Conspiracy Culture........

A ‘crisis in mean-
ing’ leads to E.T.’s in
bed with transgres-
sive colonizers! Or
something. Wait
that’s not really
what happened...

When | first started asking my friends for their
favourite conspiracy theories, the answers were expect-
ed. Oh yes, yes, | had already heard that George Bush
was involved in drug-running through the CIA, and that
a handful of families controlled the world. The most
obvious theory was that governments were in bed with
big business. "That's not a theory," | thought to
myself, "that's global economic policy!"

As per usual, aliens proliferated, and procreated
with their special alien powers. | think the one | liked
the best was that Jerry Garcia was in cahoots with the
CIA, shoveling LSD down the throats of hippies so they
wouldn't organize and become involved in political
struggles.

But | also heard stories | hadn't heard before:
right-wing conspiracy theories about varying racial
groups who were plotting to take over the world. And
US militia movements who were ready to do armed
combat to preserve the purity of the ‘American Dream".

| realized that | was selective in granting my
belief in certain theories. If the story was compelling,
and told with dramatic flare (i.e.: David Icke's tale that
Queen Elizabeth is a shape-shifting, lizard, space alien;
pass it on!) then | was more open to it. | realized it was
the story that grabbed me, not necessarily the validity,
or the capital ‘T' truth, of the theory.

| also started to wonder why we tell ourselves
such stories? Are these tales of paranoia and suspi-
cion modern-day mythologies for a culture consumed
with lies? Sometimes, it feels like we swirl in cesspools
of lies leeched out of governments, business, media,
community leaders, family, friends, and especially our-
selves. Everyone denies everything until the last possi-
ble moment nowadays: the rich get off with good
lawyers, and the poor underclass gets stuck with the
fallout from the lies of fire. Paranoia runs rampant...

o~

Perhaps we've reached a point in our search for
capital "T" truth, and a good story, where we need to
take back the search. With the advance of information
technology allowing greater communication between
heretofore powerless peoples, and with a millennial rise
in the search for cosmological meaning, more individu-
als are creating their own stories of how the world
works.

In her book, Aliens in America, Jodi Dean
explores conspiracy theories, ‘UFOlogy’, space aliens as
a reflection of identity, and how the internet has facili-
tated the development of that identity. She takes one
huge component of these modern tales of quests for
meaning (aliens) and provides a framework for under-
standing their reasons for being.

Dean says that before the info age, people on
the fringes were disempowered politically, scientifically,
etc. These people with ‘far-out’ experiences of reality
remained isolated. Today they have a network of com-
munications. The internet can get the message out and
provide support groups. "They can reclaim their ratio-
nality on their own terms." (p.8)

That the United States seems to produce the
most alien abductees fits within a broad cultural con-
text of colonialism, exceptionalism through technology,
and a profound American belief in projecting ‘shadows’:
outwards onto the ‘other’.

"Most societies have cultural traditions that
establish and interpret relationships between Earth, its
people, and the cosmos. But the United States is
exceptional. Emerging out of tradition of stories about
the "frontier" experience, the American exploration of
outer space came to be linked to the achievements of
technology and democracy." (pp.19-20)

Dean goes on to say that the American
understanding of outer space, technology and democ-
racy go hand in hand with colonialist ideals. "Until the
space program (in the 1950's) the United States rarely
presented itself explicitly as a colonial power, although
expansionism has been integral to its self-understand-
ing. By the re-iteration of the expansive fantasy of the
wild lawless West, the metaphor of a "frontier" tapped
into earlier notions of American exceptionalism. Indeed,
this very exceptionalism, the success of America's
democratic experiment, was to be revealed and proven
by breaking the laws of gravity, escaping the confines of
Earth, conquering space itself. As America reached out
into this “new frontier’, the rhetoric of outposts, settle-
ments, colonies, and colonialism became part of the
public language of outer space..." (p.19)

The rise of supposed extraterrestrial contact in
the States seems to also give to a notion of confronting
the projection of the fear of the unknown. Americans
seem to want to understand their identity through orga-
nizing against their fears of alien peoples (Irish, Italians),
alien religions (Mormonism, Judaism), alien ideas (com-
munism), illegal aliens (Mexicans), and space aliens.
(p.143) But alien conspiracy theories challenge that
projection, and put a spin on perspective. "...UFOlogy
challenges the assumed vacancy of outer space and
thereby intervenes critically in narratives of national
identity..." (p.20) In outer space we are the aliens.

