Fringe Groups Research Articles

The difficult match between a territorial policy instrument and the industry-centred tradition of French agricultural policies: the Land Management Contract (LMC)

Between 1999 and 2002, the Land Management Contract (LMC) programme was the principal mechanism implemented by France in response to the demands of the European Rural Development Regulation. It was presented as a territorial policy instrument, at the service of sustainable development that set out to encourage the multifunctionality of agriculture. However, the mid-term evaluation of the programme revealed that its conditions of implementation did not make it possible to fully achieve these ambitions. While it may have helped to make the principle of the contractualization of subsidies more generally accepted and legitimized the notion of the environment as a criterion in the definition of agricultural policies, more often than not, the definition frameworks of these contracts were restricted to the agricultural sphere alone and their target public to the relatively limited fringe group of farmers who were already familiar with the workings of the departmental institutions in charge of agricultural development. This paper sets out to not only describe some of the limitations of this programme but also its positive repercussions. Both are important factors if we want to approach national and European agricultural policy in terms of territorialization and with due consideration for rural development issues. The LMC was the main instrument of the Agriculture Framework Law of 1999 that embodied a ‘new approach to the management of public action’ via a policy that ‘takes into account the economic, environmental and social functions of agriculture and participates in land management with a view to sustainable development’, as stipulated by the first article of the Agriculture Framework Law of 9 July 1999.

Evolution and creation in the arena of scientific communication

The debate on Darwin’s theory of evolution is a unique case for observing some particular ways in which science is perceived and experienced in society. It is a dispute which is really not very scientific at all, since it ultimately derives from the attempt to discredit a corroborated scientific explanation (and to limit its teaching) by fundamentalist fringe groups of religious and political movements of various extraction. However, it is undeniable that the clash between creationists and evolutionists must also involve, in a critical and self-reflective way, the communicative weaknesses of science and its inability to assert itself as a widespread and fully shared culture, as was also stressed by the Nature magazine in April 2005. With an international viewpoint, ranging from the United States to Europe, from Australia to Italy, in this dossier we try to make a summary investigation of the current state of the debate, with a particularly attentive eye on the communicative strategies that contend in the two fields.

The Fifties: Transforming the Screen 1950-1959 (review)

Reviewed by: The Fifties: Transforming the Screen 1950-1959 Robert Fyne Peter Lev . The Fifties: Transforming the Screen 1950-1959 ( History of the American Cinema, Vol. 7). University of California Press, 2006. 382 pages; $27.50. Sweep Clean As the 1940s drew to a close, much had altered the American landscape. Five years earlier, in 1945, the Second World War ended, and millions of GIs returned home hoping, as the popular song encouraged, "To pick up the pieces" of a lifestyle that, by now, was fading. Everything was in flux; labor unions demanded recognition and better pay for their members, refrigerators replaced ice boxes in most kitchens, washing machines, not scrub boards, cleaned the family clothing, a commercial airline industry emerged providing faster means of travel especially from coast to coast, sleek automobiles with automatic transmissions and one-piece windshields dazzled consumers with their high-powered eight-cylinder engines, and, as the pièce de résistance, an innovative technology, called television, allowed large numbers of working people the opportunity to sit down in their front rooms, turn on a large size apparatus with a seven- or nine-inch screen, and—during the evening hours—enjoy some commercial entertainment provided by a handful of networks. Without question, this upcoming decade, the 1950s, like a new broom, would sweep clean. Why wouldn't it? For the 1950s' Hollywood motion picture industry, everything seemed topsy-turvy. A federal antitrust law broke up the hand-in-glove production company/theater network cutting into those huge profits, while the sale of black-and-white television sets kept soaring, keeping potential audiences away from their movie houses. Clearly, these Tinseltown moguls needed a cinematic blood transfusion if their businesses planned to continue. Adding to their problems, a political imbroglio, involving a handful of screenwriters and directors dubbed the Hollywood Ten, created more anxiety. What's next, the capitalists pondered? How can we bring viewers back to our fold? Of course the motion picture industry rallied and, for the next ten years, during this fifties decade, introduced various strategies to revitalize their shaky house and then continued to fine-tune their product well into the future. With their eyes on trends, fads, whimsical ideas, and crazes, Hollywood reinvented itself, creating new markets and cinematic technology to lure moviegoers back into their darkened theaters. How did this happen? Who were the people and companies responsible for this makeover? What moving pictures became the touchstones? These are some of the complex issues raised in a carefully researched study, The Fifties: Transforming the Screen, written by established scholar, Peter Lev. According to Lev, Hollywood moved quickly and, ever mindful of such censorial groups as the Motion Picture Production Code, the Catholic Legion of Decency, different veteran's organizations, and rightwing fringe groups, created an unusual format that made the small television seem inadequate. Manufactured under different trademarks—including Cinerama, CinemaScope, VistaVision, Todd-AO, and other tongue-twisting names—these innovations were elaborate anamorphic systems that projected a large, rectangular image on a special screen and used oversized, stereophonic speakers positioned throughout an auditorium, all of which gave the viewer a vicarious you-are-there feeling in such productions as The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben Hur (1959), or This is Cinerama (1952). To complement this pseudo-realism, another invention, the 3-D motion picture, allowed viewers—wearing inexpensive, cardboard, colored glasses—to experience a dimensional quality in a few screenplays. Beside these technological advances, Hollywood turned its attention to the strained relations with the Soviet Union. Motion pictures depicting the Korean Conflict appeared weeks after the thirty-eighth parallel crossing, showing American GIs routing their Oriental foes while, back in the states, communist agents, intent on stealing classified blueprints, were routinely rounded up by [End Page 67] fast-moving FBI agents. Another genre, the science fiction photodrama, became thinly disguised versions of Russian nuclear attacks or inland invasions as Brobdingnagian mutants, unexplained blobs, or defrosted dinosaurs ravaged American cities. Still other factors shaped the fifties. The Hollywood musical, long the staple of production companies, lost much of its allure and edged downward, while the Western, usually associated with the cowboy and Indian motif, turned reflective, suggesting there was more to...

