A provocative reflection on the rise of conspiracy theories as a symptom of a depoliticized society

Who is pulling the strings? Who is hiding behind what we see? Who ultimately benefits? Faced with the overwhelming complexity of our globalized present, more and more people are asking these kinds of questions. The world is increasingly indecipherable, so it must necessarily have a hidden side, a kind of secret realm within the State and the New World Order in which plans are forged, information is manipulated and thoughts are controlled. It is no longer a mere intrigue.

Donatella Di Cesare diagnoses conspiracy theory as one of the symptoms of a largely depoliticized democratic society. Conspiracy theory is the way in which citizens, powerless before a faceless techno-economic power, relate to the world. This is why conspiracy theories, a manifestation of the great emptiness at the heart of democracy, are a fearsome weapon of mass depoliticization. In this lucid and original essay, the Italian philosopher investigates both the historical background and the most current aspects of this global phenomenon. In doing so, she does not reject conspiratorial thinking as a mere chimera or an argumentative fallacy, but rather strives to understand and reconceptualize it, reflecting on the reasons why conspiracy theories haunt a fragmented community like the spectre of a faceless power.