The Age of Anxiety: Conspiracy Theory and the Human Sciences by Jane Parish; Martin Parker Review by:

Simon Irvine Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jan., 2003), pp. 64-65 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3089852 . Accessed: 01/10/2012 03:13
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, world to ourselves"(p. 10). Far from characterizing conspiracy practitioners as seeking simple answers to complex situations, the authors (mostly) see practitionersas "sophisticated consumers"whose skepticism regarding expert authority and consensus knowledge is both inventive and a necessary condition for existence. Despite its favorable approach to the subject matter,however, there are some reservations raised concerning conspiracy theory. This is most evident in Mark Featherstone's chapter that deals with the ideological impliTheAge of Anxiety:ConspiracyTheory and the cations of conspiracy theory. Featherstone Human Sciences, edited by Jane Parish and argues that this form of theorizing tends to Martin Parker. Oxford, UK; Maiden, MA: leave capitalist ideology unchallenged, Blackwell Publishers, 2001. 216 pp. $29.95 because it reproduces the atomistic and asocial understandings of individualismthat paper. ISBN:0-631-23168-4. underpin it. As a child of neoliberal political SIMONIRVINE ideologies that "foregroundthe rights of the University of Queensland, Australia individual at the expense of all others" popolitik@yahoo. com.au (p. 31), modem conspiracy theory's paranoid style magnifies the fear of absolute otherness TheAge of Anxiety is an articulatedefense of that is implied in neoliberalism's atomized conspiracy theory, that much-maligned form individualism. of knowledge productiontraditionally associFeatherstone's chapter provides a sound ated with right-wing malcontents and com- criticismof conspiracy that avoids the pitfalls puter geeks. The editors of this collection of constructinga more sophisticated conspirhave gathered articles from scholars working acy or "structural explanation"to debunk its in a range of disciplines, and have produced of analysis. That is, it avoids postulatobject a book that examines (and celebrates) coning a higher explanation to dismiss the lowspiracy theory, or more precisely, conspiracy er one. Indeed, this is the article and book's theorizing, in almost all its guises. These greatest strength and most profound insight. range from the right-wingeschatology of the In a deliberateprovocation of academic gateAmerican militia movement, to the densely keepers, the authors in this collection layered paranoiaof the popular culturalphe- demonstratethat conspiracy theories and the nomenon that is the X-Files, to the unique human sciences are more alike then some worldview of Mr Grey, the Pan-Afrikanist (skeptical) scholars might like to believe. Far from Montserrat, and ultimately,to the more from being a sloppy or clumsy approach to acceptable theory generated in the halls of knowledge production used by the "semiacademe. The belief that binds all of these erudite,"conspiracy theory is like the human disparate chapters is that the present post- sciences in that "bothare attemptsto provide modem moment has witnessed a populariza- explanatory myths for mass societies in that tion and growing acceptance of conspiracy they claim to uncover (supposedly) 'hidden' thinking and that this is not an unwelcome plots or machineries that have caused a pardevelopment. This is not to suggest that the ticular state of affairsor event to take place" various authors all accept an epistemology (p. 191). As David Bell and Lee-Jane that posits shadowy cabals as the secret per- Bennion-Nixon cheekily suggest in their petrators of all that is evil. Rather, what is chapter concerning popular culture and conbeing celebrated here is conspiracy theoriz- spiracy, "(T)he only difference between the ing and practices, an approach that permits intellectual and the 'semi-erudite' might be people to plot connections, assemble possi- the names we give to the agents of our conbilities, and interpretinformationin a culture spiracies" (p. 148). So, while the Christian of risk where there are no longer any "over- Patriotmay lay the blame for their woes on a arching cosmologies" left to "explain the secret Jewish plot, the Marxistmay identify 32, Sociology 1 Contemporary

64 Ideology and Cultural Production ,_ _ I a critical theory of science, technology, and the economy. Of course, these criticisms and recommendations are not new, and it is unlikely that this work will facilitatechange in either the sciences or in the capitalistappropriation and development of new technologies. Still, ThePostmodernAdventuredoes advance the state of criticalpostmodern theory by initiating the fusion of certain modern and postmodern elements.