Sào Paulo, des espaces les plus pauvres aux espaces les plus riches, acceptation du dualisme ou utopie de la « mixité »

Hélène Rivière D'Arc - Sáo Paulo, from the poorest spaces to the richest : living with dualism or the Utopia of "diversity". What stands out in discussions of the city of São Paulo is its hypermodernity associated with very high levels of wealth and income at one extreme and the presence of an important fringe group of poor and often underemployed people at the other. In accounting for the urban space, this socio-economic study led to the singling out of the concept of segregation as particularly significant. This article attempts to identify the geographic and social location of this urban split, looked at from the point of view of participation and social programs, and given that there is a significant middle class (clase media) which is part of this hypermodernity but which some observers see as impoverished.

Arenas of innovation: understanding new configurational potentialities of communication technologies

The entrenched institutions have repeatedly failed to understand the ‘new configurational potentiality’ of a new communication technology that enables new social and organizational configurations. While the potential for radical innovation made possible by a new communication technology remains below the corporate radar, it is often experimentation by fringe groups outside the established institutional framework that facilitates its realization. This article examines the systemic qualities of the ‘arenas of innovation’ arising out of communities of technology enthusiasts brought together by the new technology that allow fringe groups to generate critical insights that escape corporate eyes. The analysis starts with an examination of the systemic properties of the arena of innovation within which radio’s new configurational potentiality, broadcasting, was identified. Thereafter, the analysis moves to our own times and looks at the arena of innovation that has emerged around the Internet. Finally, the article draws on the experience with radio and the Internet to identify and discuss the defining qualities of an archetypal arena of innovation.

„Ostatni obwarzanek Rzeczypospolitej“: Andrzej Stasiuk und die Ränder der polnischen Kultur

Andrzej Stasiuk's literature contributes to the process of decentralization Polish culture is experiencing after the final devaluation of its Romantic code. The hierarchic, diachronic and centripetal structure of this code is being substituted by a synchronic and centrifugal one which offers new creative ideas coming out of the periphery. Stasiuk's adequate strategy which reveals his autocreative talent becomes manifest in a topographical, an historical and an existential manner. By moving from Warsaw to the Beskid mountains and founding a publishing house there he underlines the aesthetic potential of the South-Eastern Polish outback and transforms the traditional pattern of Mitteleuropa; by releasing history from its national ideological load he ends up in a new way of non-political individual authentification; finally, by focusing on social and ethnic fringe groups including mockery of the literary establishment he denies the cliche of the Polish writer as a national prophet.

