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1 This article is adapted from working papers and
the draft manuscript for Too Close for Comfort, by Chip Berlet & Matthew
N. Lyons, forthcoming, Guilford Press. Many of the themes and ideas expressed
in this paper are the result of our joint work. Seminars hosted by historian
Richard Landes, director of the Center for Millennial Studies (CMS), at
Boston University, helped me frame this discussion, as did discussions
with Sara Diamond, Fred Clarkson, Philip Lamy, Aaron Katz, and Erin Miller.
A number of people, too numerous to list here, graciously made useful comments
based on earlier drafts and conference papers, and I thank them for their
assistance.
Portions of this article first appeared in:
Chip Berlet, "Apocalypse Soon: Are You Targeted as an Agent of
the Antichrist? As the Year 2000 Approaches, the List Grows..." The
Boston Globe, 7/19/98, Focus Section, p. 1.
_______, "Mad as Hell: Right-wing Populism, Fascism, and Apocalyptic
Millennialism," paper presented at the 14th World Congress of Sociology
(XIVe Congrès Mondial de Sociologie), International Sociological
Association, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1998.
_______, "The Ideological Weaponry of the American Right: Dangerous
Classes and Welfare Queens," (L'arsenal idéologique de la
droite américaine: «classes dangereuses» et «welfare
queens»), paper presented at the international symposium, The American
Model: an Hegemonic Perspective for the End of the Millennium?, (Le «modèle
américain»: une perspective hégémonique pour
la fin du millénaire?) sponsored by Group Regards Critiques, University
of Lausanne, Switzerland, May 12, 1998.
_______, "Three Models for Analyzing Conspiracist Mass Movements
of the Right," in Eric Ward, ed., Conspiracies: Real Grievances,
Paranoia, and Mass Movements, (Seattle, Northwest Coalition Against
Malicious Harassment [Peanut Butter Publishing], 1996).
2 The analysis of apocalyptic demonization and
millennialism in this paper is drawn primarily from the following sources:
For apocalypticism: Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy
Belief in Modern American Culture, (Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard
University Press, 1992); Charles B. Strozier, Apocalypse: On the
Psychology of Fundamentalism in America, (Boston: Beacon Press,
1994); Stephen O'Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial
Rhetoric, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Robert Fuller, Naming
the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession, (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1995); Philip Lamy, Millennium Rage: Survivalists,
White Supremacists, and the Doomsday Prophecy, (New York: Plenum,
1996); Damian Thompson, The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow
of the Millennium. (Great Britain: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1996); Richard
K. Fenn, The End of Time: Religion, Ritual, and the Forging of the
Soul, (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1997).
For Christian critiques of conspiracist apocalyptics: Gregory S. Camp, Selling
Fear: Conspiracy Theories and End-Times Paranoia, (Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker Books, 1997); Richard Abanes, End-Time Visions: The Road
to Armageddon?, (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1998); Tom
Sine, Cease Fire: Searching for Sanity in America's Culture Wars,
(Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1995); and Paul T. Coughlin, Secrets,
Plots & Hidden Agendas: What You Don't Know About Conspiracy Theories,
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999).
For progressive challenges to apocalyptic thinking: Lee Quinby, Anti-Apocalypse:
Exercise in Geneological Criticism, (Minneapolis: Univ. of MN Press,
1994); Catherine Keller, Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide
to the End of the World, (Boston: Beacon, 1996).
For apocalyptic demonization: Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan,
(New York: Vintage, 1996); and Norman Cohn, Cosmos, Chaos and the
World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith, (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1993); James A. Aho, This Thing of Darkness:
A Sociology of the Enemy, (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 1994).
3 Pagels, The Origin of Satan, p. 182.
4 This can be found in a wide range of sources;
see: Gerry O'Sullivan, "The Satanism Scare," Postmodern
Culture v.1 n.2 (January, 1991); Jeffrey Victor, "The Search
for Scapegoat Deviants," The Humanist, Sep. /Oct. 1992, pp.
10-13; Leonard Zeskind, "Some Ideas on Conspiracy Theories for a
New Historical Period," in Ward, ed., Conspiracies; Kathleen
M. Blee, "Engendering Conspiracy: Women in Rightist Theories and
Movements," in Ward, Conspiracies; Evan Harrington, "Conspiracy
Theories and Paranoia: Notes from a Mind-Control Conference," Skeptical
Inquirer, Sept./Oct. 1996, pp. 35-42; Kenneth S. Stern, "Militias
and the Religious Right," Freedom Writer, IFAS, October 1996;
Robert M. Price, "Antichrist Superstar and the Paperback Apocalypse:
Rapturous Fiction and Fictitious Rapture," and Nicholas Stix "Apocalypse,
Shmapocalypse: You Say You Want a Revolution," in "On the Millennium," Deolog,
Feb. 1997, online, <http://www.stealth.net/~deolog/297.html>.
5 Lamy, Millennium Rage, pp. 86-88.
6 Chip Berlet, "Three Models for Analyzing
Conspiracist Mass Movements of the Right," in Ward, ed., Conspiracies.
7 Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style
in American Politics," in The Paranoid Style in American Politics
and Other Essays (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965); David Brion Davis,
ed., The Fear of Conspiracy: Images of Un-American Subversion from the
Revolution to the Present, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1971);
Richard O. Curry and Thomas M. Brown, eds., "Introduction," Conspiracy:
The Fear of Subversion in American History, (New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, 1972); George Johnson, Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories
and Paranoia in American Politics (Los Angeles: Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin,
1983); and Frank P. Mintz, The Liberty Lobby and the American Right:
Race, Conspiracy, and Culture (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985); David
H. Bennett, The Party of Fear: The American Far Right from Nativism
to the Militia Movement, (New York: Vintage Books, revised 1995, {1988});
Joel Kovel, Red Hunting in the Promised Land: Anticommunism and the
Making of America, (New York, Basic Books, 1994).
