2009-02-01 The trouble with conspiracy theories

2009-02-01 Edward Feser Counterknowledge \conspiracy theory http://counterknowledge.com/2009/02/the-trouble-with-conspiracy-theories/ The trouble with conspiracy theories The trouble with conspiracy theories  People who think the U.S. government was complicit in 9/11 or in the JFK assassination sometimes complain that those who dismiss them as â€œconspiracy theoristsâ€ are guilty of inconsistency. For donâ€™t the defenders of the â€œofficial storyâ€ behind 9/11 themselves believe in a conspiracy, namely one masterminded by Osama bin Laden? Donâ€™t they acknowledge the existence of conspiracies like Watergate, as well as everyday garden variety criminal conspiracies?

The objection is superficial. Critics of the best known â€œconspiracy theoriesâ€ donâ€™t deny the possibility of conspiracies per se. Rather they deny the possibility, or at least the plausibility, of conspiracies of the scale of those posited by 9/11 and JFK assassination skeptics. One reason for this has to do with considerations about the nature of modern bureaucracies, especially governmental ones. They are notoriously sclerotic and risk-averse, structurally incapable of implementing any decision without reams of paperwork and committee oversight, and dominated by ass-covering careerists concerned above all with job security. a blanket dismissal of all conspiracy theory based on little more than the assumption that it is impossible within an open society -- dismissing out of hand the idea that open society can be incrementally corrupted, by a series of conspiracies and other events, into a totalitarian one.

This article's glib dismissal of the entire genre of conspiracy theory makes me angry. -{{woozle.init  {{:project:code/show/link}} 