Everybody loves a mystery. Those puzzles are difficult. Sometimes are impossible to understand or explain. The love of mystery is strong. You only need to look at a tv schedule and bookstores for evidence. Sherlock Holmes for example. He has enjoyed a remarkable new lease of life since the turn of the century, starring in big-budget movies and television series and providing plentiful subject matters for authors, journalists, and academics. Our passion for mystery is alive and well.
Yet if the truth is to be told, sometimes is the quest for the resolution that brings more pleasure than uncovering the solution itself. The urge to explore mysteries is a fundamental component of our human nature. Every mystery produces a nick or dint in the veneer of our collective existence. The bigger dint and the longer been there, the more fascinating it becomes to us. In some respect, our own time does not seem well suited to birthing truly great mysteries. The modern information age does not guarantee unfettered access to the truth. We live in times, in which we receive constant drip-feed of data in volumes without precedent, but all the while our distrust of what we are told grows. A world without trust is a pretty hollow place.
Sometimes it is impossible to know where truth ends and gives way to inaccuracy- whether offered up in good faith or not. In this grey area, we are left with plenty of doubts and mysteries. While it may not always be a comfortable place to reside, it is more often than not hugely interesting. Often enough, yesterday's conspiracy theory is today's accepted history. Of course, not all conspiracies are facts. Some conspiracy theories are on the edge of possibility: The word "conspiracy" comes from the Latin "Conspirare" and it means "breathe together". Conspiracies are not definition secret, but as the word has attached itself to criminal to behaviour that's almost inevitable a part of the package.
It's only the past hundreds of years or so that conspiracy theories have really come to the fore. The late 19th century saw the birth of some enduring conspiracy theories. The vision of a world controlled by a small and sinister cabal is still a popular element in conspiracy theories today. They lie behind almost every conspiracy theory. There has been an explosion of intrest in conspiracies in recent years. There are many possible reasons for this- loss of faith in religion, loss of faith in politicians, sensationalists mass media that likes to broadcast sensational theories, and so on. The internet is the perfect medium for spreading conspiracy theories. The cult of celebrity is one of the hallmarks of the 20th and 21st centuries, so it is not surprising that, in recent years, many conspiracy theorists have turned their attention away from politics and religion towards the lives and deaths of the famous.
One of the most enduring conspiracy theories of this type maintains that the moon landing was faked. Could this possibly be true? And what of extraterrestrial happenings and alien visitation? What really happened at Roswell? Or at Rendlesham Forest? Is there life on Mars? And how can we explain the crop circles?
Conspiracy theories come in all shapes and sizes. There are those that seem to be taken from the pages of science fiction novels or thrillers. Indeed, many of them do crop up in popular fiction, not least Dan Brown's enormously popular "Da Vinci Code", which draws from a whole tradition of "Holy Grail" conspiracies dating back for over 1000 years. Yet while many conspiracy theories are more entertaining than realistic, there are some that reveal genuinely disturbing information and ask important questions about secrecy in the way we are governed and receive information.
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