Vegetarian America: a history

The first complete history of vegetarianism in the United States, this story reveals the people, the organizations, and the events from the late 1700s to the present. Despite generally held notions that today's vegetarianism sprang from 1960s counterculture and that prior to that its only advocates were fanatics and fringe groups, the authors explore strong movements in other historical eras, the proponents of which included esteemed physicians, socialites, and other notable members of the establishment. Until now, no one has chronicled the contributions that advocates of vegetarianism have made to the American way of life in areas such as general eating habits, preventative medicine, feminism, environmental awareness, and elsewhere. From Johnny Appleseed and the Bible-Christians to John Harvey Kellogg and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the story features dedicated and colorful characters who persevered, undaunted by the many obstacles that they faced, to convince their fellow Americans of the benefits of vegetarianism. From a religious movement, to an ethical concern about the rights of animals, to many recent nutritional discoveries, vegetarianism is a movement that continues to evolve and grow.

Human cloning: category, dignity, and the role of bioethics.

Human cloning has been simultaneously a running joke for massive worldwide publicity of fringe groups like the Raelians, and the core issue of an international movement at the United Nations in support of a treaty to ban the use of cloning techniques to produce a child (so called reproductive cloning). Yet, even though debates on human cloning have greatly increased since the birth of Dolly, the clone sheep, in 1997, we continue to wonder whether cloning is after all any different from other methods of medically assisted reproduction, and what exactly makes cloning an 'affront to the dignity of humans.' Categories we adopt matter mightily as they inform but can also misinform and lead to mistaken and unproductive decisions. And thus bioethicists have a responsibility to ensure that the proper categories are used in the cloning debates and denounce those who try to win the ethical debate through well-crafted labels rather than well-reasoned argumentations. But it is as important for bioethicists to take a position on broad issues such as human cloning and species altering interventions. One 'natural question' would be, for example, should there be an international treaty to ban human reproductive cloning?

The Languages of Loyalism in Southern Africa, c. 1870-1939

This essay explores the concept of ‘loyalism’ in the history of Southern Africa, c.1870–1939. Loyalism is frequently viewed as an overzealous affirmation of imperialism among minorities and fringe groups. In South Africa it was quite the reverse: a broad church in which very different kinds of imperial ‘faith’ could coexist. We should not, therefore, equate loyalism with Anglo‐Saxon imperialism: strong sentiments of support for the Crown and the Empire were expressed by a range of other communities, both African and Afrikaner. Loyalism, moreover, was socially diverse and highly regionalized; a phenomenon upon which no one section of South African society could ever claim a complete monopoly, but which played a powerful role in shaping the self‐perception and world views of many South Africans. However, equally striking is the fact that loyalty to the British Empire formed the basis of an identity in which a good many South Africans never felt very secure. For South African as much as Ulster loyalists, ‘betrayal’ was a very popular word. Indeed, more than in any of Britain's other dominions, it is arguable that a loyalist identity in South Africa failed to fully consolidate itself or completely to cohere.

The master conspiracy of the john birch society: From communism to the new world order

