werne dares to mention the fake Russian collusion narrative if and when a second edition of his book is published…

The main problem with “Allt är en konspiration” is the usual one. The author, while happy to concede that *some* conspiracies do happen, doesn´t believe they are really that important. It´s all a matter of “structures”. But surely the structures aren´t entirely nameless and faceless? Aren´t they made up of actual human beings who make conscious decisions? And who decided which structures should be set up in the first place? In my humble opinion, the strict dichotomy between “structures” and conspiracies is about as unproductive as the dichotomy between “chance” and conspiracy (so beloved by the conspiracy theorists). In the United States, hardly any president seems innocent of conspiring against somebody somewhere, suggesting that conspiracies are a feature rather than a bug of the system. If conspiracies are part and parcel of the structures, clearly a more complex explanation is needed than the crypto-dogmatic-Marxist (crypto-structuralist?) one proposed by the author. And what if conspiracies aren´t simply part of the system, what if they are needed to perpetuate the system? If structures are historically obsolete, only a grand conspiracy can make them stay around. What does Werne think the establishment would do if a leftist mass movement actually challenged it? Conspire, perhaps…? My prediction is that the BAU conspiracies between different factions and cliques within the system will be replaced with more daring ventures to save the system (or replace it with an even worse system) in the near future, when the present structures are hit by a terminal crisis. This might not be the same as “classical” conspiracy theory, in which the gold standard was abolished by reptoid aliens with a penchant for sacrificio humano, but it probably won´t be the same as quasi-determinst structural conflict between bureaucratic interest groups either…

Sometimes, Werne´s leftism or left-liberalism blinds him from seeing the obvious, or perhaps he is just trolling the reader. Thus, after attacking the idea that George Soros is behind “mass immigration” (the author´s scare quotes) and population replacement in Europe, he tells us that Soros went to Davos to tell world leaders that the EU must take in literally millions of more refugees indefinitely?! Gee, sounds almost as if Mr Structure is plotting, well, I don´t know, mass immigration or something. But surely, that simply *can´t* be true…