Description
Conspiracy theories and post-truth politics have figured prominently in the popular consciousness since the Brexit referendum and the American elections in 2016. These conspiracies have been broadly dismissed in both academic and media circles as being paranoid and divorced from reality. I attempt a slightly more generous reading of conspiracy theories by drawing on Cornelius Castoriadis’s work on the role of the imagination in bringing the world into being. Castoriadis’s social imaginary bears some resemblance to Foucault’s Regime of Truth, which has recently been gaining prominence in critical readings of conspiracy theories. Rather than conceiving of conspiracies as attempting to provide a narrative which explains an underlying reality, however, Castoriadis highlights a double hermeneutic whereby the imagination is central to creating reality. From this perspective, conspiracy theories can be understood as radical instituting imaginaries which attempt to undermine the givenness of reality as instituted imaginary. This approach does not go as far to exonerate conspiracy theories tout court—some conspiracies, such as the Qanon movement, undoubtedly follow Benjamin’s logic of fascism as the aestheticisation of politics. Instead, it takes the proliferation of conspiracy theories as an impetus to recognise the contradictions and absurdities within our instituted reality. In particular, this paper will explore this process of reality being imagined into being with reference to the Qanon movement and the War on Terror.