8 Interview with Holly Sklar, 1998; Holly Sklar, Chaos
or Community: Seeking Solutions, Not Scapegoats for Bad Economics,
(Boston: South End Press, 1995); A similar point is made in Mary E. Kelsey
and Mary Thierry Texeira, "Scapegoating at the End of the Millennium:
Symbolic Legislation and the Crisis of Capitalism," paper, American
Sociological Association, (ASA), San Francisco, 1998.
9 For ongoing detailed coverage of these diverse
forms see the quarterly Millennial Prophecy Report, Millennium Watch
Institute, POB 34021, Philadelphia, PA 19101-4021.
There are also eclectic apocalyptic sects. Such groups can turn inward
such as the Heaven's Gate group suicides which flowed from a mixture
of Biblical prophesy, the ancient predictions of Nostradamus, and science
fiction. The Order of the Solar Temple imploded with group suicides in
Canada, France and Switzerland. Sometimes groups turn outward, such as
the Aum Shinrikyo sect which exploded with a gas attack on the Tokyo
subway; see: Thompson, The End Of Time; Jeffrey Kaplan, Radical
Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the
Children of Noah, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997).
Useful introductory anthologies are: Thomas Robbins and Susan J. Palmer,
eds., Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements,
(New York: Routledge, 1997); and, Charles B. Strozier and Michael Flynn, The
Year 2000: Esssays on the End, (New York: NYU Press, 1997).
For handy guides, see Robert G. Clouse, Robert N. Hosack, and Richard
V. Pierard, The New Millennium Manual : A Once and Future Guide, (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999); and Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning
the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown,
(New York: Harmony Books, 1997). See also "On the Millennium," a
collection of articles in Deolog, Feb. 1997, online, <http://www.stealth.net/~deolog/297.html>.
Discussions at the Center for Millennial Studies in 1998 have focused
on the following topics: Authorities in Israel are making plans for dealing
with devout Christians expected to flock to Jerusalem and other sites
to await (or perhaps encourage) the second coming of Christ. Apocalyptic
Christians, Muslims, and Jews covet the Temple Mount. Messianic Jews
are looking for the flawless "red heifer" of ancient prophecy.
10 See: Mike A. Males The Scapegoat
Generation: America's War on Adolescents; (Monroe, ME, Common Courage
Press, 1996 To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the `Political
Correctness' Debates in Higher Education, (Washington, DC: National
Council for Research on Women, 1993); and Ellen Messer-Davidow "Manufacturing
the Attack on Liberalized Higher Education," Social Text,
Fall 1993, pp. 40-80; Mary E. Kelsey and Mary Thierry Texeira, "Scapegoating
at the End of the Millennium: Symbolic Legislation and the Crisis of
Capitalism, paper, ASA, San Francisco, 1998.
11 Conversations with Landes,1997-98, based on
his working papers for the Center for Millennial Studies.
12 Chip Berlet, "Who's Mediating the Storm?
Right-wing Alternative Information Networks," in Linda Kintz & Julia
Lesage, eds., Culture, Media, and the Religious Right (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1998).
13 Sara Diamond, Spiritual Warfare: The Politics
of the Christian Right, (Boston: South End Press, 1989), pp.
23-25, 130-141; 231-232; Diamond, Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements
and Political Power in the United States, (New York: Guilford, 1995),
pp. 161-177, 228-256; David Cantor, The Religious Right, (New
York: Anti-Defamation League, 1994), pp. 22-24, 71-73, 119-129, 151-153;
Fred Clarkson, Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and
Democracy, (Monroe, ME: Common Courage, 1997), pp. 125-138;
Fuller, Naming the Antichrist, pp. 40-190; Lamy, Millennium
Rage, pp. 26-30, 63-157, 193-252.
14 Tim LaHaye, Revelation: Illustrated and
Made Plain, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervon, 1975). p. 9.
15 David G. Bromley, "Constructing Apocalypticism," pp.
31-45; and, Catherine Wessinger, "Millennialism With and Without the
Mayhem," pp. 47-59; both in Robbins & Palmer, eds., Millennium,
Messiahs, and Mayhem.
16 See generally, Cohn, Cosmos, Chaos and the
World to Come.
17 Strozier, Apocalypse, pp. 223-248; John
M. Bozeman, "Technological Millenarianism in the United States," in
Robbins & Palmer, eds., Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem; See
also, Millennial Prophecy Report, April 1996, pp. 4-20.
18 In Protestantism the text has been called the
book of "Revelation," New International Version of the Holy
Bible [Protestant "NIV" version] (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Bible Publishers, 1984 [1973]); and "The Revelation of St. John the
Divine," The Holy Bible: King James Version (Iowa Falls, Iowa:
World Bible Publishers, 1986). In Catholicism, it has been called "The
Apocalypse of St. John the Apostle," New Catholic Edition of the
Holy Bible, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine Edition, (New York:
Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1957); and "The Revelation to John," The
Catholic Study Bible: New American Bible, Confraternity of Christian
Doctrine Edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). The changes
in the more recent versions reflect newer scholarship that disputes that
John of Patmos was the apostle John.
19 Lamy, Millennium Rage, p.36.
20 Ibid., p.37.
21 George Johnson, Fire in the Mind:
Science, Faith, and the Search for Order, (New York: Knopf, 1995),
pp. 308-313.
