Conspiracies & Super-Villains

In my story Earthquake, we find a caveman out on a hunt trying to provide for his ‘family’. He doesn’t know why he cares about these people, but he does. And when the ground shakes, killing those around him, he’s also not sure why. And when he finds those he loves, somehow safe from harm, again, to his confusion, he starts crying. But what if they had died? Who or what would he blame for the seemingly random shaking of the ground that destroyed everything he cared about?

The world is a scary place and has been since long before we got here. But it is only with the arrival of our species that the question is finally raised: Why? Why does the ground shake? Why doing beings kill other beings? Why does a dropped match or small flame grow to take out an entire city, killing hundreds. Unfortunately, for most of our history, the answer to this “Why” question has been God. God is the grand scheme and the great plan, the meaning of everything that seemingly has no meaning.

And when planes fly into buildings, killing thousands, the answer isn’t that there exists people who just hate other people enough to kill them, the answer is again god, or gods, or a cabal of supermen. The rumors and theories circulating around the September 11th attacks have percolated into the minds of circles and people whom I deeply respect and, while I once had nothing but contempt for the so-called “Truth movement”, I can’t help now but sympathize with them. It’s easier to believe that the attacks were the work of the Illuminati or the Masons, it’s better to think that what we saw as pointless chaos was really someone’s immaculate plan. We can sleep better at night with the thought that somewhere a conspiracy knows all, is responsible for all, and has a purpose for all. That 19 men simply commit such an act with little more intent than killing as many people as possible is the most disgusting, unbearable idea of all.

The trend continues throughout the political world. The cabals are operating everywhere: They rig elections when our candidates lose, they conspire against us when our ideas fail, they wage wars under our noses, and horde our wealth when our wealth is no more. Think of the villains of the Bush-era: Halliburton, Neo-cons, a cult-like group of Christians. We’ve thrown blame on no end of imaginary monsters, with highly-fictionalized backgrounds and almost cartoonishly diabolical agendas. But why can’t we just believe that inept men deliver inept results? When you vote for an idiot, you get idiotic outcomes. Because, again, it’s easier to believe in super-villains than to take responsibility in our own acquiescence, our own negation of civic duty.

Our intelligence has proven to be man’s greatest asset, but sometimes I wonder if it’s also not our biggest problem. We seem to assign unneeded complexity to things that are actually quite simple and look for detours when the path is quite clear. But for all man is capable of, there’s one thing he’s not: Conspiracy. All of our plan’s are usually interrupted by our need to eat and our need to fuck. We’re not great planners. Ants are great planners. We are great storytellers, great makers of myths, but tales of conspiracies and super-villains are usually little more than just that.