During the height of the cold war and nuclear brinksmanship in the 1950s and 1960s, a number of self-styled crusaders and organizations took up the challenge begun by congressional committees and Joseph McCarthy to expose and defeat the communist menace threatening the United States and the free world. For example, the Reverend Carl McIntire preached his anti-communist message throughout the United States, published innumerable tracts such as Communism Is of the Devil, and through the 20th Century Reformation Hour, broadcast a thirty-minute radio message Monday through Friday. The Reverend Billy James Hargis formed the anti-communist Christian Crusade, toured the country with numerous rally's for God and against communism, and broadcast his messages on hundreds of radio stations. The largest, most thoroughly organized, and visible effort began when Robert Welch, a retired candy company executive, met in Indianapolis on December 9 and 10, 1958 with eleven handpicked businessmen. Welch delivered a two-day speech in which he identified the as Our immediate and most urgent anxiety. (1) He warned his business friends that: .. you have only a few more years before the country in which you live will become four separate provinces in a world-wide Communist dominion ruled by police-state methods from the Kremlin.... We are living, in America today, in such a fool's paradise as the people of China lived in twenty years ago, as the people of Czechoslovakia lived in a dozen years ago, as the people of North Vietnam lived in five years ago, and as the people of Iraq lived in only yesterday. (2) This speech became The Blue Book of the John Birch Society, named after a U.S. Array captain apparently killed by Communist Chinese soldiers at the end of World War II. Birch became the Society's first of the cold war, and Welch became the Society's unquestioned, authoritarian leader. (3) He had devoted the previous three years of his life to studying the world situation and the communist conspiracy, so he alone was capable of leading the life and death struggle against freedom's archenemy. At its peak in the mid-1960s, following two near-nuclear wars (the Berlin Crisis in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962) and when thousands of Americans were building bomb shelters in their basements and backyards in anticipation of a nuclear holocaust, the Birch Society had hundreds of chapters throughout the country, 100,000 members, 400 American Opinion bookstores to distribute and sell its literature, and an active cadre of speakers that crisscrossed the country. The Society's declared purpose was to educate the American people to the dangers of the communist conspiracy, expose communism and communists everywhere, and stop the conspiracy's planned takeover of the United States and the free world. The media and many American leaders branded the Society as an extremist, ultra-right, fringe group that saw communists behind every tree and under every bed and had the audacity to slander American heroes such as George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, accusing them of being conscious or unwitting supporters of the communist conspiracy. Convinced that such criticisms came from those who were ignorant of the conspiracy or part of it, Welch and his followers remained committed to the cause. As the cold war began to thaw and the threat of nuclear war seemed increasingly remote, McIntire, Hargis, and other anti-communist speakers and groups disappeared from the scene. The Birch Society continued the crusade, but its membership declined during the Reagan-Bush years to below 50,000 members. It faced severe economic problems as income dropped and it tried to maintain headquarters on both the east and west coasts. (4) The Society suffered a demoralizing leadership vacuum when, first, its young, charismatic president, Congressman Lawrence McDonald, was, in their words, a martyr who murdered by assassination in the mid-air massacre of Korean Airlines Flight 007 in 1983 when Soviet fighter planes shot it down after it strayed into Soviet air space north of Japan. …

'Sites' of resistance: alternative websites and state-society relations.

Much attention has been focused on Singapore's attempt to use information technology to build a knowledge-based economy. This paper examines the implications of the unintended consequences of the Internet in the restructuring of state and society relations in Singapore. We use the data on Singapore-based and Singapore-related websites to show (a) the diversity of positions expressed by civil society organizations, fringe groups and even mainstream segments of society; (b) the negotiation process between the state and civil society over various rights and how developments in cyber-space have implications for 'reality'; (c) how censorship and content regulation itself is a more complex multi-dimensional process such that while local politics is regulated, the multi-ethnic character of the resident population has led to greater religious tolerance such that religious groups banned in some countries have found a safe haven in Singapore and have used the city-state as a strategic Internet node.

Overcoming the Cultural Divide

The September 11 attacks on America invoked, among other things, a debate over the quality ofreligious education in Muslim societies. The calls for educational reform oflslamic religious schools have been most recently echoed by well-positioned individuals in the West. Several scholars, jour­nalists, and commentators have concluded that the fanaticism that moti­vated the highjackers who drove civilian airplanes into civilian targets is rooted in an educational system that teaches hate and intolerance. Traditional religious schools in Muslim societies, the argument goes, have become breeding grounds for religious fanatics who are willing to use force and violence to impose their narrow views of the world on the rest of humanity. New advocates of curtailing religious instruction and the strengthening of liberal education would like to see increased pressure on Muslim governments to restructure religious curricula to achieve the desired end. Under this pressure, the Pakistani government has already closed several religious schools.
 The concerns of western critics over traditional .Islamic education, while real, are greatly exaggerated. One reason is that religious fanaticism is still only the outlook and experience of fringe groups operating on the margins of society; another reason is that radical groups are to a great extent the creatures of oppressive regimes that dominate Muslim societies. Evidently, that reliance on state power has strengthened the hands of extremists and undermined the efforts of reformists.
 Still, the realization of the extent to which .Islamic traditionalism is at odds with western modernity is quite significant, because it underscores the need for western analysts and policy-makers to reconsider their current approach to dealing with Islamic resurgence. The universal monologue in which western cultures and norms are elevated to universal standards must give way to a cross-cultural dialogue that aims at finding a middle ground for common humanity, while respecting the cultural individuality of non­western societies ...

