Strange Conspiracy

Conspiracy theories are starting to become so much more than the obsession of fringe individuals. A survey by New Science magazine found that the percentage of people believing in one or more conspiracies had risen from 15% twenty years ago to 35% per cent last year. They are shaping politics, media, the way we view life itself. In The Conspiracy Tourist Dom Joly sets out to find out where these ideas come from and learn about the people who create and believe them.

Michael Shermer presents an overarching review of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them. Trust in conspiracy theories, he writes, cuts across gender, age, race, income, education level, occupational status—and even political affiliation. One reason that people believe these conspiracies, Shermer argues, is that enough of them are real that we should be constructively conspiratorial. But Shermer reveals that other factors are also in play: anxiety and a sense of loss of control, as well as certain personality traits.

For 600 years, the kingdom of Wahrheit was ruled by an unbroken line. It rose on a wave of technology and magic and stood alone—a bastion of stability built on pillars of economic and military might. The nation and her people thrived due to the strength of soldiers and the protection of dragons. But the line has ended—the king is dead. Noble houses vie to carve out their own domains. Foreign armies march across Wahrheit’s soil for the first time in memory. Without leadership, the king’s army watches helplessly.

22 November 1963: Dallas, Texas. US President John F Kennedy is assassinated as his motorcade passes through the city's streets. The assassin is soon captured, and revealed to be disaffected Communist sympathizer Lee Harvey Oswald. Did Oswald act alone, or did he have help? Is the Bilderberg Group simply a group of international financiers concerned with promoting democracy throughout the world, or is there a more sinister power at work?

What had started as a simple case three years earlier, forever altered the course of FBI Agent Alex Toles’ life. A committed investigator, Alex had always avoided personal entanglements. That was until she meet Cassidy O’Brien. Alex had been sent by President John Merrow to investigate threatening letters that had targeted Cassidy and her ex-husband Congressman Christopher O’Brien. Three years later, Alex finds herself a devoted wife and parent. Her life and her work center on Cassidy and their two children Dylan and Mackenzie.

The world is filled with mysteries, and even in the modern age, much of the planet remains unexplored. The depths of the oceans and the intricate and extensive cave systems that honeycomb some parts of the Earth are still largely unknown. Thus, it should come as no surprise that when it comes to this terra incognita, people have projected all sorts of ideas. Tales of sunken cities or lost civilizations are just some of the fanciful theories, and those could even be considered tame in comparison to the idea that Earth is flat.