Paranoia within Reason
A Casebook on Conspiracy as Explanation
9780226504582
9780226504575
Paranoia within Reason
A Casebook on Conspiracy as Explanation
Like the McCarthy era of the 1950s, there is a strong current of paranoid social thought as the end of the century approaches. Conspiracy theories abound, not only in extremist ideologies and groups, but in commerce, science, and economics-arenas where a paranoid style is least expected. A curiosity about paranoia at its most reasonable is at the root of this volume.
Some pieces develop conversations that reveal the post-Cold War situations of countries such as Italy, Russia, Slovenia, and the United States where conspiratorial explanations of national dramas seem to make sense. Other pieces tackle paranoia as a style of debate in such diverse realms as science, psychotherapy, and popular entertainment, where conspiracy theories emerge as a compelling way to address the inadequacies of rational expertise and organization in the face of immense changes that undermine them. Like all of the volumes in the Late Edition series, Paranoia Within Reason offers a provocative challenge to our ways of understanding the ongoing watershed changes that face us.
Some pieces develop conversations that reveal the post-Cold War situations of countries such as Italy, Russia, Slovenia, and the United States where conspiratorial explanations of national dramas seem to make sense. Other pieces tackle paranoia as a style of debate in such diverse realms as science, psychotherapy, and popular entertainment, where conspiracy theories emerge as a compelling way to address the inadequacies of rational expertise and organization in the face of immense changes that undermine them. Like all of the volumes in the Late Edition series, Paranoia Within Reason offers a provocative challenge to our ways of understanding the ongoing watershed changes that face us.
454 pages | 14 halftones, 1 map | 6-1/2 x 9-1/4 | © 1999
Late Editions: Cultural Studies for the End of the Century
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Table of Contents
Preface: A Reintroduction to the Series
Introduction to the Volume: The Paranoid Style Now
George E. Marcus
1. Conspiracy Theory’s Worlds
Kathleen Stewart
2. Paranoid, Critical, Methodical: Dalí, Koolhaas, and . . .
Jamer Hunt
I. Paranoia within Reason
3. The Extraterritoriality of Imre Lakatos: A Conversation with János Radványi
John Kadvany
4. Entangled States: Quantum Teleportation and the "Willies"
Michael Fortun
5. The Detection and Attribution of Conspiracies: The Controversy Over Chapter 8
Myanna Lahsen
6. The New Alienists: Healing Shattered Selves at Century’s End
Michael F. Brown
7. Due Diligence and the Pursuit of Transparency: The Securities and Exchange Commission, 1996
Kim and Michael Fortun
II. Paranoid Histories
8. The Usual Suspects
Andrea Aureli
9. A Toast to Fear: Ethnographic Flashes and Two Quasi-Aphorisms
Luiz E. Soares
10. The Return of the Repressed: Conversations with Three Russian Entrepreneurs
Bruce Grant
11. Udbomafija and the Rhetoric of Conspiracy
Tatiana Bajuk
III. Paranoid Presents
12. The Judas Kiss of Giulio Andreotti: Italy in Purgatorio
Robin Wagner-Pacifici
13. Tactical Thuggery: National Socialism in the East End of London
Douglas R. Holmes
14. Lone Gunmen: Legacies of the Gulf War, Illness, and Unseen Enemies
Kim Fortun
15. Deus Absconditus: Waco, Conspiracy (Theory), Millennialism, and (the End of) the Twentieth Century
James D. Faubion
16. An American Theme Park: Working and Riding Out Paranoia in the Late Twentieth Century
Scott A. Lukas
Contributors
Index
Introduction to the Volume: The Paranoid Style Now
George E. Marcus
1. Conspiracy Theory’s Worlds
Kathleen Stewart
2. Paranoid, Critical, Methodical: Dalí, Koolhaas, and . . .
Jamer Hunt
I. Paranoia within Reason
3. The Extraterritoriality of Imre Lakatos: A Conversation with János Radványi
John Kadvany
4. Entangled States: Quantum Teleportation and the "Willies"
Michael Fortun
5. The Detection and Attribution of Conspiracies: The Controversy Over Chapter 8
Myanna Lahsen
6. The New Alienists: Healing Shattered Selves at Century’s End
Michael F. Brown
7. Due Diligence and the Pursuit of Transparency: The Securities and Exchange Commission, 1996
Kim and Michael Fortun
II. Paranoid Histories
8. The Usual Suspects
Andrea Aureli
9. A Toast to Fear: Ethnographic Flashes and Two Quasi-Aphorisms
Luiz E. Soares
10. The Return of the Repressed: Conversations with Three Russian Entrepreneurs
Bruce Grant
11. Udbomafija and the Rhetoric of Conspiracy
Tatiana Bajuk
III. Paranoid Presents
12. The Judas Kiss of Giulio Andreotti: Italy in Purgatorio
Robin Wagner-Pacifici
13. Tactical Thuggery: National Socialism in the East End of London
Douglas R. Holmes
14. Lone Gunmen: Legacies of the Gulf War, Illness, and Unseen Enemies
Kim Fortun
15. Deus Absconditus: Waco, Conspiracy (Theory), Millennialism, and (the End of) the Twentieth Century
James D. Faubion
16. An American Theme Park: Working and Riding Out Paranoia in the Late Twentieth Century
Scott A. Lukas
Contributors
Index