La guerre des Cévennes (1702-1707). Camisards, catholiques civils et troupes royales. De l'affrontement bilatéral au triptyque insurrectionnel ?

For a long time, the historiography of the war of Cévennes had focused solely on the actions of the Camisards thus leaving aside the numerous other elements of the war and therefore presenting it as a bilateral war in Bas-Languedoc thus closely following the distinction in religion between Catholics and Protestants. Yet while displaying at the same time the marks left by the previous religion wars, the polymorphous aspect of the mobilization of the original Catholics implies that we need to go beyond the vision of the war of Cévennes as a conflict only consisting in the actions led by the Camisards. Therefore, it is also necessary to go beyond the scope of religious alliances in order to study the more ambiguous role of civilian Catholic populations who cannot be considered as belonging only to the royal troups or clergy, a view which is too often held by historiographs. But if historiography had acknowledged that these civilian Catholic populations had engaged in robberies it had nevertheless failed to see the insurrectionary aspect of some of the fringe groups. Uniting together zealous Catholics and seditious elements the mobilization of original Catholics thus brings out the presence of a third major actor of the conflict which had stayed outside the sacred scene for too long.

Health promotion, health promoting education and social inequality

Health promotion should consider social equality more strongly in order to maintain its credibility. The school is an appropriate setting for such interventions. Social-epidemiological studies prove that the school setting has a great homogenising influence. Because of its education programmes it also reaches fringe groups. Experiences from two German pilot projects on Health Promoting Schools offer concepts which can be effectively used for these interventions. It is recommended that interventions take place on different levels (school level, curriculum, teacher in-service training, political level), so the HPS can completely unfold its influence. The chance for realisation is seen in linking the orientation to different life domains and basic principles of education. The more critical processes of changing of society and the growing pressure in schools are seen as risk factors for a healthy balance of the school and for the students as well as teachers.

L.A.'s "White Minority": Punk and the Contradictions of Self-Marginalization

Part of popular music's allure is that it offers fans tools for identity construction. Lawrence Grossberg argues that musical choices open sites for people to negotiate their historical, social, and emotional relations to the world; the way fans define and understand themselves--what they believe and value--is intertwined with the varying codes and desires claimed by a taste culture associated with a specific genre (Grossberg, "Another," 31). An example of claiming social and cultural difference through music occurs in Dissonant Identities, Barry Shank's study of the Austin music scene. In explaining her impetus for joining the punk subculture, a fan states, "[I]t really had something to do with just wanting to do something different. With in a way being an outcast but then being accepted. . . . And you were sort of bound together because the other people hated you. I think that [sic] might be part of the attraction, too, is being in a minority. Being in a self-imposed minority" (122). This tactic of self-marginalization to articulate a politics of dissent is central to the Los Angeles punk scene from (roughly) 1977 to 1983. 1 To resist meta-narratives they found static and repressive, in order to form an [End Page 30] independent sense of self, a small fringe group of youth pursued a life based on that inner-city underclass denied access to the American dream, an identity I will call the "sub-urban."

A Look Behind the Masks: The 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Monticello, Arkansas

