conspiracy?

I overheard my brother talking to a friend yesterday about conspiracy theorists. This friend works at a hotel that recently hosted a conspiracy theorists’ convention, much like a comic book or sci-fi convention, except everyone payed in cash so as not to leave a paper trail. Strange.

But it made me think of the pop-culture fascination we have with conspiracy theories, enough to have an actual movie with top-line stars Julia Roberts and Mel Gibson (and I would add Patrick Stewart to the “top-line” list) called “Conspiracy Theory.” More than that, we even have a Simpsons parody of conspiracy theories, in which Homer writes a conspiracy theory newsletter and gets abducted by the government because one of his cockamamie theories accidentally turns out to be true (something about the government exercising mind control through flu shots, I think). My opinion is that if the Simpsons have made fun of it, then it’s here to stay.

So we have this obsession with conspiracy theories. Being subject to a vivid imagination myself, and having a high suspension of disbelief with most books and movies, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these wild theories turned out to be true. I do think we landed on the moon, but things like secret societies controlling the media could be very possible. I do think censorship is real and alive, at least. But the fact is, a lot of these things don’t change our daily routines very much. They affect us only remotely even if they are real. So why do people care? I guess it gives our world an air of mystery, I could almost say romance. There is more to us humans than just face value, and for people without religion it could give us a sense of value. I don’t really know. But what with blockbusters like “Bourne Identity” and other espionage-type movies, there is something to mysteries and conspiracies that really tantalizes the imagination.