22 Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1970 {1957}).
23 Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More, pp.
80-85.
24 Gould, Questioning the Millennium. Gould
also examines the difference between "millenarian" groups and "millennial" expectation.
25 John Yemma, "Countdown to Catastrophe:
Doomsday Visions Abound as Millennium Approaches," Boston Sunday
Globe, December 29, 1996, p. 1, 20-21. Citing Research by Richard Landes
of Boston University and Charles B. Strozier, professor of history at John
Jay College in New York.
26 Michael Barkun, "Politics and Apocalypticism," in
Stephen J. Stein (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, volume
3, (New York: Continuum, 1998), pp. 442-60.
27 Stephen D. O'Leary, "Heaven's Gate and
the Culture of Popular Millennialism," Millennial Stew (newsletter
of the Center for Millennial Studies) Winter 1998, p. 1, 3-5. Nostradamus
was a sixteenth century prophet who utilized astrological charts and visions
to write a pre-history of the world making predictions about events centuries
in advance. The text, written in quatrains, is obscure and ambiguous. There
are many published commentaries claiming to unravel their meaning. One
major prediction was the arrival of a great comet. His predictions do not
go beyond the year 2000. On renewed popularity of Nostradamus, see, for
example: Henry C. Roberts, translated, edited, and interpreted, (updated
by Robert Lawrence), The Complete Prophesies of Nostradamus, (New
York: Crown, 1994 {1947}); Stefan Paulus, Nostradamus 1999: Who Will
Survive [A Comet is Hurtling Toward Earth...], (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn
Publications, 1997); and Jean-Charles de Fontbrune, Nostradamus: Countdown
to Apocalypse, (New York: Henry Holt, 1985 {1980}). A contemporary
version of the comet prophecy is Tom Kay, When the Comet Runs: Prophecies
for the New Millennium, (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 1997).
28 Milton William Cooper, Behold a Pale Horse,
(Sedona, AZ: Light Technology Publishing, 1991).
29 Quinby, Anti-Apocalypse, p. 162.
30 See: in the Old Testament, Isaiah 10:
1-4. That religion can oppose the status quo or seek liberation
from oppression is often overlooked or disputed. For a discussion of this,
see Christian Smith, ed., Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in
Social Movement Activism, (New York: Routledge, 1997), especially pp.
29-46, 67-144,
31 Perry Bush, "Prophetic Anger: the lingering
power of evangelical populism," Sojourners magazine, Jan./Feb.
1997, pp. 34-37.
32 Daniel Berrigan, Ezekiel: Vision in the
Dust, (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1997).
33 René Girard, The Scapegoat,
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986).
34 Frequently people of faith are described in
patronizing caricature or dismissed as ignorant, irrational, or even mentally
ill. The almost careless bigotry and stereotyping of many liberal and left
commentators is objectionable on both moral and practical grounds. There
has been a tendency among social scientists to overlook the influence of
sincere and devout religious belief on political action. In recent years,
a number of researchers have attempted to seriously analyze religiously-motivated
social movements, and I have tended to emphasize their work in this section.
See: Harvey Cox, "The Warring Visions of the Religious Right, Atlantic
Monthly, Nov. 1995, pp. 59-69.
35 Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading
the Bible with Heart and Mind, (New York: William Morrow, 1996),
pp. 4-52, 129-135, 161-162, 246-250, 348-353.
36 Gregory S. Camp, Selling Fear: Conspiracy
Theories and End-Times Paranoia, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books,
1997), p. 190.
37 Bruce Barron, "A Summary Critique," Christian
Research Journal, Winter 1993, pp. 44-45. There are many other examples.
Gerry Rough's website, In Pursuit of Reason, is a Christian critique
of conspiracism, especially, "Introduction: The Rise of the Modern
Conspiracy Theory Movement, ` online, <http://www.skyenet.net/~gerryr/index.html>;
Rough suggests four reasons for the growth of the current "conspiracy
theory movement:" the "socio-political movements of the 1960's
and 1970's, the development of the conspiracy theory movement itself,
the modern prophecy movement within the Christian church, the technological
development of the Internet." Another Christian critique of conspiracism
is the article "Christians & Conspiracy Theories: A Call to
Repentance," online, <http://www.best.com/~vandruff/conspire.html>. See
also: Tom Shine, "Suspicions of Conspiracy: How a Spirit of
Fear can Distort Scripture and History," Sojourners, July-Aug,
1995.
38 Paul T. Coughlin, Secrets, Plots & Hidden
Agendas: What You Don't Know About Conspiracy Theories, (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999).
39 Tim Callahan, Bible Prophecy: Failure or
Fulfillment?, (Altadena, CA: Millennium Press, 1997).
40 James A. Aho, This Thing of Darkness: A
Sociology of the Enemy, (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 1994). "A
Phenomenology of the Enemy," pp. 107-121.
41 Sir James George Frazier, The Golden Bough:
A Study in Magic and Religion, Abridged, (New York: MacMillan, 1922),
pp. 624-686. for a comprehensive treatment of the process and social
function of scapegoating in historic persecution texts of myth and religion,
see: René Girard, The Scapegoat, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1986).
42 Gordon W. Allport, Nature of Prejudice,
(Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1954), p. 244.
43 Landes, "Scapegoating," Encyclopedia
of Social History, Peter N. Stearn, ed., (New York: Garland Pub.
Inc., 1994), p. 659. Neumann has argued against using the term scapegoating
when discussing conspiracist movements, but I support the Landes' definition;
Franz Neumann, "Anxiety in Politics," in Richard O. Curry and
Thomas M. Brown, eds., Conspiracy: The Fear of Subversion in American
History, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972), p. 255.
