A person does not need to look far to find extremely far fetched conspiracy theories circulating in American culture.

The New World Order by Pat Robertson is a prime example. According to the book, European bankers and the Illuminated Freemasons (in both cases read “Jews”) have been secretly plotting for centuries to take over the world.

Though not at all original, Robertson’s interpretation of history is interesting. The writing of the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Cold War were all, according to Robertson, orchestrated by wealthy Jews as part of a satanic plot to bring about a one world government.

The twisting of history found in The New World Order is not by any means limited to matters concerning the Soviet Union (it is also claimed, among other things, that “European bankers” were behind the assignation of Abraham Lincoln), but this emphasis does make it clear to which tradition Robertson belongs. As Jacques Maritain wrote in 1939, “To charge Jews with the sins of Bolshevism, to identify Judaism and Communism, is the classic theme of Hitlerite propaganda.”

Robertson’s conspiracy theory, like Hitler’s, is little more than a rehashing of ideas found in Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Czarists originally used this book to cast a negative light on Communists by associating them with Jews.

In turn, Robertson and Hitler have used many of the same ideas to cast a negative light on Jews by associating them with Communists.

Adherence to inane conspiracy theories is not limited to right-wing anti-Semites like Robertson and Hitler. The most notable example from the left is probably Oliver Stone of J.F.K. fame.

The vision of Stone is less grand. It is not a minority taking over the world by causing the deaths of countless millions, just a corrupt establishment maintaining its control over America through the assignation of John F. Kennedy.

Amounting to little more than sentimental drivel about John F. Kennedy, the film is less offensive though equally as silly as The New World Order.

Later Stone produced a network miniseries entitled “Wild Palms.” Its plot concerns a secret, no-holds-barred battle for control of the U.S. between high-tech religious fanatics and libertarian freedom fighters —with James Belushi, Kim Cattrall and William Gibson thrown in for the hell of it. Though it possesses an anti-religious undercurrent, the real rationale for its creation could only have been the will to profit.

Is there some reason more fundamental than anti-Semitism, sentimentality and greed that such hocus-pocus enjoys popularity?

Without a doubt there is something appealing about an underworld struggling to burst forth into the everyday. The darkly fascinating stories of anarchists by writers like Chesterton and Conrad are proof of that.

Conspiracy theories are popular, it seems, because they appeal to the same element of the human psyche as do secret societies (minus the Greek system, where the secret knowledge that is conveyed functions only to create artificial bonds that ensure a group mentality for purely social ends).

It is the desire to have knowledge so ultimate that it has been hidden from humanity. Whether on the inside as a keeper of a banal set of religious secrets or on the outside as an enemy and revelator of a demented scheme, the believer has understood what is really going on.

In his novel Foucault’s Pendulum, the Italian intellectual Umberto Eco has brilliantly portrayed the conspiracy theory believer as a contemporary analog to the Faust of legend. This is an insightful comparison.

Robertson and Stone allege to have attained secret knowledge. These allegations are nothing less than hubris.

The cost to Robertson may be greater in the end, as his secret knowledge is greater (understanding a couple centuries of the world history compared with only U.S. history during the late sixties and early seventies). Though Goethe’s Faust was in the end redeemed, this outcome seems very unlikely for Pat or Oliver.

Taylor Wayne Roach is a senior in philosophy, English and religious studies from Des Moines.