Conspiracy Theories

I'm sat in The Cross Hands in Bristol (a fantastic place for food ever you're in Fishponds) chatting to the owner about 9/11, Diana's Death and the world at large. He, along with many, believe these, and other events, to be a conspiracy by the powers that be.

What's interesting about Conspiracy Theories is less whether they are right or wrong (who knows?) but the social purpose they serve. The existence of a conspiracy theory (for example, that the moon landings never occured) actually seems to me to actually undermine the resistance which, on the surface, they seem to represent.

By this I mean that the proposition that there is a all-seeing, manipulator of current opinion that is capable of consistently fooling all of the people all of the time, does little to support those who believe that the system can ever be improved. What seems to be the inevitable result of Conspiracy Theory writ large is a self-fulfilling cynicism that no matter what the media says, it is inevitably untrue.

"Could you please stop shouting and just kill us?"

I've just watched the amazing story of the British Commando raid on St. Nazaire in 1941.

The most noticeable thing about the men was not their bravery, which was astounding, but their attitude. After raming their explosive laden boat into the Nazi port, 600 British Commandos tried to take on a defended fortress of over 12,000 Germans.

When 80% of the commandos had been killed and the rest had been captured, the bomb went off, destroying the port. The screaming German officer who told the men they were going to die was met with the response "well then, could you please stop shouting and just kill us?".

The survivors had no need to tell of their bravery, look for counselling or howl about the flag. Their modesty, humour and professionalism seem to set them aside from so many of the reports we now see coming out of Iraq. Is this because they knew they were in the right, or were people just different then?