David Aaronovitch on the weird and wacky world of conspiracy theory, at 5x15

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David Aaronovitch on the weird and wacky world of conspiracy theory, at 5x15

20 Sep 2010

“We, the leading members of the Jewish community, have made a decision about how we intend to take over the governments of the entire world.” This statement is taken from a pamphlet which was in circulation around the world in 1919. David Aaronovitch tells us that one chapter of this pamphlet claims to be a secret transcript of a secret meeting held by the world’s leading Jews in 1893. The chapter, called The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion spells out an action plan for world dominion that is smart and sinister. The Protocols state the aim of infiltrating all political parties, trade unions, and newspapers, and drawing the world into a carefully orchestrated state of chaos.

At the time, the authenticity of the pamphlet was easily swallowed. The influential American industrialist Henry Ford didn’t think it was far-fetched and nor did the young Adolf Hitler. Countries that had entered the war with an optimistic belief of early victory needed something else to blame for the torturous years of bloodshed.

In 1921, only a year after The Times published an article upholding the authenticity of “The Protocols”, or at least entertaining that possibility, another Times correspondent came upon a small satirical novel that would uncover the origins of the conspiracy theory. In Dialogues between Machiavelli and Montesquieu in Hell, published in 1864, Machiavelli says: “I shall count on devoted journalists in each party, aristocrats in the aristocratic party, republicans in the republican party, revolutionaries in the revolutionary party, if necessary anarchists in the anarchist party...like God Vishnu I shall have a hand in every press...”

This is just one of the stories in Aaronovitch’s book, Voodoo Histories: The Role of Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History, which was published in 2009.