Yesterday I read an interesting review of a new book in the Sunday Times, about conspiracy theories, and the history of them.
'Their theories and pronouncements have been widely disseminated, and admired, on the internet, which is, of course, the conspiracy theorists’ natural habitat: a vast maelstrom of mis*information, the cyber-equivalent of that huge floating gyre of rubbish in the Pacific.'
'Conspiracy theories may be psychologically necessary, suggests Aaronovitch. Like certain types of drug addiction, such beliefs may be the self-medication to salve a deep-er disorder: the desperate sense that nothing means anything any more.'
Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History by David Aaronovitch review | Non-fiction book reviews - Times Online
I hope I'm not unknowingly being used, by posting this link.