44 For an interesting approach linking Jungian
psychology to interventions against scapegoating in dysfunctional small
organizations and groups, see Arthur D. Colman, Up From Scapegoating:
Awakening Consciousness in Groups, (Wilmette, IL: Chiron, 1995).
45 Conversation with Susan M. Fisher, M. D. clinical
professor of psychiatry of Univ. of Chicago Medical School and Faculty,
Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, (1997).
46 Michael Billig, Fascists: A Social Psychological
View of the National Front, (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1978), pp. 313-316.
47 See discussions in Jaroslav Krej?í, "Neo-Fascism--West
and East," in Luciano Cheles, Ronnie Ferguson, and Michalina Vaughan,
eds. The Far Right in Western and Eastern Europe, 2nd edition, (New
York: Longman Publishing, 1995), pp. 2-3; David Norman Smith; "The
Social Construction of Enemies: Jews and the Representation of Evil," Sociological
Theory, 14:3, Nov. 1996, pp. 203-240; Billig, Fascists, pp. 296-350;
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, The Anatomy of Prejudices, (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 163-339. An excellent review of the
psycho-social aspects of authoritarianism and the Frankfurt school theories
is in Social Thought & Research, 1998, 21:1&2.
48 Gordon W. Allport, "Demagogy," in
Richard O. Curry and Thomas M. Brown, eds., Conspiracy: The Fear of
Subversion in American History, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1972), pp. 263-276.
49 Davis, The Fear of Conspiracy, pp.
xiv-xv, 1.
50 Although they often disagree with my conclusions,
my thinking on conspiracism has been shaped by comments and critiques from
S. L. Gardiner, Loretta Ross, Leonard Zeskind, Devin Burghart, and Robert
Crawford.
51 Davis, The Fear of Conspiracy, pp.
xv-xvi.
52 Mintz, Liberty Lobby, p. 199.
53 O'Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse, pp.
20-60.
54 Zeskind, "Some Ideas on Conspiracy Theories," p.
16. See also: pp. 11, 13-15, 16-17.
55 Ibid., 13-14.
56 S. L. Gardiner, "Social Movements, Conspiracy
Theories and Economic Determinism: A Response to Chip Berlet," in
Ward, Conspiracies, p. 83.
57 Conversation with Herman Sinaiko, Professor
of Humanities, University of Chicago, (1997).
58 On growing right/left conspiracism, see Michael
Kelly, "The Road to Paranoia," The New Yorker, June 19,
1995, pp. 60-70; Janet Biehl, "Militia Fever: The Fallacy of "Neither
Left nor Right," Green Perspectives, A Social Ecology Publication,
Number 37, April 1996; Michael Albert, "Conspiracy?...Not!," Venting
Spleen column, Z Magazine, Jan., 1992, pp. 17-19; Michael Albert, "Conspiracy?...Not,
Again," Venting Spleen column, Z Magazine, May,. 1992, pp.
86-88; See also: the special issue on "Conspiracy," Skeptic,
Vol. 4, No. 3, 1996; and Jodi Dean, Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures
from Outerspace to Cyberspace, (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press,
1998).
59 Kintz & Lesage, Culture, Media, and
the Religious Right. Detailed articles on the general theme of right-wing
media can be found in Afterimage (Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester,
NY), special issue on "Fundamentalist Media," 22:7&8, Feb./March
1995; and Extra! (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), special
issue on "The Right-Wing Media Machine," March/April 1995.
Jim Danky and John Cherney, "Beyond Limbaugh: The Hard Right's Publishing
Spectrum," Reference Services Review, Spring 1996, pp. 43-56.
For radio conspiracism, see Leslie Jorgensen, "AM Armies," pp.
20-22 and Larry Smith, "Hate Talk," p. 23, Extra! March/April
1995; Marc Cooper, "The Paranoid Style," The Nation,
April 10, 1995, pp. 486-492; William H. Freivogel, "Talking Tough
On 300 Radio Stations, Chuck Harder's Show Airs Conspiracy Theories," St.
Louis Post Dispatch, May 10, 1995, p. 5B; Brian E. Albrecht, "Hate
Speech," The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), June 11, 1995, pp.
1, 16-17; David McHugh and Nancy Costello, "Radio host off the air;
militia chief may be out," Detroit Free Press, 4/29/95, p.
6A; James Latham, "The Rise of Far Right/Hate Programming on the
Shortwave Bands," Vista, the Newsletter of Radio for Peace International,
October 1994, pp. 2-4, find Far Right Radio Review online at <http://www.clark.net/pub/cwilkins/rfpi/frwr.html>.
For Internet, see: Devin Burghart, "Cyberh@te: A Reappraisal," The
Dignity Report (Coalition for Human Dignity), Fall, 1996, pp. 12-16;
David Futrelle, "CyberHate," In These Times, May 15,
1995, p. 17; Wayne Madsen, The Battle for Cyberspace: Spooks v. Civil
Liberties and Social Unrest," CovertAction Quarterly, Winter
1996-97; Todd J. Schroer, "White Racialists, Computers, and the
Internet," paper, ASA, Toronto, 1997. A regularly updated list
of links to web pages of various groups on the right is posted by Political
Research Associates. at <http://www.publiceye.org/lnk_dem.html> and
by Hatewatch at <http://hatewatch.org>.
60 Fuller, Naming the Antichrist, pp.
56-61, 63.
61 Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape
of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, (New York: W. W.
Norton, 1998), pp. 46-116.
62 Fuller, Naming the Antichrist, pp.
5, 31.