ON THE AFTERNOON OF TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1923, members of the Ku Klux Klan from southeast Arkansas gathered on an athletic field at the Fourth District State Agricultural School just south of Monticello. At 5:00 P.M. they lined up their Model T Fords and drove through Monticello to boldly display their white sheets and other regalia. Large crowds gathered on the streets to see the Klansmen riding in their cars, sitting stiff-backed and staring straight ahead. As the whole community watched, Klan members drove up South Main Street and circled the courthouse on the town square. This parade produced images that were vivid and frightening.I After the parade, the Klansmen reassembled at a secret location near the town square and ate barbecue and watermelon. Seventeen Monticello men as well as others from nearby communities were naturalized into the order. It was a big day for the Klan, the first public demonstration of their presence in the southeastern section of the state. This local Klan group was exceptional in that membership lists and minutes of their weekly meetings have survived. These documents enable us to see them behind their masks, exposing their identities as well as their activities. We also have a chance to study the Klan in a small town whose population was more notable for its uniformity than for diversity. The 1920s Klan differed from both the Klan of Reconstruction and the Klan of the 1950s and 1960s. The Reconstruction Klan, a vigilante group that used force and intimidation to keep blacks from voting, was limited to southern states that were fighting Republican control. The later Klan of the civil rights era consisted of white supremacists who were similarly willing to use violence in their fight against integration in the South. In contrast, the 1920s Klan was not only a nationwide movementstronger in the North than in the South-but also less violent and more political. Its prejudices were broader, directed against bootleggers, prostitutes, gamblers, immigrants, Catholics, rebellious teenagers, and political radicals. Until recently, these Klansmen have been understood to be citizens of small, provincial towns and villages who were victims of isolation and ignorance. Harboring a deep suspicion of cities and cosmopolitan values, they were religious fundamentalists who opposed modernism. Socially, Klan members were found in lower middle-class or blue-collar occupations, and supposedly joined the organization out of resentment against blacks and immigrants with whom they competed economically.2 In short, the consensus among historians was that the 1920s Klan was a fringe group made up of marginal white men-provincial misfits whom the social changes created through modernization had passed by. They reacted against the evils of the city with its modernist values and greater economic success.3 The Klan, then, was an outburst of hatred, ignorance, and anxiety over lost status. New studies of the Klan have questioned this interpretation.4 The main weakness of the older consensus view was always a lack of evidence. Nothing very much has been known about rank-and-file Klansmen, or what the Klan sought to achieve in the early 1920s. Recent historians, however, have employed new evidence that enabled them to probe beneath the newspaper stories and to focus on Klansmen themselves and their agenda. As a secret organization, the Klan naturally left no public records. Over the years a few membership lists and minute books have surfaced for several communities scattered across the country. The most remarkable example of this kind of evidence was the discovery of almost the entire Klan membership list for Indiana, the state with the largest Klan membership in the 1920s.5 This new evidence has resulted in a changed image of the 1920s Klan, rendering it less nativist and more populist than in the traditional view.6 In a series of studies published in the 1990s, historians have depicted the Klan as a middle-class movement with a religious and moral basis, a movement that emphasized legal and political approaches to solving what they saw as a serious moral crisis in American society. …

Dental care in cross-cultural networks-- case management--approaches in group prevention

Oral epidemiology studies of previous years have shown an increasing difference in caries cases in respect of different social strata. Thus, frequency of caries cases is related to social status. High rates of caries prevalence are found especially among children from typical areas of welfare problems. Already, today every fifth child is born into a family of immigrants. In areas of typical social deprivation their share is about 40% and more. Since the previous educational campaigns for social fringe groups have hardly shown any positive effect on dental health, new strategies are necessary. In a community of Hanover with low socio-economic status and a generally high caries level, the treatment strategies of dental care for the young have centred on the case-management approaches of social welfare programmes since the early 90s. Beside the expanded basic preventive programme, which includes application of a fluoride varnish for children, social compensatory measures with intercultural networks are also being taken. This concept shows very clearly that the dental health of children living in areas of social disorganisation can be effectively improved by means of these strategies. For the future, dental care for these children requires more intercultural competence and more knowledge of social welfare work by adolescent dental care providers.

