It is clear, then, that there are fundamental differences between ‘conspiracy theories’ and actual covert and clandestine politics, differences that
must be taken into account if one wishes to avoid serious errors of historical
interpretation. The problem is that most people, amateurs and professionals
alike, consistently fail to distinguish between them. On the one hand, the
overwhelming majority of the self-appointed ‘experts’ who concern themselves with alleged conspiracies are in fact ‘conspiracy theorists’ in the
negative sense outlined above. They seriously and passionately believe in
the existence of vast, preternaturally effective conspiracies that successfully
manipulate and control historical events behind the scenes, though
they typically disagree vehemently with one another about exactly who is
behind those conspiracies. This vocal lunatic fringe tends to discourage
serious researchers from even investigating such matters, in part because the
latter do not wish, understandably, to be tarred by the same soiled brush. In
the process, however, most have unfortunately failed to heed the important
qualification that Richard Hofstadter made in his analysis of the ‘paranoid
style’ of political thinking, namely, that real conspiracies do exist, even
though they do not conform to the elaborate and often bizarre scenarios
concocted by conspiracy theorists.18 How, indeed, could it be otherwise in a world full of intelligence agencies, national security bureaucracies, clandestine revolutionary organizations, economic pressure groups, criminal cartels, secret societies with hidden agendas, deceptive religious cults, political front groups and the like?
