المؤامرة | تاريخ هوس سياسي

A fascinating intellectual history that shows how the modern and contemporary obsession with conspiracy theories stems not from the difficulty of determining truth, but from an inability to imagine a positive future. Pundits, scholars, and the general public alike have argued that conspiratorial thinking is the greatest threat to liberal democracy. However, Nicholas Guilhot invites us to view conspiracy theories as evidence of public despair in the face of the failures of liberal democracy. Conspiratorial thinking is widespread across the political spectrum, as citizens struggle with feelings of marginalization. How can we imagine the future at the so-called “end of history”? How can this predicament make us vulnerable to hallucinations and paranoia? _The book "**Conspiracy**"_ shows that conspiracy narratives historically gain popularity when politics cannot offer hope, and pessimistic thinking becomes a last resort. Guilhot takes us on a journey from Karl Popper's coining of the term "conspiracy theory" in 1948, through seminal comments by Hannah Arendt, Alexandre Koyré, Richard Hofstadter, and others, to reveal how fear of conspiracies has always operated in conflict between the powerful and the many, the rich and the poor, the oligarchy and the masses. Our fear of a grand conspiracy today is no exception to this. Guilhot turns prevailing notions on their head, showing that society's focus on truth and falsity masks how conspiracy theories feed on the dysfunctions of liberal democracies that no longer offer reliable paths to a better future. Conspiracy theories offer a ready explanation for the feeling of loss of agency and freedom. Instead of being a cause of the current crisis, it is one of its results.