The ultimate conspiracy theory is that the illuminati run the world, and that all governments and corporations are willingly subservient to the secret powers that be. It is the conspiracy theory that best satisfies our most primal need to believe that everything happens for some reason, according to some plan; that there is a method to every apparent madness; and that we ourselves are the ultimate targets of this simmering malevolence.
The conspiratorial mind-set compels us to look everywhere for them They who run the world. They who know the secrets. What they don’t want us to know. Wherever their secret headquarters is, it must be a busy place, for just about every group you can think of has been charged by someone somewhere to be secretly running things from it.
What the conspiracy theorist’s special insight does not ever seem to reveal to him, though, is why? Why would nations and corporations give up their sovereignty? For money they already have? Wouldn’t they rather control their own destinies than become powerless pawns of this shadowy global cabal? This is a pretty large and glaring question, and it’s one for which the conspiracy theorists don’t seem to have a very persuasive answer.
The big question is: Who are these illuminati? In this part, we’ll look at some of the candidates most often proposed for who really runs the world.