Brian M Downing
Concern with immense, sinister forces working behind the scenes has been with us since the country’s founding, if not before. Richard Hofstadter sketched some manifestations in The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1964) – the Bavarian Illuminati, Freemasonry, Roman Catholicism, and World Communism.
Hofstadter noted a few plots that a senator’s constituents feverishly warned him of – thousands of Chinese troops about to invade from Mexico, the US military falling under UN control, and an impending military exercise actually being a coup. Fifty years later, social media and emails are circulating with remarkably similar claims.
What makes conspiracies and paranoia widespread? The bases are mainstream and simple. Political and religious rhetoric warn of actual or at least intelligible outside dangers, establishing receptors, or a template, for conspiratorial thinking. Outlandish politicians and clerics make unreasoning claims, strengthening the template in many.
Politics
Countries begin when areas resent distant rule and fight to break free. America fits in here. Colonists resented British taxes, encroachments by the Anglican hierarchy, and the presence of Redcoats, often quartered in homes and farmhouses.
Seven years of war brought independence but outside dangers persisted – the British again in 1812 and indirectly during the Civil War. Later, Imperial Germany, the Third Reich, and the Japanese Empire endangered our territory and way of life. Foreign navies struck Hawaii or sank commercial ships within sight of coastal towns.
After WW2, communism threatened from within and without. The homelands of American citizens were occupied and foreign agents were at work. One threat replaced the other.
Foreign dangers have often been overstated. This was especially so with world communism. But of course Stalin and Mao had dark ambitions and their orders filled graveyards. Twenty years ago who would have believed Islamist militants could strike so hard a blow inside the US?
With overstatement comes the demonization of foreign powers. They were not simply adversaries, they were endowed with astounding cunning and power. Those who sympathized with them were dupes and no longer worthy of rights. Around this point, a political position becomes paranoid.
Religion
Most religions see the world as a struggle between good and evil, virtue and sin – a fight that decides one’s place in the next world. In some sects, demons are hard at work. After the appearance of an antichrist, the corridors of history lead to the final battle between the forces of light and darkness.
Warnings of dark outside forces sounded from pulpits. The big city, evolution and science, alcohol and gambling, and immigrants from strange lands figured prominently. Scripture and devoted preachers kept the faithful from sin and decay. The integrity of the ministers varied greatly, from Josiah Royce to Elmer Gantry, but the message was fairly consistent.
Worldly conflicts take on religious importance. John Adams saw British actions in the 1770s as “a direct and formal design on foot to enslave America.” The Mexican War was an effort to extend slavery. The Civil War saw the armies of the just defeat slavery’s minions. Hymns fused religion and warfare.
The same religiosity can be found in mobilizations for the world wars. The Third Reich was a serviceable stand-in for Evil. The same holds for the long struggle against the Soviet Union.
Politics and religion, then, have established an enduring rhetorical style and mental template, one that sees the world as a struggle between internal good and immense, outside evils. The outlook has been an important, often positive aspect of our history, especially in defeating legitimate foreign dangers. Some of the rhetoric is measured and reasonable, some delves into conspiracy and paranoia.
The deterioration of traditional beliefs in the Vietnam era brought confusion, anomie, and a proliferation of conspiratorial thinking. There was a rush to cash in. There still is.
© 2020 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to Susan Ganosellis.