Patterns Of Conspiracy

CONSPIRACY theories arc all the rage, and for the most part they are wrong, but in fairness they often do contain a kernel of truth. That is what makes them so hard to shake from the minds of their adherents. Conspiracists do, at least some of the time, detect a pattern to events that is real enough. Then they deduce a conspiracy as the explanation of the pattern, and that is (almost always) where they go wrong.

The key is to distinguish between th< pattern and its explanation. Imputing the pattern to a conspiracy, far from illuminating the subject, has a most coun-terprouductive effect. The pattern itself, so explained, begins to look suspiciously like a figment of the paranoid imagination.

CONSPIRACY theories arc all the rage, and for the most part they are wrong, but in fairness they often do contain a kernel of truth. That is what makes them so hard to shake from the minds of their adherents. Conspiracists do, at least some of the time, detect a pattern to events that is real enough. Then they deduce a conspiracy as the explanation of the pattern, and that is (almost always) where they go wrong.

The key is to distinguish between th< pattern and its explanation. Imputing the pattern to a conspiracy, far from illuminating the subject, has a most coun-terprouductive effect. The pattern itself, so explained, begins to look suspiciously like a figment of the paranoid imagination.