The red, white and paranoid
Conspiracy theories go back to the founding of the nation, `Eye of Power' author asserts
In his new book, “Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy,” Colin Dickey wastes no time getting to the point. “The United States was born in paranoia,” he writes in the book's introduction. “It has been with this country from the very beginning, shadowing it ever since.”
It's a sobering reminder that conspiracy theories didn't start with Pizzagate, QAnon or any of the other dangerous belief systems that have recently taken hold in American society — this has been going on since the 18th century.
Dickey's book takes a look at some of the more notable conspiracy theories that have, at one time or another, captured the nation's imagination, including the Illuminati, Henry Ford's infamous antisemitic lies and the “Satanic panic” of the 1980s. Underscoring the book is a series of questions: Where do these theories come from, and why do people believe them?
“Under the Eye of Power” is the fifth book from cultural historian Dickey, who has previously written about haunted places in “Ghostland” and mysterious phenomena in “The Unidentified.” Dickey grew up in the Bay Area and lived in Los Angeles from 19992012, where he was educated at CalArts and USC.
lyn, where he now
lives.
conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Q
Are conspiracy theories something you've been interested in for a long time?
A
I've been researching them for a while, ever since I wrote this essay for The Believer about conspiracy theories involving musical tuning and why concert instruments are tuned the way they are. That seemed like just a wacky, fun story until I got into the weeds and found out that there was actually this kind of darker underbelly to a lot of that. Ever since then, I've been aware that even the kookiest and most fun conspiracy theories often have a darker, weirder edge to them. I really wanted to try and understand that, and I've been researching that in various forms for the past 10 years.