university of california press a culture of conspiracy apocalyptic visions in contemporary america nov 2003

[...]... broadly by others.6 Unlike Hofstadter, some have argued that the clinical and the political may overlap Robert Robins and Jerrold Post assert that the domain of political paranoia encompasses a range of exemplars, including such clinical paranoids as James Forrestal and Joseph Stalin; borderline paranoids whose “delusion is likely to involve exaggeration and distortion of genuine events and rational... prospect of nuclear Armageddon ahead.3 While it may seem that ideology has died out in a post–Cold War world, islands of secular millennialism remain They appear in the resurgence of ethnic nationalism in many parts of the world, notably the Balkans, the Caucasus, and South Asia They also appear in the racist and xenophobic movements that are prominent in Western and Central Europe and, to a lesser... traced, as well as related to other ideas with which it may appear, and each moves among different audiences Because the dualism inherent in conspiracy ideas makes them ideal vehicles for apocalyptic anxieties, their prevalence in the years leading up to 2000 was scarcely surprising “Ideas and images about the end of the world,” Daniel Wojcik has said, “permeate American popular culture and folklore, as... materials I am particularly appreciative of the courtesies extended to me by the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University; the Alternative Press collection at the Wisconsin State Historical Society; the American Religions collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Library; the Millennium Archive at the Van Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania; the Anti-Defamation... systems of paranoids and the plots imagined by conspiracy theorists The second source is Richard Hofstadter’s widely cited essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” first presented the month of John F Kennedy’s assassination and published in its final form in 1965 Hofstadter sought to make clear that his use of paranoid was metaphorical rather than literal and clinical Indeed, he argued that, unlike... sneaking into the Bohemian Grove in Northern California The Grove is the site of an exclusive annual men’s retreat attended by powerful business and political leaders When McCaslin was discovered, he was carrying a combination shotgun–assault rifle, a 45-caliber pistol, a crossbow, a knife, a sword, and a bomb-launching device He said he was acting alone McCaslin told police he had entered the Bohemian... improvisational style is characterized by relentless and seemingly indiscriminate borrowing For example, Shoko Asahara, the leader of Aum Shinrikyo, drew not only on esoteric Buddhism but also on the New Testament Book of Revelation, Nostradamus, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories Aum Shinrikyo was the Japanese religious organization whose members tried to set off an apocalyptic war by releasing sarin gas... presented at a conference titled “Millenarianism and Revolution,” organized by Richard H Popkin at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA in 1998 The examination of “inner earth” ideas in chapter 7 was facilitated by an invitation from Mary N MacDonald to participate in a 2000 lecture series called “Experiences of Place and the History of Religions,” at the Center for the Study of World... Religions at Harvard University An opportunity to discuss the role of nativism in conspiracy theory was afforded when Richard Landes asked me to deliver the keynote address at the 1999 International Conference on Millennialism at Boston University In similar fashion, I was able to develop ideas about the movement of fringe ideas into the mainstream at a conference, “American Apocalypse: Beyond the Fringe and... gas in the Tokyo subway in 1993 In his indiscriminate combination of beliefs, Asahara was typical of contemporary millenarian entrepreneurs—by which I mean individuals who create apocalyptic belief systems outside of customary religious or secular traditions In a similar vein, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, until 1999 the head of the Church Universal and Triumphant, joined Christianity with Theosophy, channeling, . California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2003 by the Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging -in- Publication Data Barkun, Michael. A culture of conspiracy : apocalyptic. Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth, by Gananath Obeyesekere 15. A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America, by Michael Barkun 00-C2713-FM. collec- tion at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Library; the Millen- nium Archive at the Van Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania; the Anti-Defamation League; and the Library of