In a culture that dreams big, bold, and techni-
colour, America also has some nightmarish polarization
happening in its collective reality, too. Conspiracy the-
ories have been one way of dealing with the stuff strug-
gling to get out from under the carpet.

In the 1960's, a man named Richard Hofstadter
wrote an influential essay detailing the essence of con-
spiracy and ‘paranoid style’ in American politics. (p.143)
"For [Hofstadter] [conspiracy theories] can only be signs
of pathology, deviations from the right and reasonable
procedures of consensus politics. For him, there are
only two kinds of politics, normal and distorted, and the
possibility that the normal is itself a myth, illusion, or
simplification deployed in ways that prevent its contes-
tation never arises." (p.144)

The question of what is ‘normal’ reality, and
whose reality is it anyways, seems to lie at the heart of
this outta space matter.

"Rejecting reality has become possible because
of the culturally widespread move toward inscribing
knowledge onto that which is known primarily through
experience. "(p.107) Realities which, historically, have
been ignored or suppressed, have slowly accumulated
exposure. Knowledge gained at the margins has
demanded more of a voice to be heard, through the
progressive activism of liberation movements (e.g. femi-
nism, civil rights, ACT UP, etc.)

"The uncommonality of reality is not simply the
result of global immigration and migration. It is more
than an effect of the beginning of the end of some
practices of repression and discrimination. For accom-
panying the shift to a stress on experience as a primary
source of knowledge has been a technological reconfig-
uration of experience..., what do we do when experi-
ences are reconstituted so radically that we can't tell if
we, or anyone else, actually has them or not? "(pp.107-
108)

Individuals who hold claims to experiences so
radically outside the parameters of public debate have
to push at the borders of cultural discussion to be heard.
North American, so-called democratic, public space does
Conspiracy Culture........

A ‘crisis in mean-
ing’ leads to E.T.’s in
bed with transgres-
sive colonizers! Or
something. Wait
that’s not really
what happened...

‘When | first started asking my friends for their
favourite conspiracy theories, the answers were expect-
ed. Oh yes, yes, | had already heard that George Bush
was involved in drug-running through the CIA, and that
a handful of families controlled the world. The most
obvious theory was that governments were in bed with
big business. "That's not a theory,” | thought to
myself, "that's global economic poli

As per usual, aliens proliferated, and procreated
with their special alien powers. | think the one | liked
the best was that Jerry Garcia was in cahoots with the
IA, shoveling LSD down the throats of hippies so they
wouldn't organize and become involved in political
struggles.

But | also heard stories | hadn't heard before:
right-wing conspiracy theories about varying racial
groups who were plotting to take over the world. And
Us militia movements who were ready to do armed
combat to preserve the purity of the ‘American Dream*

| realized that | was selective in granting my
belief in certain theories. If the story was compelling,
and told with dramatic flare (ie.: David Icke’s tale that
Queen Elizabeth is a shape-shifting, lizard, space alien;
pass it on!) then | was more open to it. | realized it was
the story that grabbed me, not necessarily the validity,
or the capital 'T’ truth, of the theory.

1 also started to wonder why we tell ourselves
such stories? Are these tales of paranoia and suspi-
cion modern-day mythologies for a culture consumed
with lies? Sometimes, it feels ike we swirl in cesspools
of lies leeched out of governments, business, media,
community leaders, family, friends, and especially our-
selves. Everyone denies everything until the last possi-
ble moment nowadays: the rich get off with good
lawyers, and the poor underclass gets stuck with the
fallout from the lies of fire. Paranoia runs rampant.

@“

Perhaps we've reached a point in our search for
capital "T* truth, and a good story, where we need to
take back the search. With the advance of information
technology allowing greater communication between
heretofore powerless peoples, and with a millennial rise
in the search for cosmological meaning, more individu-
als are creating their own stories of how the world
works.

