Conspiracy Theories - PoMo's Metanarrative Impulse

Don't let anyone convince you that postmodernism ushered in the end of metanarratives. PoMo writers and analysts can claim all day long that postmodernism rejects overarching metanarrative notions of understanding reality in favor of radical individualistic understandings of life. But that doesn't really make it so. It has sometimes been said that PoMo is really just a logical extension of the modernism it supposedly rejects, and I happen to think there's a lot to this. The postmodern obsession with 'conspiracy' eloquently demonstrates both its commonality and divergence from modernism.

Conspiracy theories are often attempts to explain and organize random data points under a common (and usually sinister) larger umbrella reality. People on both the right and left adopt a conspiracy mentality with equal gusto. The 9/11 conspiracy theory, the JFK conspiracy theory, the one world government conspiracy theory, and the vast right-wing conspiracy are all examples of what postmodern metanarratives look like. These alleged conspiracies and other theories like them are all attempts to construct some larger explanatory story that tries to bring all or some portion of reality together. Seemingly isolated events and realities are not isolated at all once the conspiracy mindset is employed, but are part of a much larger interconnected reality - ie: a metanarrative. Lest anyone think that such conspiracy theories are the exception rather than the rule, one should take a few minutes to consult the internet. A conspiracy grid is the mindset of our day. In the arena of politics, many supporters of Republican (really Libertarian) candidate Ron Paul are absolutely convinced that there is a conspiracy among the media to squelch his campaign. This sounds eerily familiar to what supporters of Democrat Howard Dean were saying during the 2004 election cycle as his campaign was going down in flames. The intent is the same in both cases - there must be some grand larger (and darkly sinister) reason why things aren't going the way we think they should.

I'm not saying that culture has embraced the conspiracy mentality solely for the purpose of finding explanatory comfort in metanarrative. But I do think it's one reason behind the conspiracy craze. Metanarratives soothe many human tendencies that are shaped by the whims of the age. During the modernistic period, the great optimism that was bestowed on human nature and the ability of humans to eventually figure out all reality resulted in very optimistic metanarratives that exalted universal reason, science, and epistemic exploration by exalting the human. The major change between modernism and postmodernism is not that metanarratives are no longer useful, but that they are useful in a different way. With PoMo's often depressing appraisal of the human condition, metanarrative conspiracy theories are dark, sinister, and often justify human fear of power consolidation rather than exalting the pursuit of grand global ideals and goals.

Let me hasten to add that PoMo, despite its rampant cynicism and skepticism regarding human motives, ironically does exalt (in a rather twisted way) human beings more than modernism did. Why? Because the individualistic stress of PoMo actually bestows greater faith in the individual to construct his own reality than modernism ever did. PoMo's extremist pursuit of epistemic individual power (the power of the individual to define reality for themselves) is constantly at odds with its fear of power accumulation and consolidation, and it's a dilemma that PoMo has never been able to overcome. But the incessant urge toward the conspiracy mindset demonstrates (to me at least) that even PoMo's hyper-stress on individual reality has not quenched the desire, even of the negative version in our PoMo age, of trying (or needing) to see reality as a larger interconnected whole, rather than random, non-purposeful, unrelated pieces that happen to chaotically coexist. This is a very delicate tension, but actually makes some sense. So often, conspiracy theories are employed to try to explain larger reality by opining about how a few extremely powerful elites are supposedly pulling the global strings to define reality for the rest of us. Such theories are then used as justifications for our fear of others wrongly invading our own reality and compromising our own turf (this kind of thinking has certainly come to dominate certain theological systems of thought as well). This then reinforces PoMo's prime directive of non-interference in individual self-determination, including the supposed right of the individual to create his own little reality without outside coercion or consideration. Far from being eliminated, conspiracy, the PoMo metanarrative of choice, becomes a tool by which individual resistance to outside authority is cultivated and nurtured. The optimistic modernism age had positive metanarratives as virtuous goals for society to shoot for. The pessimistic postmodern age has negative metanarratives to act as warnings of what we should be fighting against. In both cases, metanarratives mirror the spirit of the age and reinforce it. To the extent that the Christian metanarrative has lost its fire, metanarratives like conspiracy fill the void that's left behind.

The challenge of the Church today is not to convince people of the value of and need for metanarratives. The supposedly anti-metanarrative PoMo generation is operating with its own metanarratives just like every age before it. The challenge is to offer better and more solid metanarratives to a culture that I believe has grown tired of the "it's true for you but not for me" wasteland we find ourselves in. The challenge is not to make the concept of metanarrative acceptable again; it's to make the Christian metanarrative the one that beats out all other cultural competitors. To undo the sinister conspiracy theory mindset in favor of the Colossians 1 metanarrative is heavy lifting to be sure. But that's our task, and we can succeed once we better understand what the true lay of the land is.