Conspiracy Theory: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

By Robin Burcell

Leave a comment for Robin this weekend and you'll be entered in a drawing for a free copy of The Black List.

 I’ve always been a fan of conspiracy theory—the sort relating to Templar treasures, the Masons, and Washington, D.C. being run by a handful of millionaires. Not that I necessarily believe all of it, or even the vast majority.  But I do find it extremely entertaining as a form of fiction. The question is why? What makes it so interesting? Isn’t it just the ramblings of the paranoid? Or is there something more to it? Something real, tangible?

More than likely, it is a little of both.

I think my fascination with conspiracy theory started with the movie by the same name starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts, as well as Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman. Both movies are about ordinary people going about their ordinary lives, then suddenly falling prey to some governmental plot to eliminate them because they had accidentally and unknowingly witnessed something or found something that could possibly blow the lid off a major government scandal.

Conspiracy theory has been around for a long, long time. Historians battle it, news stations love it. The higher profile the event, the more likely it is that conspiracy theorists will have placed the blame on the government or that cabal of millionaires (some who are politicians, I’m sure) trying to rule the world.

Who wants to believe that one lone man is insane enough to take a life or dozens of lives, or even hundreds of lives? How can anyone be that deranged? How could we possibly walk outside? Or send our children out there? Because if it’s not some government plot, then it could be our next-door-neighbor, or the guy in line behind us at the grocery store, or sitting next to us on the subway.

We could be next.

Perhaps by believing in conspiracy theory, we take the Russian roulette element out of the horrible things that have happened in this world and we rationalize the evil by believing that since there really is a cabal out there plotting to overtake the world and that this is just part of their master plan, it’s not going to touch us. We didn’t see the secret documents, or learn the identity of the high-ranking person involved in an assassination who must remain unidentified. The recent killing/s was/were a cover up. Not random at all. The unexplainable can be explained and we can continue on with our lives and know that we will be safe.

I watched the film JFK the other night, about the conspiracy surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. By the film’s conclusion, I believed in the conspiracy, at least as it related to the film. I’m still not sure who was behind it, or exactly what the conspiracy was about beyond Cuba and the Bay of Pigs, maybe even the CIA (they always make good fictional bad guys), but definitely that a conspiracy existed, starting with the fact that there was more than one shooter.

What makes these conspiracy stories stand the test of time is that there’s a bit of truth in every one. And that’s what I do in my books. I make sure they include some historical facts, then tweak them so that my characters can investigate and uncover the actual reason as to why something did or did not happen. I try to include a Fact or Fiction at the end of each of my books detailing where the premises for the stories came from, and what is tweaked and what is true. Some of the real life conspiracies that I’ve used for inspiration are: BCCI, the bank used by the CIA for their black ops in Iran-Contra. It became BICTT in Face of a Killer. Propaganda Due (P2), the clandestine Italian Masonic lodge that nearly crippled the Italian government inspired my version, Ci-Tre (C3) in The Bone Chamber. Chimera viruses and profit-driven pharmaceutical companies were part of The Dark Hour, and charities fleecing the government to bring refugees into the country all to line their coffers were part of The Black List.

Naturally my intrepid FBI agents and covert agents from ATLAS investigate and restore order to the world. And isn’t that why we turn to fiction? We not only want to be entertained, but we want to have that hope and belief that someone out there is going to save us, whether it’s the FBI or another character. Maybe it gives us hope for the future. In real life, the more horrific the event, the more we need and search for that hope. Why then would we even consider conspiracy theory?

The answer is simple. It gives a rational explanation for the irrational.

 Leave a comment for Robin this weekend and you'll be entered in a drawing for a free copy of The Black List.
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Robin Burcell worked as a police officer, detective, hostage negotiator, and forensic artist, and is the author of 9 novels. The Black List is her latest international thriller about an FBI forensic artist. Visit her at www.RobinBurcell.com,  https://twitter.com/RobinBurcell, and http://www.facebook.com/robin.burcell