The Illuminati myth
Pagès, Yves
The Illuminati myth
1
From the religious and secular far right in France to the Black Power movement and the hip-hop stratosphere, the myth of a conspiracy orchestrated by the “Illuminati” has seeped into the conspiracy theorist imagination, coalescing into a universal archetype. Its volatile evolutions and ability to insinuate itself into diametrically opposed cultural and political worlds give a better idea of the seductive power of the conspiracy theory than any academic treatise could: the power to construct a causal architecture that explains everything we encounter in the social world… and be believed. Among other nefarious effects, conspiracy theories tend to swallow up certain aspects of the anticapitalist critique, disposed by definition to identify a powerful elite with a set of shared interests and goals.
The Illuminati myth
1
From the religious and secular far right in France to the Black Power movement and the hip-hop stratosphere, the myth of a conspiracy orchestrated by the “Illuminati” has seeped into the conspiracy theorist imagination, coalescing into a universal archetype. Its volatile evolutions and ability to insinuate itself into diametrically opposed cultural and political worlds give a better idea of the seductive power of the conspiracy theory than any academic treatise could: the power to construct a causal architecture that explains everything we encounter in the social world… and be believed. Among other nefarious effects, conspiracy theories tend to swallow up certain aspects of the anticapitalist critique, disposed by definition to identify a powerful elite with a set of shared interests and goals.
Réseaux sociaux