Conspiracy Theories

Fear stalks humanity wherever it goes. It feeds on our panic and uncertainty. This is seen throughout 1692, the 1950s, and the present, when a leader with great power creates a solution to a problem that people did not even know they had to fear people begin to fear as well as the cycle of innocent people falsely confessing adding to the fear.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” What is fear? Fear can be a noun or a verb. In the noun form, it is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. In the verb form, it is to be afraid of someone or something that is dangerous, painful, or threatening. If one person looks into fear, then that person becomes feared. But imagine a whole society or community looking into fear. The fear not only gets larger as it spreads, but it also gets more fearful than it already is. The power of fear can be displayed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and in Ronald Oakley’s “The Great Fear”. As fear moves on from one mind to the next, it leaves the

Superstition is a belief based on past experiences and not facts. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the Puritans were living in Salem, Massachusetts but are very superstitious. Part of the reason why is because they are avid believers in two different worlds: the natural world and the invisible world. There are also strong believers in the idea that God gives signs, good or bad, to express how he feels about them during certain times. For example, a natural disaster may signify that the Puritans are doing something wrong. The Puritans were superstitious because they are paranoid people.

Both Salem, Massachusetts in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and post 9/11 America are societies that dread witches or terrorists and tries to identify and eliminate them. When people find something that they are afraid of, they will do everything in their power to get rid of that fear. It will not matter to them what they have to do in order to eliminate their unease. Any fear that is great enough can take over people and make them do horrible, unjust things.

They put things in the newspapers and social media and other things to scare us from knowing the real truth behind everything. The fear of the unknown is most likely one of the scariest things. The government uses that to control how we live on a daily basis. In Station Eleven, the prophet controls the people.

Life is full of superstition, whether you like it or not everybody has some sort of superstition in them. Some people don’t let some things go to their head like others do. Some people can get really stubborn if something suspicious happens. I am one of them people, it is really hard to get suspicion out of your head, it is one of them things that once you do it, it is hard to not have those thoughts in your head. And in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn you will see the cause and effects of the use of suspicion. The main character, Huck Finn, used superstition as a means to keep him going in search of his true self and find interesting ways to live life the only way he knew.

Thunder and lightning crashing from the high heavens, scaring you out of your mind. You turn to your safety device, a blanket. It’ soothing and helps ground you from the terrifying ordeal you are going through. The same thing can be said of conspiracy theories, they help to comfort people from uncertainty and fear, and that’s why people believe them. An example would be JFKs assassination, simply put a man by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed the president single handedly. There was a great deal of fear surrounding

Fear in control During the 1600s the fear of witches arose in Salem. This made people doubtful about the love of God people with ‘bad reputation’ had. In the 1950s people questioned the loyalty of citizens towards the United States and the uprising accusations of the being communist. The use of an allegory can be used as “a story in which people, things and events have a meaning often instructive (Agnes 17).”

September 11, 2001, was a day that caused physical and emotional destruction because of the terror attacks that took place at the World Trade Center and the Twin Towers.There are many conspiracy theories that have come up causing great speculation of what actually happened and are argued to this day.A conspiracy theory is a theory that explains an event as a result or secret plan organized by a covert group.Many conspiracists believe that the United States government was behind the 9/11 attacks and altered the events and information and persuaded citizens into believing that the Islamic group Al-Qaeda was responsible. Similarly in 1984 by George Orwell, the government alters the truth to keep control of the country.The main protagonist Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth where he works to destroy any evidence where Big Brother could be called into question and also changes how events happened to fit the Party’s expectations.The purpose of his job is for the other citizens to continue to believe that Oceania is a perfect place to live in because of its economic, social, and military dominance. The Party is also responsible for watching and hearing everything that happens in Oceania.The Thought Police placed telescreens in every household and through these telescreens everything someone does can be seen and heard leaving no one with privacy; comparable to how after the 9/11 attacks, security across the United States tightened up. Anything that was seen as suspicious

Fear can lead people to believe nothing is as it seems and draw their own conclusions about political issues exaggerating or altering the “truth”; “everybody wants to believe that everything is not random and that somebody has control” (Katel 893). Conspiracy theories emerge from the necessity of explaining rare events or apparent coincidences, and its bases are mainly fear and distrust of government and leadership. Not all conspiracies are harmless, and since they spread so easily and quickly, they might represent a threat to the society (Katel 901). The first American conspiracy, for instance, was introduced in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, when 20 women and men were executed since people accused them of being witches (Katel 893). As long as people feel frightened, they would act irrationally appealing to support conspiracy theories. In this case, fear is not the only motivation to believe in conspiracies, but also hate is an important

On a smaller scale, those on the fringe of society like Alex Jones, connect the various conspiracy theories, such the JFK assassination, covert government mind control experiments, and corruption to a greater scheme by wealthy elites. Who he argues, want to cripple governments in order to take over the world, and create a global communist regime, via the U.N and World banks.). A quick search on YouTube provides on abundance of videos claiming to reveal the illuminati’s secret plans. However, most American’s remain skeptical of those assertions. But, on the other hand, many do remain skeptical of official accounts. In fact, most Americans distrust the media and the government, which rises it’s own issues. Because, while criticism of authority is healthy, if the public does not trust any institution then government becomes stagnant, and is unable to solve the major issues currently facing society. Hopefully, at this point, you are wondering, what does this have to do with the JFK assassination? Well, for many scholars, the Kennedy assassination marked the beginning of public alienation and apathy towards the government and politics*. Moreover, his assassination marked a pivot from an era of trust and confidence the intuitions and leaders of government to one of deep distrust and cynicism. However, in depth research on the early Cold war era reveals that conspiracy theories have been a part of American culture since the

       Likewise, in the essays, "New Superstitions for Old" by Margaret Mead and "Superstitious Minds" by Letty Cottin Pogrebin discussed the superstitious beliefs possessed by individuals as well as the ritual practices that followed with these superstitions. Margaret Mead and Letty Cottin Pogrebin noted every

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” When FDR said this at his inaugural address, he impacted millions without realizing it. Although it was originally meant to help ease the worry of millions of Americans during the Great Depression (in a time of chaos), it still applies to today and will continue to apply for years to come. It applies with the 2016 election, as many people believe that Trump won not because he was the better candidate, but because he played to people’s fears in a time of disorder. It even applies to Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, when a community of boys are stranded on an island alone and attempt to make their own civilization. It also occurs in “Night Surf,” a short story by Stephen King about a group of lone teenagers who

There are a  multitude of superstitions, such as the belief in Russia that if a bird left excrement on your property, you would become rich. Another unusual superstition was that in Ancient Britain, people carried acorns with them so that they would stay young. This superstition might seem the strangest- the belief that if you look into a mirror, it captures your soul! Even though we have several strange superstitions, this is not close to the amount of superstitions people in the Middle Ages believed in. Unlike them, we have a vast expanse of knowledge that helps us understand life. People living in the Middle Ages did not, so they created a myriad of abnormal superstitions on what they did not understand. Superstitions are not scientifically proven, and should not be believed until proved otherwise. Just as nearly all myths and folk tales, the majority of superstitions are not real, but instead are

In the Ancient Greek times, superstitious practices were introduced to the commonfolk, but it did not become a “popular” practice until the late 1800’s (Burns 1). Throughout the novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, it is evident that superstitions are practiced similarly to religion by the children in the community. The author, Mark Twain, uses superstitions to construct a theme of prosperity and chance. Although many people believe superstitions are an act of foolishness, the truth is Tom and many others believed and practiced superstitious activities for such things as curing cramps, finding lost marbles, and even removing warts.