2010 edition – Norton Agency 1st edition
(16) JONATHAN VANKIN & JOHN WHALEN – GREATEST CONSPIRACIES OF ALL TIME
The other modern folklore par excellence, where history meets mythology – conspiracy theories need no introduction, particularly on the internet, that conspiracy theory kitchen sink(hole).
There is of course a plethora of conspiracy theories – it seems at least one for every significant contemporary event at this point. Enough for their own top ten – in some cases enough for their own top ten just with respect to particular events (hello 9/11 and JFK).
Or indeed for their own top ten a number of times over in general – which leads me to this special mention entry which does just that, and is of course irresistible to me combining top ten type lists with conspiracy theories. These compilations of Greatest Conspiracies of All Time went from 50 in its original edition before tapping out at the 80 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time in its last edition in 2004. No doubt they could have piled up more to at least 100 (or 200) in the two decades since.
Interestingly, both writers were also writers of comics and it is intriguing how often comic storylines overlap with conspiracy theories. Indeed, I suspect I could compile a top ten of comics based on the premise of overarching conspiracy theories – Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, Nick Spencer’s Morning Glories, and Jonathan Hickman’s The Manhattan Projects to name a few.
Of course, my favorite section of the books was for the various overarching grand unifying theories of conspiracies – with the Illuminati as my favorite.
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Murray Rothbard proposed a model of types of conspiracy theory contrasting deep conspiracy theories to shallow ones, with the latter observing an event and asking cui bono or who benefits, “jumping to the conclusion that a posited beneficiary is responsible for covertly influencing events”.
As Vankin and Whalen lamented in their books, conspiracy theories have become pretty lazy these days – and they tapped out in 2004, before the internet truly transformed conspiracy theories into something which could spring into existence with the click of a button. Previously, conspiracy theories involved the meticulous, even obsessive, compilation of facts or evidence. Now, it’s mostly along the lines of Rothbard’s shallow conspiracy theories – simply proposing a beneficiary or motive behind any event, which is pretty easy to do, and asserting that as a conspiracy.
RATING: 4 STARS****
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)