Next year, in November, it will be 60 years since the assassination of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. An assassination filmed live and broadcast to the entire world; one of the most investigated crimes in history. But today and despite the efforts of Oliver Stone, among others, no one knows for sure what really happened, who was behind it, who pulled the trigger, nor about the many other unsolvable enigmas that surround the investigation and that have given foot over the years to all kinds of conjectures and not a few conspiracy theories, of which there are for all tastes, new and old, credible and crazy. Most likely, some more will be offered to coincide with the celebration of the anniversary in 2023.
There have always been conspiracy theories, but no previous era can be compared to ours in terms of their quantity and instantaneous dissemination worldwide, thanks above all to the internet and social networks. Of course, its breeding ground is found, as always, in collective ignorance combined with the search for a scapegoat to blame for our miseries.
Throughout the centuries and to this day, the Jews have been the most singled out, since they serve as a wild card scapegoat, the culprits of each and every one of our ills. They were denied any trade other than that of moneylender, only to accuse them of being repugnant users deserving of the most implacable divine punishment, that is, the most abject human brutality.
But they also served women accused of witchcraft, homosexuals, alleged heretics, almost always unwanted immigrants or, for that matter, any human being with skin of a different color from that of good countrymen. Persecutions and executions were carried out in the name of God or an ideology. And it was so until, especially after the Reformation launched in northern Europe that cried out against fraudulent miracles and the shameless simony so widespread in the Church of Rome, divine wrath stopped terrifying people. The Enlightenment would do the rest.
During Romanticism, original sin gave way to nationalisms that believed they were masters of the destiny of a single people, citizens of secular nations surrounded by threatening enemies. While the veracity of Darwin's theories was questioned, the fervent nationalists were launched to invent the story of the origins of the nation. Of course, they lied like rascals, but also about the perversity of their enemies, whether they were real or invented. And so we continue to go wrong and war after war to this day.
We are as willing to believe fake news or the most elaborate conspiracy theories as our ancestors were when it came to swallowing the tricks issued by healers or the Church. So much so that more and more people distrust politics, the economy, the government in power, the system. It doesn't matter if they are on the right or on the left. In other words, we have created, with no little help from the internet, an empty stage that now awaits to be occupied by a great charlatan that half the population will hail as a savior and the other half the devil.
Instead of swallowing so many conspiracy theories, which after all is just that, a simple theory, surely it would be more profitable for us to damn the populist charlatans who are dedicated to sowing hatred and division among us. A return to the good sense, common sense, spirit of sacrifice and spirituality (without the need to be religious) of our ancestors would not hurt either. If nothing else because they really knew what a comb is worth.