Ideology and Cultural Production

65

the machinations of capital as the cause of both the pages of Bram Stoker's Dracula and the same problem. What is importanthere is the opening lines of Hunter S. Thompson's that both claim to have access to some deep- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Far more er level of explanation not available to the often, such observations are connected to the materialization, either on the air waves or at layman. To lend weight to this bold assertion of a public event, of proponents of a steadily methodological congruence, many of the deepening overburden of "conspiracy theoauthors in this collection have utilized con- ries" that has settled on contemporary spiracy narrativesto augment and substanti- American society like debris from Horbiger's ate their various arguments and, in the case third moon. of Simon Lilley's chapter concerning social Most of us know the score by now, at science funding, the entire thesis has been least in part. Way out West, especially in presented as a conspiracy. This approach Nevada, there is an entire population dedimakes for an enjoyable read and, more cated to promoting the proposition that the important,it provides the criticallegitimation federal government has entered into a secret for what was previously an academic four- alliance with a gaggle of UFO-jockeying letterword. By "recognizingconspiracy theo- space aliens bent on enslaving humanity. In ry as social and cultural theory (and vice Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas, the comversa)" (p. 149), the book's authors have mon folk seem equally intent on believing demonstrated that is possible to deconstruct that the country has been taken over by one's own sanctimonious high ground and ZOG, Israel's "Zionist Occupation Governapproach the predominantly mass/popular ment," which is busily working its will on the phenomenon of conspiracy theory with an U.S. body politic. How? By using black heliopen mind. While this does not mean that copters filled with nefarious UN commandos any old socially dysfunctional fringe lunatic to surgically eliminate "key patriots" who, of should be taken at their word, it does mean course, usually turn out to be Birchers and that provision should be made "for the Posse Comitatus members from around the acknowledgement of genuine conspiracies Great Plains. (calling a spade a spade)" (p. 126). By recThose resident to the more urbane East ognizing the genuine insights of such popu- Coast have no room to snicker about what lar knowledge production, intellectuals may the hicks are thinking in the Great Outback, also reap the benefits of a shift in the public's either. It was enlightened Boston, after all, perception of them. Ratherthan being seen that provided fertile ground for the self-proas latte sipping pinkoes in collusion with the claimed fascist," "hegemonic Lyndon shadowy elites, we might just become sym- LaRouche, to peddle his fables about a cenpathetic comrades of a populous whose "uni- turies-long plot by the Illuminati to take over versalized skepticism (will) become a force the world, a "peril" manifested most recently which assists resistance to the 'real'conspira- in England's Queen Elizabeth II having cies that shape the world behind our backs" assumed the role of head planetary dope (p. 15). dealer. Down South, they are more inclined
Conspiracy Nation: The Politics of Paranoia in Postwar America, edited by Peter Knight. New York: New York University Press, 2002. 278 pp. $55.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-8147-4735-3. $18.50 paper. ISBN: 0-8147-4736-1. WARD CHURCHILL University of Colorado "The bats are really out tonight," or so the saying goes. Seldom are those making the statement referring to the small flying mammals whose countenance so famously adorns to replace LaRouche's neo-Bavarian skulkers with the Vatican or those timelessly sinister manipulators, the Freemasons; in California, evil tobacco corporations usually fill the bill (did you know that "environmental tobacco smoke" is the "leading cause" of flat tires, and that R. J. Reynolds has recently diversified into manufacturing tire repair kits?). Then, there are those who subscribe to the notion of a wantonly murderous amalgam of covert operators whacking not only John, but Robert Kennedy, and Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, and maybe Tupac Shakur, to boot. Contemporary Sociology32, 1