"One should not conclude too hastily that the degradation of American political practices is a decline in power. Behind this masquerade, there is a vast political strategy (certainly not deliberate; it would require too much intelligence) that belies our eternal democratic illusions."
- Jean Baudrillard
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JMRouse 
The bigger the conspiracy theory, the harder it would be to keep secret.
I agree as a general rule, but the Manhattan Project is the first example that comes to mind where enormous amounts of human and natural resources were put into a project that was largely able to be kept secret. As mentioned earlier, not everyone needs to know that they are a part of the "conspiracy":

"Operators at their calutron control panels at Y-12. Gladys Owens, the woman seated in the foreground, did not know what she had been involved with until seeing this photo in a public tour of the facility fifty years later" (source:
http://smithdray1.net/angeltowns/or/go.htm)
And for those that knew what they were a part of:

I spend a fair bit of my spare time doing research in various topics of interest (historical, nutritional, literature, art... the internet is great!) and I've looked at a few conspiracy theories. Most are outlandish and some are market driven as mentioned earlier. Sort of like televangelism. But don't let the outlandish theories predispose you to dismissing more plausible explanations that may have a conspiratorial ring to them. They're sometimes true. For example, isn't it a well known cynicism that many offices in government are for sale to the highest bidder?
Unfortunately, corporate power is much more banal in its evil than a super secret Illuminati committee that performs occult rituals and has "ruled" since time immemorial. Operation PBSUCCESS? Yawn. Tell me more about this cabal of Jews, they have just the right amount of "otherness" to hold my attention.