In her book, Aliens in America, Jodi Dean
explores conspiracy theories, ‘UFOlogy’, space aliens as
a reflection of identity, and how the internet has facili
tated the development of that identity. She takes one
huge component of these modern tales of quests for
‘meaning (aliens) and provides a framework for under-
standing their reasons for being.

Dean says that before the info age, people on
the fringes were disempowered politically, scientifically,
etc. These people with ‘far-out’ experiences of realty
remained isolated. Today they have a network of com-
munications. The internet can get the message out and
provide support groups. “They can reclaim their ratio-
nality on their own terms." (p.8)

That the United States seems to produce the
most alien abductees fits within a broad cultural con-
text of colonialism, exceptionalism through technology,
and a profound American belief in projecting ‘shadows’
‘outwards onto the ‘other’

"Most societies have cultural traditions that
establish and interpret relationships between Earth, its
people, and the cosmos, But the United States is
exceptional. Emerging out of tradition of stories about
the “frontier” experience, the American exploration of
‘outer space came to be linked to the achievements of
technology and democracy." (pp.19-20)

Dean goes on to say that the American
understanding. of outer space, technology and democ-
racy go hand in hand with colonialist ideals. “Until the
space program (in the 1950's) the United States rarely
presented itself explicitly as a colonial power, although
expansionism has been integral to its self-understand-
ing. By the re-iteration of the expansive fantasy of the
wild lawless West, the metaphor of a “frontier” tapped
into earlier notions of American exceptionalism. Indeed,
this very exceptionalism, the success of America's
democratic experiment, was to be revealed and proven
by breaking the laws of gravity, escaping the confines of
Earth, conquering space itself. As America reached out
into this "new frontier’, the rhetoric of outposts, settle-
ments, colonies, and colonialism became part of the
public language of outer space..." (p.19)

The rise of supposed extraterrestrial contact in
the States seems to also give to a notion of confronting
the projection of the fear of the unknown. Americans
seem to want to understand their identity through orga-
nizing against their fears of alien peoples (Irish, Italians),
alien religions (Mormonism, Judaism), alien ideas (com-
munism), illegal aliens (Mexicans), and space aliens.
(p.143) But alien conspiracy theories challenge that
Projection, and put a spin on perspective. "...UFOlogy
challenges the assumed vacancy of outer space and
thereby intervenes critically in narratives of national
identity..." (p.20) In outer space we are the aliens.

Ina culture that dreams big, bold, and techni-
colour, America also has some nightmarish polarization
happening in its collective reality, too. Conspiracy the-
cries have been one way of dealing with the stuff strug-
‘ling to get out from under the carpet.

In the 1960's, a man named Richard Hofstadter
wrote an influential essay detailing the essence of con-
spiracy and ‘paranoid style’ in American politics. (p.143)
“For (Hofstadter] [conspiracy theories] can only be signs
of pathology, deviations from the right and reasonable
procedures of consensus politics. For him, there are
‘only two kinds of politics, normal and distorted, and the
possibility that the normal is itself a myth, illusion, or
simplification deployed in ways that prevent its contes-
tation never arises." (p.144)

The question of what is ‘normal’ reality, and
whose reality is it anyways, seems to lie at the heart of
this outta space matter.

"Rejecting reality has become possible because
of the culturally widespread move toward inscribing
knowledge onto that which is known primarily through
‘experience. *(p.107) Realities which, historically, have
been ignored or suppressed, have slowly accumulated
exposure. Knowledge gained at the margins has
demanded more of a voice to be heard, through the
progressive activism of liberation movements (e.g. ferni-
nism, civil rights, ACT UP, etc.)

“The uncommonality of reality is not simply the
result of global immigration and migration. It is more
than an effect of the beginning of the end of some
practices of repression and discrimination. For accom-
panying the shift to a stress on experience as a primary
source of knowledge has been a technological reconfig-
tration of experience..., what do we do when experi-
ences are reconstituted so radically that we can't tell if
‘we, or anyone else, actually has them or not? *(pp.107-
108)

Individuals who hold claims to experiences so
radically outside the parameters of public debate have

to push at the borders of cultural discussion to be heard.
North American, so-called democratic, public space does