Jacobin, Issue 49: Conspiracy

Jacobin is a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture. The print magazine is released quarterly and reaches 50,000 subscribers, in addition to a web audience of over 2,000,000 a month.

'Pasolini once wrote that conspiracies make us think crazy thoughts because they free us from the burden of having to face the truth.... In fact, if you are convinced that the history of the world is directed by secret societies — be they the Illuminati or the Bilderberg group — that are about to establish a new world order, what do you do? You give up, and you fret and fume. So every conspiracy theory directs the public imagination toward nonexistent dangers and away from genuine threats. As Chomsky once suggested, imagining what was almost a conspiracy of conspiracy theories, those who get the greatest advantage from fantasies about a supposed plot are the very institutions that the conspiracy theory aims to strike.'

— Umberto Eco, “Conspiracy,” 2015

Published by Jacobin
Softcover
175 pages
205 x 279mm
ISSN 72527426281631