Keeley’s “Of Conspiracy Theories” seeks to make meaning of the wild world of paranoia and confusion that is that of conspiracy theories and theorists who create them. We’ve all heard them, we all have thoughts on them, with varying degrees of approval. They’re pervasive, and you can find one to explain just about everything. Despite being so common, conspiracy theories are murky, convoluted, and hard to understand. Keeley wants to provide his reader with a definition of them, as well as an explanation of what motivates people to believe in even the most absurd of conspiracy theories.
According to Keeley, “a conspiracy theory is a proposed explanation of some historical event (or events) in terms of the significant causal agency of a relatively small group of persons the conspirators acting in secret.” Conspiracy theorists take events that can’t be fully explained, and they do their best to explain them. The desire to understand and to create a reason for everything is a natural part of being a human, and conspiracy theories seek to satiate that desire. It’s not like conspiracy theories are a new invention, but they are gaining popularity as our world continues to grow. The simple fact of the matter is that some things can’t be explained, and that sometimes the “powers that be” do intentionally deceive the public. Keeley mentions Watergate as an example of a conspiracy come true. Our changing world lacks the stability and rationality that we are all searching for, and Keeley hypothesizes that this is the reason our society is so fascinated by conspiracy theories. There are just so many people in our world right now, and we’re all living our own almost terrifyingly complex, individual lives. We each have a story, we each have desires and motivations, and we’re all imperfect. The impact of us all trying to make a mark on the world creates a jumble of chaos. It’s beautiful, but there’s a hell of a lot going on, and it’s too much to understand- which is what people want to do. Conspiracy theories are “the attempt to preserve a human meaning a rational accounting for these sea changes which allows them to be understood in human terms.”