63 Paul Caras, The History of the Devil and
the Idea of Evil, (New York: Gramercy/Random House, 1996 [1900]), p.
280.
64 Ibid., p. 282.
65 Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium,
especially pp. 144-147, 163-169.
66 Caras, The History of the Devil, p.
306; See also Peter Stanford, The Devil: A Biography, (New
York: Henry Holt, 1996).
67 Pagels, The Origin of Satan, p. xviii.
68 Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium,
pp. 77-78.
69 Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide: The
Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of
Zion, (London: Serif, 1996 [1967]), pp. 2-3.
70 Caras, The History of the Devil, pp.
306-307. When some Freemasons constructed a history linking their order
to the Knights Templar, they inherited the charges of satanic conspiracy.
71 Henry Charles Lea, The Inquisition of the
Middle Ages, abridged, (New York: Macmillan, 1961), pp. 687-767.
72 R. Po-chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder:
Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany, (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 1988); Heiko A. Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism: In the
Age of Renaissance and Reformation, translated by James I. Porter,
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984, {German edition 1981}).
73 Andrew Gow, lecture, "Jewish Shock-Troops
of the Apocalypse," Center for Millennial Studies symposium, "The
Apocalyptic Other," November, 1997.
74 Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism, pp.
118-122. Pagels, Origins of Satan, p. 180; for additional background
on Christian anti-Semitism, see Frederic Cople Jaher, A Scapegoat in
the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America,
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), pp. 13-82; Leonard Dinnerstein, Anti-Semitism
in America, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 3-34; Pagels, The
Origins of Satan, p. xx; Fuller, Naming the Antichrist, pp.
40-73; Jerome A. Chanes, Antisemitism in America Today: Outspoken Experts
Explode the Myths, (New York: Birch Lane Press/Carol Publishing, 1995).
75 A good short summary of the Illuminati/Freemason
and Protocols conspiracies and their role in the contemporary racist right
can be found in James Ridgeway, Blood in the Face (New York: Thunder's
Mouth Press, 1990). On the Illuminati Freemasons, see Davis, The
Fear of Conspiracy, pp. 9-22; Hofstatder, The Paranoid Style,
pp. 10-18; Bennett, The Party of Fear, pp. 22-26, 48-51; George
Johnson, Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American
Politics (Los Angeles: Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin, 1983), pp.
31-84. On the Protocols, see Cohn, Warrant for Genocide.
76 Davis, The Fear of Conspiracy, pp.
9-22; Hofstatder, The Paranoid Style, pp. 10-18; Bennett, The
Party of Fear, pp. 22-26, 48-51.
77 Johnson, Architects of Fear, pp. 31-84.
78 John Robison, Proofs of a Conspiracy--against
All the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret
meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati and Reading Societies, fourth
edition with postscript, (Boston: Western Islands, 1967 [1798]).
79 Abbé Augustin Barruel, Memoirs Illustrating
the History of Jacobinism, second edition revised and corrected,
English translation by Robert Clifford, reprinted in one volume, (Fraser,
MI: Real-View-Books, 1995 [1797-98]).
80 Ibid., p. 396; Robison, Proofs, pp. 11-56;
Johnson, Architects of Fear, pp. 43-50
81 Robison, Proofs, p. 9.
82 Robison's first edition appeared as Barruel's
third volume, first edition, was going to press; but Robison had not yet
seen Barruel's work. In their second editions, both author's acknowledge
the other, and Barruel engages in some criticisms of Robison informal treatment
of quotes. See Barruel, Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism,
pp.396-398
83 Barruel, Memoirs, p. 185.
84 Ibid., p. 780.
85 Robison, Proofs, pp. 57, 272-273
86 Bennett, The Party of Fear, pp. 22-26.
87 Fuller, Naming the Antichrist, pp.
96-100. Bennett, The Party of Fear, pp. 35-53. For an example of
mid-1850s anti-Catholic Propaganda, see E. Hutchinson, Startling Facts
for the Know Nothings, (New York, self-published, 1855).
88 Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, pp. 25-45.
89 Ibid., pp. 84-117; Konrad Heiden, Der Fuehrer:
Hitler's Rise to Power," (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1944), pp.
1-10.
90 Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, pp. 302-306.
91 Curtiss, Appraisal, pp. 32-60; Cohn, Warrant,
pp. 66-83; Walter Laqueur, Black Hundred: The Rise of the Extreme Right
in Russia, (New York: HarperPerennial, 1993), pp. 29-44. Curtiss provides
an appendix with many sample paragraphs illustrating "parallels between
passages from Joly's Dialogue and the Protocols as given
in Nilus...." Comparisons that demonstrated the plagiarism first appeared
in a London newspaper. Cohn appends a similar but more complete analysis.
Laqueur's translation of the title as "The Big in the Small" is
more intuitively useful than the typical "The Great in the Little."
92 Johnson, Architects of Fear, pp. 32-43.
One of the most comprehensive discussions of conspiracist theories throughout
history, albeit in fictional form, is contained in the novel by Umberto
Eco, Foucault's Pendulum, (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990).
93 Based on several different translations of
the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion under a variety of names,
on file at PRA, primarily, Victor E. Mardsen, The Protocols of Zion, "Translated
from the Russian Text," (Britain: 1934). Republished by Ford's Dearborn
Independent, with full inside title: The Protocols of the Meetings
of the Learned Elders of Zion with Preface and Explanatory Notes.
94 Walter Laquer, Russia and Germany,
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990 {1965}), chapter 4-6.
On how the Protocols went from Russia to Germany, see: Heiden, Der
Fuehrer, pp. 18-22.
