Who Needs Conspiracies? The Comfort of Paranoid Delusions

At the threshold of a new millennium dominated by rationalism, the world nonetheless resonates with daily inventions of plot and intrigue, of implausible paranoid explanation, each one stranger than the last. No single psychological or social theory can fully explain the remarkable seductiveness of conspiracy theory to contemporary communities. However, a number of specific psycho-social uses help make paranoia a compelling discursive temptation.