Summary of Under the Eye of Power By Colin Dickey: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy

By Willie M. Joseph

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This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Under the Eye of Power By Colin Dickey: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy

 

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Under the Eye of Power by Colin Dickey explores the history of America's obsession with secret societies and hidden power conspiracies. Dickey's research reveals that these beliefs are deeply ingrained in American democracy, even among powerful individuals. He argues that belief in the fantastical and conspiratorial can be more soothing than the chaos and randomness of history, fortunes, and democracy. By understanding the cycle of this history, Dickey believes that breaking it can be achieved through recognizing the power dynamics within the United States.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie M. Joseph
• Release date: Jul 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223199885

Willie M. Joseph

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The Paranoid Republic

The United States has been born in paranoia, a belief that secret groups are conspiring to pervert the will of the people and the rule of law. This narrative has evolved through successive generations, with the 1964 presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater being a prime example of this. Goldwater's embrace of far-right anti-Communist paranoia and his refusal to distance himself from his most paranoid supporters shocked journalists and the intelligentsia. This led to historian Richard Hofstadter's essay The Paranoid Style in American Politics, which argued that a certain kind of nativist paranoia is a fundamental component of American democracy.

Hofstadter saw this element of America as a perpetual fringe movement, and that they existed primarily on the margins and were best constrained by a healthy, sensible middle ground. The 2016 election seemed to confirm Hofstadter's warning, as a fringe candidate espousing obvious lies and conspiracy theories swept into power while the sensible moderators of American politics were asleep. Donald Trump's embrace of an endless string of conspiracy theories would have seemed to disqualify him as a serious candidate for the highest office in the land.

The 2016 election was a dispiriting event for many who believed in rational arguments and the truth. Trump's paranoia has been normalized in American politics in a way that almost nobody could have expected a year ago. The 2016 election also revealed that many Americans believe that the US government, its media, and financial markets are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation. This translates to tens of millions of Americans who believe that secret actors are pulling the strings behind world events. Conspiracy theories have been a significant part of American history, with many people, including powerful individuals, continuing to subscribe to them.

These theories were initially seen as the factual explanation of the world's workings, and the events of history were the product of human actions. However, the belief in the government being the target of conspirators has become more entrenched in the twentieth century. The distrust of the government has shifted from being paranoid about conspirators attacking the government to believing that the government itself is the conspiracy.

Conspiracists believed that the country's democratic government was under constant attack from external forces, with the exception of the Slave Power conspiracy theory advocated by abolitionists and Republicans in the 1850s. However, this belief has since become stronger, with a survey of American fears in 2021 finding that more Americans are afraid of corrupt elements in their own government than they are of loved ones dying.

While conspiracy theories may seem plausible in the immediate aftermath of events, the more time that elapses between positing a theory and the appearance of objective evidence supporting it, the less likely it is that it is valid. Genuine conspiracies have a tendency to unravel almost as soon as someone looks into them, and maintaining a conspiracy theory in the absence of evidence requires an increasingly extreme contortion of reality and the past.

Beliefs in secret groups of malevolent actors have been among the most durable in American history, with various secret societies fascinating Americans over the years. We have distrusted actual secret societies, such as Freemasonry, which has become intertwined with the country's founding and subsequent story. Additionally, there is a long tradition of mythic secret societies, such as the Illuminati, which appears early on in the American story and gradually becomes a bedrock feature of myriad American conspiracy theories.

Conspiration theories have been deployed out of anxiety about major cultural or political shifts, and they have been used to suppress or curtail the fight for equity for traditionally marginalized groups in America. Conspiracy theories, both on the right and left, play a significant role in shaping American history and democracy. Conservative conspiracy theories often invent mythical power structures or demonize marginalized groups, while left-leaning conspiracy theories exaggerate existing power imbalances and focus less on wholly invented groups. These theories are effective because they foster moral panics, which create a climate where reactionary forces can control and regulate public discourse.

The Salem witch trials and the Red Scare of the early 1950s are two major American social panics that are often treated as singular and unique events. These events are metaphorically linked to each other in popular consciousness and serve as cautionary tales of aberrant distrust and paranoia. However, these events are not singular outliers, as they are part of a long history of racism, slavery, xenophobia, class and money in American capitalism, and democracy itself.

Moral panics and conspiracy theories around secret societies are commonplace and woven into the fabric of American life, expressed repeatedly nearly every generation. They are not outliers in an otherwise mostly healthy democratic system, but rather part of a long list of similar tragedies that make up American history. To admit that moral panics and conspiracy theories are a constant facet of American culture is to rethink how we see America's constant, if sometimes difficult, forward progress. To believe in America is to believe in a nation that is always in a state of improvement, with its shortcomings and injustices but seeks to build on the mistakes of the past and make a better world for future generations.

American history suggests that on a fundamental level, conspiracy theories involving secret groups and subversive forces have become inextricable from how we participate in democracy. By acknowledging the importance of these conspiracy theories, we can work towards a more perfect union and a more just society. The author argues that understanding the process of secret societies can help us imagine lasting solutions to the problems spread by paranoias. The mechanism of secret societies is such that one cannot definitively debunk or disprove a conspiracy theory about them, as they are untouchable by normal laws of open scrutiny. The author is more interested in the idea of the secret society, which exists not in closed-off rooms but in the minds of the general public.

This idea can be better tracked and outlined, and its impact is more consequential than Freemasons or those behind closed doors. The idea of the secret society has driven events in American history more than the groups themselves, and it is a necessary fiction that drives America. To stop the rising tide of conspiracy theories dominating twenty-first-century politics, it is helpful to recognize the long, quite mainstream history of such beliefs and admit that they did not spring out of nowhere in the past decade. The symbols of Freemasonry, such as the square, level, compass, and mysterious eye, are more immediately associated with secret societies and are more publicly prominent.

PART ONE

As Above, So Below

The Arch and the Cenotaph

The United States National Memorial Arch, designed by Paul Philippe Cret in imitation of Rome's Arch of Titus, stands on a gentle hill in rural Pennsylvania. The arch is not as large as a similar one in New York City's Washington Square Park, but standing alone, it feels much more significant. The National Park Service was unable to save the arch due to financial constraints, and the Freemasons stepped in to renovate it. The granite marker on the interior arch, a dull bronze plaque, bears the Eye of Providence, a symbol of divine providence or a secret New World Order. This symbol may be meant to suggest the approving eye of God looking down on us or to signal their plans for world domination, hiding in plain sight.

Conspiration theories surrounding the Masons start with the idea that a supposedly secret society litters the country with prominent and obvious symbols, seemingly hiding in plain sight. A 2017 thread on 4chan devoted to Freemasons ran through various accusations that float around concerning the fraternity. Some anons claimed that Freemasons are boring old men devoted mainly to philanthropy and drinking, while others were not buying it. The number 33, referencing not just the thirtythird degree of the Scottish Rite but the number of years the Twin Towers stood before being destroyed on September 11, 2001, is also a reference to the number of the beast, 666.

The public attitude toward Freemasons is often used synonymously with two other conspiracy theory groups: the Illuminati and the New World Order. A 2021 survey reported that over 47% of Americans agree or strongly agree with the statement that the government is hiding something about the Illuminati and/or the