95 Cohn, Warrant, pp. 167-168.
96 Ibid. p. 169.
97 Laqueur, Black Hundred, pp. 34, 205,
208-209.
98 Interview with Landes, 1998.
99 George Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism
and Evangelicalism. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.,
1991.), pp. 9-61. Fuller, Naming the Antichrist, pp. 108-133.
100 Joel Kovel, Red Hunting in the Promised
Land: Anticommunism and the Making of America, (New York, Basic Books,
1994).
101 William Preston, Jr., Aliens and Dissenters:
Federal Suppression of Radicals, 1903-1933, (New York: Harper Torchbooks,
1963).
102 Frank Donner, Age, pp. 47-48.
103 Nesta H. Webster, World Revolution: The
Plot Against Civilization, (London: Constable, 1921); _______, Secret
Societies and Subversive Movements (London: Boswell Printing, 1924);
_______, The French Revolution, (Orig. pub., 1919). Republished
by Noontide Press, 1988. For this and other such works, see Singerman, Antisemitic
Propaganda.
104 Singerman, Antisemitic Propaganda,
entry 0101, p. 29, citing Colin Holmes, Anti-Semitism in British Society,
1876-1939, (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1979), pp. 147-150; Cohn, Warrant
for Genocide, pp. 168-170.
105 Mintz, Liberty Lobby, pp. 17-22; Father
Denis Fahey's The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World, (Dublin:
Browne and Nolan, 1935); Gertrude Coogan's Money Creators: Who Creates
Money? Who Should Create It?, (Chicago: Sound Money Press, 1935).
106 Mintz, Liberty Lobby, p. 17.
107 Ribuffo, Old Christian Right, pp.
16-17, 167, 196-197, 211; Bennett, Party of Fear, p. 269.
108 Elizabeth Dilling, The Red Network: A "Who's
Who" and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots, (Chicago: self-published,
1934); Elizabeth Dilling, The Roosevelt Red Record and its Background, (Chicago:
self-published, 1936). See also: excerpt from Dilling's The
Roosevelt Red Record and its Background, in Davis, Fear of Conspiracy,
pp. 273-276; human rights activist Susan DeCamp traced some current conspiracist
theories circulating in Montana and other Rocky Mountain states back
to Dilling's books at a workshop presentation, "Conspiracy, Identity & the
Religious Right," Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment
symposium, October 1998.
109 New Dealers in Office, (Indianapolis:
The Fellowship Press, circa 1941); for background on popular anti-Semitism
during this period, see Dinnerstein, pp. 105-149.
110 Ribuffo, The Old Christian Right,
pp. 2-24, 58-72, 83-116, 175-177.
111 Chart from William Dudley Pelley's Liberation,
8/21/38; as cited in Singerman, Antisemitic Propaganda, p. xxx.
112 Mintz, The Liberty Lobby, pp. 47-64;
Johnson, Architects of Fear, pp. 78-80, 135-136.
113 Emanuel M. Josephson, Rockefeller, `Internationalist':
The Man Who Misrules the World. (New York: Chedney Press, 1952).
See Mintz, Liberty Lobby, pp. 61-64, 82-83. See also Ed
Merta, "Birth of a Conspiracy Theory," unpublished paper following
the trail of the conspiracist view of the Council on Foreign Relations.
On file at PRA.
114 Dan Smoot, The Invisible Government.
(Boston and Los Angeles: Western Islands, 1962).
115 Mary M. Davison, The Secret Government
of the United States, (Omaha, Nebraska: The Greater Nebraskan, 1962),
pp. 1-5. For a study of the role of women in battling globalism, see
Abby Scher, Cold War on the Home Front: Middle Class Women's Politics
in the 1950s, doctoral thesis, sociology, New School for Social Research,
1995.
116 Phyllis Schlafly, A Choice Not An Echo (Alton,
IL: Pere Marquette Press, 1964), pp. 111-121.
117 Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History
of the World in Our Time, republished by GSG Associates, (New York:
MacMillan, 1966); Mintz, Liberty Lobby, pp. 145-146.
118 Cleon Skousen The Naked Capitalist, (Salt
Lake City, UT: self published/Reviewer, 1970). Skoussen's subtitle is, A
Review and Commentary on Dr. Carroll Quigley's Book: Tragedy and Hope--A
History of the World in Our Time. Gary Allen with Larry Abraham,
None Dare Call It Conspiracy, paperback edition, (Rossmor, CA & Seal
Beach, CA: Concord Press, 1972); reissued revised in hardcover: Gary Allen
and Larry Abraham, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, (Seattle, WA: Double
A Publications, 1983); revised and expanded as sequel: Larry Abraham, Call
it Conspiracy, (Seattle, WA: Double A Publications, 1985). The latter
book featured a prologue by Christian Reconstructionist Gary North.
119 See, for example, Phoebe Courtney, Beware
Metro and Regional Government! (Littleton, CO: The Independent American
Newspaper, 1973).
120 Mary M. Davison, The Profound Revolution,
(Omaha, Nebraska: The Greater Nebraskan, 1966), pp 1-18, 26-28, 84, 86-87.
Davidson went on to form the Council for Statehood, similar in ideology
to the Committee of the States.
121 Mary M. Davison, Twentieth Century Snow
Job, (Lighthouse Point, FL: Council for Statehood, circa 1970).
122 Dennis King, Lyndon LaRouche and the New
American Fascism (New York: Doubleday, 1989), p. 282.