Conspiracy mania

Conspiracy Mania Dov Waxman (bio) The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy. By Daniel Pipes. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998, $16.95 (paperback) (cloth 1996) Was Princess Diana killed by the British Secret Service to prevent her from marrying Dodi Al-Fayed, the son of Egyptian-born multi-millionaire Mohammed Al-Fayed? Was there a conspiracy organized by British intelligence, perhaps in league with the French and Israelis, to stop a Muslim from infiltrating the British Royal family? Did the Royal family, maybe even the Queen herself, instigate this plot against “the people’s Princess” and her Muslim lover? Although the idea of Queen Elizabeth II masterminding some vast international conspiracy against her erstwhile daughter-in-law would seem utterly preposterous to most of us, to many in the Middle East it appears far less incredible, in fact, even quite likely. The reasons for this, and for the general propensity to subscribe to conspiracy theories in the Middle East, is the subject of Daniel Pipes’ book The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy. The book is the first full-length study of conspiracy theories in the Middle East, and the author’s self-declared aim from the outset of The Hidden Hand is to fill an important gap in the Western world’s understanding of Middle Eastern political culture: “Whoever hopes to understand the Middle East must recognize the distorting lens of conspiracy theories, understand them, make allowance for them, and perhaps even plan around them. Conspiracism provides a key to understanding the political culture of the Middle East.” It is necessary to recognize this aspect of Middle Eastern political culture, according to Pipes, because the prevalence [End Page 267] of conspiracy theories there is responsible, directly or indirectly, for many of the region’s problems. Pipes holds conspiracy theories, and the attitudes they reveal, at least partly accountable for the Middle East’s stunted modernization, political extremism, violence, and authoritarianism. In short, according to Pipes, conspiracism is a pervasive and pernicious influence upon the political culture of the Middle East. The book succeeds in the task of illuminating an aspect of the Middle East’s political culture that clearly has been ignored for too long. By the book’s conclusion, the popularity of conspiracy theories in the region appears at once more understandable and disturbing. The Hidden Hand will be of interest to anyone seeking a greater comprehension of this region, as well as to those fascinated by the conspiratorial mind. Pipes provides an exhaustive list of widely-believed conspiracy theories, together with an examination of their political utility and psychological resonance. The theories chronicled range from the bizarre to the mundane, covering almost every aspect of the region’s life, history, and politics. In many of the cases cited, the conspirators are either Zionists (automatically equated with Jews) or imperialists (generally equated with the British and/or Americans) or both together. Some of the theories mentioned are sinister and troubling, while others are perplexing, and some are outright comical. One striking example is a prominent Iranian Ayatollah’s depiction of drinking Coca-Cola as a “multilateral contribution to evil” because Washington was helping the Zionist cause through its sale. The Islamic Republic later banned the drink. A second example is the demand by Hizbullah, a Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist group, that Michael Jackson and Madonna be brought to trial in Pakistan for “ruining the lives of thousands of Muslims and leading them to destruction, away from the religion, ethics and morality.” Despite their often far-fetched and incredulous character, Pipes explains that such theories should not be summarily dismissed as simply the products of over-ripe imaginations or the musings of crazed fanatics. Pipes argues that in the Middle East, with the notable exceptions of Turkey and Israel, such theories are the stock-in-trade of politicians, journalists, and even scholars, enjoying a widespread, mainstream audience, whereas in the West, conspiracism is the preserve of fringe groups and the alienated (and certain Hollywood directors). “The fear of conspiracy,” Pipes writes, “serves as the ubiquitous currency of Middle East political rhetoric.” To indicate his point, Pipes claims that perhaps one-third of the Muslim world interpreted...

White Lies: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in White Supremacist Discourse.

White supremacist groups have traditionally been viewed as fringe groups to be ignored, dismissed, or at most, observed warily. White Lies investigates the white supremacist imagination, and argues instead that the ideology of these groups is much closer to core American values than most of us would like to believe. The book explores white supremacist ideology through an analysis of over 300 publications from a variety of white supremacist organizations. It examines the discourse of these publications and the ways in which whites, blacks, and Jews are constructed within that discourse.

Millennium Rage: Survivalists, White Supremacists and the Doomsday Prophecy

As the millennium approaches, apocalyptic fervor is sweeping the nation. Militias, white supremacists, survivalists, and cults have seized upon the Book of Revelation to trumpet their own fractured version of the end of the world. Millennium Rage is the only book that connects the strands of these fringe groups to a tradition that has underpinnings in American culture and mainstream religion. It moreover shows that many of these groups have stolen and twisted apocalyptic religious symbols to fit their own end: gearing up for Armageddon in this world, not the next. The Oklahoma bombers, the Sons of Gestapo, the Branch Davidians, and the Unabomber are, as Philip Lamy astutely demonstrates, extreme examples of burgeoning strains within society. Ruby Ridge and Waco have become rallying cries of a growing number of average Americans who feel disenfranchised and forgotten. Members of militia movements and white supremacists, whom Lamy interviewed for this book, have tapped into their reservoir of discontent and are channeling it for their own aims. As Lamy points out, rugged individualists and utopian groups have always dotted the American landscape. What is alarming, however, is the misuse of the apocalypse to promote a religion that fans the flames of hate, preaching the destruction of minorities - including Jews, blacks, and immigrants - in a whirlwind showdown. Lamy asserts that this new religion, Christian Identity, serves as a unifying factor among an array of extremist groups who call for a battle here on earth against Satan's supposed forces - minorities allegedly bent on a worldwide conspiracy to rule the world. Distorting the Bible and other literature through a prism of hate and fear, they have made some inroads into the consciousness of America, according to Lamy.