I selected this book, Voodoo Histories (ISBN 978-0-099-47896-6, Vintage
Books, 2009), subtitled “How Conspiracy Theory has Shaped Modern History”
from the Bookazine Big C Extra shelf, thinking this was going to be a feast
of voodoo influences. It isn’t, or wasn’t.The
author is David Aaronovitch, billed as an award winning journalist and he
uses the direct journalistic approach when looking at the individual
conspiracies; however, it is not till the end of that chapter that you start
to get an inkling as to whether it is fact, or a make-up, which has been
perpetuated by journalists themselves, for most part.
The book deals with many conspiracies, beginning with the one that prompted
his interest in the subject - did man really walk on the moon, or was it
filmed in an American desert somewhere? Here he points out that if that
really was the case, how did the US government stop “the truth” coming out?
No astronaut “spilled the beans” that they didn’t get there, or navy person
say the landing in the ocean was a hoax. Thousands of people who were part
of the event could deny it, but have not. Common sense says the conspiracy
isn’t!
He deals with the protocols of the Elders of Zion and shows to my
satisfaction, at least that these were (are) a forgery which has seen
notables such as Henry Ford taken in by them. Plus pre-war Germany and a
host more.
Diana gets her moments of glory (probably moment of ‘gory’ would be more
apt). Aaronovitch points out that the concept of MI6, the British Royal
family, Uncle Tom Cobbly and all influencing the outcome of a ride in a car
driven by a driver who was drunk, is just too fanciful and should be laughed
at - but - there is money to be made by propagating rumors to sell
newspapers, and books and TV specials as well. Inadvertent death in a car
accident not masterminded by anyone other than coincidence does not sell -
but put MI6 in the equation and the public laps it up.
Velikovsky, Hancock and Von Daniken are lumped together as ‘pseudo
scholars’, but there is no getting away from the fact that these three have
millions of followers, but in my mind, they were not selling conspiracies.
(But they did sell some books! Millions of them!)
Some of the conspiracies are very American and not of much interest to
British folk, and vice versa for the British conspiracies.
However, at B. 495, I have to say I was rather disappointed in this book.
Author Aaronovitch has done much research and presents this in its entirety,
but yet failed to excite me enough for me to look forward to the next
conspiracy. Aaronovitch writes, “I have written this book because I believe
that conspiracies aren’t powerful. It is instead the idea of conspiracies
that has power.” Yes, the Power of the Press perhaps?
I also found annoying the lack of a contents page so chapters could be
accessed directly by going to the conspiracy theory of choice. However,
there is an Index and a Bibliography at the end.