123 One book mixes the themes: Eustace Mullins, The
Federal Reserve Conspiracy, second edition, (Union, NJ: Christian
Educational Association, 1954). See also: Eustace Mullins, Mullins
on the Federal Reserve, (New York: Kaspar and Horton, 1952); Eustace
Mullins, The World Order: Our Secret Rulers, second edition, (Staunton,
VA: Ezra Pound Institute of Civilization, 1992); Eustace Mullins, The
Secret Holocaust (Word of Christ Mission, no date). See also:
listings on Mullins in Robert Singerman, Antisemitic Propaganda: An
Annotated Bibliography and Research Guide, (New York: Garland Publishing,
1982), including, Eustace Mullins, The Biological Jew, (Staunton,
VA: Faith and Service Books, ca. 1968); Eustace Mullins, "Jews Mass
Poison American Children, Women's Voice (Chicago), June 1955,
p. 11; Eustace Mullins, Impeach Eisenhower! (Chicago, Women's
Voice, ca. 1955).
124 Chip Berlet, "Cardinal Mindszenty: heroic
anti-communist or anti-Semite or both?", The St. Louis Journalism
Review, April, 1988.
125 See for example the implicit anti-Black prejudice
in, Alan Stang, It's Very Simple: The True Story of Civil Rights,
(Boston: Western Islands, 1965), especially pp.209-214.
126 Mintz, Liberty Lobby, pp. 59-61; The
Noontide Press, book catalogs, 1989 and 1995. Phyllis Schlafly's A
Choice, Not an Echo, echoes Carr's conspiracist view of the Bilderberger symposiums,
but without the overt anti-Semitism.
127 Kenneth Goff, One World a Red World,
pamphlet, (Colorado: self-published, 1952), pp. 56-57, 62.
128 Kenneth Goff, Reds Promote Racial War,
pamphlet, (Colorado: self-published [Soldiers of the Cross], 1958), pp.
13-16, 25-33.
129 Gordon Lindsay, Will the Antichrist Come
Out of Russia?, (Dallas: Voice of Healing Publications, 1966), inside
cover.
130 Dr. W. S. McBirnie, The Real Power Behind
Communism, pamphlet, (Glendale, CA: Center for American Research
and Education, n.d., circa 1968), p. 15.
131 John Stormer, The Death of a Nation,
(Florissant, MO: Liberty Bell Press, 1968), pp. 152-174.
132 John Stormer, None Dare Call It Treason,
(Florissant, Missouri: Liberty Bell Press, 1964); on religious renewal
experience, see "About the Author," page preceding the table
of contents.
133 Gary H. Kah, En Route to Global Occupation (Lafayette,
LA: Huntington House Publishers, 1991); Pat Robertson, The New World
Order: It Will Change the Way You Live, (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1991);
Donald S. McAlvany, Toward a New World Order, The Countdown to Armageddon,
Oklahoma City, OK: Hearthstone Publishing/Southwest Radio Church of the
Air, 1990); Dee Zahner, The Secret Side of History: Mystery Babylon
and the New World Order, (Hesperia, CA: LTAA Communications, 1994);
Dave Hunt, Global Peace and the Rise of the Antichrist, videotape,
(Dave Hunt, 1990);"What's Behind the New World Order," booklet,
(Jemison, AL: Inspiration Books Est, 1991).
134 Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More,
p. 312.
135 Portions of this section first appeared in "Three
Models for Analyzing Conspiracist Mass Movements of the Right," in
Ward, Conspiracies.
136 Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform:
From Bryan to F. D. R. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Random House,
Inc., 1955); Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American
Life. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963); Arnold Forster and Benjamin
R. Epstein, Danger on the Right. (New York: Random House, 1964);
Daniel Bell, ed., The Radical Right: The New American Right Expanded
And Updated, (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, Doubleday & Company,
Inc., 1964); Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American
Politics," in The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other
Essays (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965); Seymour Martin Lipset and
Earl Raab, The Politics of Unreason: Right-Wing Extremism in America,
1790-1970 (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1970).
Transitional works would include: Donald I. Warren, The Radical Center:
Middle Americans and the Politics of Alienation, (Notre Dame, IN:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1976); and William H. Riker, Liberalism
Against Populism: A Confrontation Between the Theory of Democracy and
the Theory of Social Choice, (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press,
1988 {1982}).
137 For criticism of the original academic idea
that a conspiracist "radical right" is somehow far outside the
electoral system (called centrist/extremist theory or the pluralist school),
see Michael Rogin, The Intellectuals and McCarthy: The Radical Specter,
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1967), pp. 261-282; Curry and Brown, eds., "Introduction," Conspiracy, pp.
vii-xi; Ribuffo, The Old Christian Right, pp. 237-257; Margaret
Canovan, Populism (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981), pp.
46-51 179-190; Jerome L. Himmelstein, To The Right: The Transformation
of American Conservatism, (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1990),
pp. 1-5, 72-76, 152-164. Diamond, Roads to Dominion, pp. 5-6, 40-41;
Michael Kazin, The Populist Persuasion: An American History, (New
York: Basic Books, 1995), pp. 190-193; William B. Hixson, Jr., Search
for the American Right Wing: An Analysis of the Social Science Record,
1955-1987, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp. 10-48,
77-123, 273-292; }).
See also: Michael P. Federici, The Challenge of Populism:
The Rise of Right-Wing Democratism in Postwar America, (New York:
Praeger, 1991); and, Allen D. Hertzke, Echoes of Discontent: Jesse
Jackson, Pat Robertson, and the Resurgence of Populism, (Washington,
DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1993).
