Violence and belief: apocalypse and conspiracy (6SL500) Spring 2013

By Andrew Fergus Wilson

an academic

Some years ago I participated in a march/action against what was, at that point, The Criminal Justice Bill. History will show that the opposition to the Bill was overcome, the Bill became an Act and civil liberties were further eroded. But that sorry tale is not our chief concern (or, then again, it might well be – one never knows in the world of conspiracies). That day there was a steady stream of speakers, railing against the then Conservative government and, with only a few exceptions, attempting to promote their own particular political parties or groupings. At the time most of these were dismissed by those around me as being collaborators or unwittingly infiltrated by MI5, or, in the case of the SWP, both. Political paranoia thrives in such contexts. To all intents and purposes it was business as usual until a strangely anomalous figure took the stage (the back of a flatbed truck rigged with a Spiral Tribe sound system). I didn't recognise the speaker but a friend did, "Eh? He used to be Coventry City's goalie." I wasn't interested in football and so relaxed in the late afternoon sun. It was only when a few choice phrases cut through the general hubbub that I started listening a bit more intently. Apparently, rather than being an attack on, "Traveller culture," as many of us felt he was suggesting that the Criminal Justice Bill was but one part  of a fiendish and all but invisible plan by shapeshifting reptiles to consolidate their control of the Earth, its peoples and its resources. What astounded me was that he was being accepted as a legitimate speaker, there was clearly an audience for what he had to say; it was at this point that I began to explore the shadowy world of conspiracy theories and apocalypticism. That man was David Icke and it seems appropriate that he should provide the basis of an introduction to this shadowy world to some of you. I certainly do not offer the following as a reliable source as such but his writing is representative of the world into which we shall proceed

The end of the world has been happening for a long time. There are versions of the 'end times' story that are several thousands of years old. Some of these stories are still referred to as being guides to the imminent arrival of the 'end of the world'. The Mayan Calendar is currently being cited as providing evidence that the world will end on the 23rd December 2012 (see http://www.greatdreams.com/end-world.htm amongst many others). Of course, there are even better known versions (or should that be visions!) of the end of the world that have been with us for thousands of years – the Bible's final book, the Book of Revelation (also known as the Apocalypse of John) provides the basis for a range of different interpretations.

            This week we will begin to explore some of the historical roots of current apocalypticism and millenarian discourse. Indeed, we shall also begin to delineate between different types of predictions of the end of the world.

It is vital that you make the most of reading week and really get to know the ideas, themes and exemplars that will form the basis of your assignments – indeed, the Barkun chapter is key to at least one assignment. You are now in the final year of your studies and every grade matters. Below are a number of chapters that will be of assistance to you in furthering your knowledge – feel free to read furth

When the pilgrims set sail for America it was in the hope of founding a Christian Utopia, free from the persecution that they had experienced prior to their voyage. In some ways, then, modern America was founded as a Utopian endpoint after a period of suffering – in other words, as a millennial community. The apocalyptic, millennial sequence is one that has long driven significant swathes of America's spiritual communities. Indeed, as we shall see in later weeks, it is a pattern that is suggested to inform much modern secular politics.

The threat of apocalypse and the promise of the millennium is at the core of North American popular religion. Despite the deep historical roots of the Christian eschacaton it is modern America that we find the fullest and most widespread iteration and dissemination o the story of the 'end times'. From the 'Great Disappointment' of the Millerites in the 1800s to contemporary American Christianity the story of the imminence of the end times is one that colours people's lives and beliefs. As we shall see in later weeks this belief extends beyond religious practice and can also be discerned in political and cultural life.

The apocalypse is not simply a religious vision of the future nor, for that matter, is the Millennium. The promise of a scourging of the Earth, the end of corruption, inequality and the destruction of the corrupt and exploitative followed by a period of utopian paradise is a promise that is as common to political and social movements as it is to religious communities. This week we shall examine the claims made by John Gray in his recent book Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (2007) that the current neo-conservatism of George Bush and Tony Blair is a secular version of the millennial dream. It is also Gray's contention that despite being an ideological polar opposite to neo-conservatism Marxism is an eschatological equivalent as it is founded in the same narrative of a promised Earthly cycle of destruction and renewal. Although this will form the basis of our discussion this week we will also consider environmentalism and the fear of nuclear war as being the wellspring of other contemporary forms of secular apocalyptic and millennial discourse.

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (2005) 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion still a hit on the Egyptian book market: Two new versions of The Protocols, published in Egypt in 2003, are offered for sale in Cairo's bookstores and, in our assessment, are marketed throughout the Arab and Muslim world', Special Information Booklet, January 2005 [online] Available from: http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/2_05/prot.htm

Fraser, I.     -(2005?) 'The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion: Proof of an Ancient Conspiracy' [online] Available from: http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/proof.htm