HISTORY: PETER CUNNINGHAMreviews Voodoo Histories The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern HistoryBy David Aaronovitch Jonathan Cape 358 pp.£ 17.99
CONSPIRACY THEORIES are a popular and attractive way of trying to understand that which cannot be understood – life’s predisposition to come up with the shocking, the bizarre and the unexpected.
Events with spectacular consequences – the assassination of JFK; the death of Princess Diana; the 9/11 attacks on America – are simply of too great an impact to be accepted as the result of mere chance, or accident, or as the work of a few individuals. We are so clever, so informed, and above all, so suspicious of our governments that we insist that defining events must have been orchestrated by powerful and secret hands.
Those who so believe hold that everything, from the death of Michael Collins to the disappearance of Shergar were manipulated by the shadowy forces who ultimately rule our lives. Or as the author of this entertaining book puts it, millions believe that “istory is guided by secret organisations, whether for woe or weal”.
David Aaronovitch has gone to great lengths to show that conspiracy theories are the work of hoaxers. The chapter, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, deals with the book, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh and published in 1982, which formed part of the research for Dan Brown's best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. That led to the movie of the same name, and set out, according to its publicity, to tell the story of "the greatest cover-up in human history".
The Holy Blood And The Holy Grailis a book which "proves" that the blood descendant of Jesus Christ and his wife, Mary Magdalene, is head of the top secret Priory of Sion and lives in Paris. I remember a friend giving me a copy of this book at the time, with the comment that the authors were distinguished journalists and that the book had thirty-six pages of footnotes and a thirteen-page bibliography. Enough said, so.
It’s all bunkum, and worse, Aaronovitch claims in this well-written and far-ranging book. For one thing, if their theory was correct, “there must have been thousands of other Jesus descendants, or else we’d be talking about inbreeding that would make Pitcairn Island look like Piccadilly Circus”, the author says.
Aaronovitch overplays the importance of the infamous nineteenth century hoax, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, in which the plan for Jewish world domination is “revealed”. Although variations of the Protocols, which seek to blame the Jews for everything, were and continue to be cited by anti-Semites, European anti-Semitism goes back to the First Crusades, and beyond. The sinister “Protocols” are more symptom than cause.
If you’re tired of people gripping your arm and insisting with apparently well-informed zeal that Princess Di was taken out by MI5 acting on the instructions of the Royal Family, or that 9/11 was set up from the start by the CIA, or that our entire civilisation was founded by super-beings from outer space but that governments, for security reasons, are unable to admit it, then this book will help you to resist and retaliate.
- Voodoo Histories The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern HistoryBy David Aaronovitch Jonathan Cape 358 pp.£ 17.99
Peter Cunninghams most recent novel,
The Sea and the Silence
is published by New Island