For statistical data that refutes claims made by centrist/extremist
theory about the social base of the "radical right," see Rogin, The
Intellectuals and McCarthy; Fred W. Grupp, Jr., "The Political
Perspectives of Birch Society Members;" and James McEvoy, III, "Conservatism
or Extremism: Goldwater Supporters in the 1964 Presidential Election;" both
in Robert A. Schoenberger, ed., The American Right Wing: Readings
in Political Behavior, (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969);
and Charles Jeffrey Kraft, A Preliminary Socio-Economic & State
Demographic Profile of the John Birch Society, (Cambridge, MA: Political
Research Associates, 1992). See also: Diamond: "How `Radical'
Is the Christian Right?" The Humanist, (Watch on the Right
column), March/April 1994.
138 For an introduction to various contemporary
academic views, see: Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClung Mueller, eds., Frontiers
in Social Movement Theory, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992);
and Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action
and Politics, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994); John Lofland, Social
Movement Organizations: Guide to Research on Insurgent Realities, (New
York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1996.
See also: Carl Boggs, Social Movements and Political Power:
Emerging Forms of Radicalism in the West, (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1986); and Bert Klandermans, The Social Psychology
of Protest, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997).
Christian Smith, "Correcting a Curious Neglect, or Bringing Religion
Back In," in Christian Smith, ed., Disruptive Religion: The Force
of Faith in Social-Movement Activism, (New York: Routledge, 1996),
p.3.
139 Sara Diamond: "How `Radical' Is the
Christian Right?" The Humanist, (Watch on the Right column),
March/April 1994; Diamond, Opposition Research Column, "Shifting Alliances
on the Right," Z Magazine November 1993; Diamond, "The
Christian Right Seeks Dominion: On the Road to Political Power and Theocracy," in
Chip Berlet, ed., Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash,
(Boston: South End Press, 1995), pp. 44-49.
140 Catherine McNicol Stock, Rural Radicals:
Righteous Rage in the American Grain, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 1996), pp. 15-86.
141 Gary Allen, None Dare Call it Conspiracy, p.
125.
142 Gary Allen, Rockefeller: Campaigning
for the New World Order, pamphlet from an article in the JBS magazine, American
Opinion, February 1974; a similar theme was promoted by the Lyndon
LaRouche network, see: King, Lyndon LaRouche, pp. 38-40,
125.
143 Amy Elizabeth Ansell, New Right, New
Racism: Race and Reaction in the United States and Britain, (New
York: NYU Press, 1997), pp. 49-73; Anna Marie Smith, New Right Discourse
on Race & Sexuality, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1994), pp. 18-70.
144 People can be straight, gay, lesbian, transgender,
or bisexual--this is descriptive rather than an ethnic reference; but when
referring to an ethnic identity, movement, or specific organization, I
will refer to the Gay and Lesbian Rights movement, the Lesbian Avengers
group, and the Digital Queers group.
145 See for example Allen, None Dare Call
it Conspiracy, p. 125.
146 Bennett, The Party of Fear, pp. 48-182;
John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism 1860-1925 (New
York: Atheneum, 1972); Diamond, Roads to Dominion, pp. 140-160.
147 Billig, Fascists, p. 296.
148 Frank P. Mintz, The Liberty Lobby and
the American Right: Race, Conspiracy and Culture, (Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 1985); note that there is much on the John Birch Society
in this book.
149 For more on the JBS, see: William
V. Moore, The John Birch Society: A Southern Profile, paper, Southern
Political Science Association, 1981; J. Allen Broyles, The John Birch
Society: Anatomy of a Protest, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964); Diamond, Roads,
pp. 52-59, 140-141, 147-148; Gene Grove, Inside the John Birch Society,
(Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1961).
150 Mary Rupert, "The Patriot Movement
and the Roots of Fascism," in Susan Allen Nan, et. Al. eds., Windows
to Conflict Analysis and Resolution: Framing our Field, (Fairfax, VA:
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, 1997); Peter Fritzsche, Rehearsals
for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany.(New
York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 149-150.
151 This paragraph reflects the ideas of Matthew
N. Lyons in working papers for Too Close for Comfort. For a related
argument regarding Britain, see Michael Billig, "Rhetoric of the Conspiracy
Theory: Arguments in National Front Propaganda," Patterns of Prejudice,
22:2, 1988.
152 Tarso Luís Ramos, "Feint to
the Left: The Growing Popularity of Populism," Portland Alliance, (Oregon),
Dec. 1991, pp. 13, 18. See also Chip Berlet, Right Woos Left:
Populist Party, LaRouchian, and Other Neo- fascist Overtures to Progressives
and Why They Must Be Rejected, report, revised, (Cambridge, MA: Political
Research Associates, revised, 1994 {1991}); _______, "Friendly Fascists," The
Progressive, June 1992; and, _______, "Big Stories, Spooky Sources," Columbia
Journalism Review, May/June 1993.
153 Biehl, "Militia Fever;" Matthew
Kalman and John Murray, "The Icke Man Cometh," New Moon,
November 1995.
154 See, generally, Daniel Pipes, The Hidden
Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy, (New York: St. Martins, 1998);
Patricia A. Turner, I Heard it Through the Grapevine, Rumor in African-American
Culture, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Berlet, Right
Woos Left.
155 Howard Goldenthal, "Khadafy Connections," Now (Toronto),
7/4/91, p. 14.
156 Jonathan Mozzochi and L. Events Rhinegard, Rambo,
Gnomes and the New World Order: The Emerging Politics of Populism,
(Portland, OR: Coalition for Human Dignity, 1991).
157 For a critique of conspiracist anti-globalism,
see Mark Rupert, "Globalization and the Reconstruction of Common Sense
in the US," in S. Gill and J. Mittelman, eds., Innovation and Transformation
in International Studies, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). Previou | TOC | Next |
