Conspiracist Manifesto

by Anonymous, Robert Hurley (Translator)

What if capitalism and its social machine were the outcome of a conspiratorial strategy? This anonymous book considers evidence that they must be that. Further, it argues in favor of passionate counter-conspiracies as the logical form of revolt in our time, when our very souls are said to be at stake.

Genres: Politics, Theory

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 21, 2022

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone had to write it.

Finally a cohesive left critique of the political dynamics innate to the COVID lockdowns. It's worth dropping your repulsion towards the anti-vaxxers and consider why the "woke" among us wholesale embraced a variety of social control measures that had been brewing for a century and imposed in the wake of a wave global uprisings in the 2010s. There's a lot here and I'm not going to provide a summary, but this is a unique and important book for sure.

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What makes them crazy, in regard to conspiracists, is realizing their wager has failed. / It's not enough to distract us and terrorize us to keep us in line. / We inform ourselves. We train. We discuss. We read. We think. Worse, we make the effort to share what we believe we've understood" (p.215).

What's weird is that everyone thinks that they can see clearly. Is it enough to conspire, to breathe together?

What is probably more accurate is: "We are in that historical circumstance where those who want to act in a revolutionary manner must be careful not to show it, and those who bill themselves as revolutionaries only prove that they have given up on truly being that" (p.355).

[Noah Balushi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great history lessons and source for sources, but weak to me as a manifesto.

[Jonathon McKenney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not totally sure how I feel about this, but there was some great ideas contained between the crazy theorising.

[Bandura Spies]

Le conspirationnisme procède de l'anxiété de l'individu impuissant confronté à l'appareil gigantesque de la société technologique et un cours historique inintelligible. Il ne sert donc à rien de balayer le conspirationnisme comme faux, grotesque ou blâmable ; il faut s'adresser à l'anxiété d'où il sourd en produisant de l'intelligibilité historique et indiquer la voie d'une sortie de l'impuissance.
On peut bien s'épuiser à tenter d'expliquer aux "pauvres en esprit" pourquoi ils se trompent, pourquoi les choses sont compliquées, pourquoi il est immoral de penser ceci ou cela, bref : à les évangéliser encore et toujours. Les médias peuvent bien éructer d'anathèmes. C'est le plus généralement sans effet, et parfois contre-productif. La vérité est qu'il y a dans le conspirationnisme une recherche éperdue de vérité, un refus de continuer à vivre en esclave travaillant et consommant aveuglément, un désir de trouver un plan commun en sécession avec l'ordre existant, un sentiment inné des machinations à l'oeuvre, une sensibilité au sort que cette société réserve à l'enfance, au caractère proprement diabolique du pouvoir et de l'accumulation de richesse, mais surtout un réveil politique qu'il serait suicidaire de laisser à l'extrême-droite.

[Jeff Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although not signed by them, this book was written by anarchist collective The Invisible Committee, authors of texts such as The Coming Insurrection critical of capitalism and the State. It was released by the same publishers, translated from French by Robert Hurley, written in the same style, and defended in an essay called Communique N° 0 signed by The Invisible Committee. The other Invisible Committee texts provide useful context for the analysis in this book.

Whether or not you agree with the allegation that the pandemic was intentionally created as a response to an unprecedented wave of mass uprisings - which I tend to doubt, leaning more towards the idea it was a crisis that was capitalized upon rather than manufactured - this book is one of the very few critiques of the overreach of State power during the response to COVID from a consistently anarchist and anti-capitalist perspective, providing extensive analysis of the ways that government agencies made use of propaganda and psychological operation techniques to pit segments of the working class against each other and impede radical organizing. It builds on Foucault, Debord, and other theorists to refute liberal attacks on "conspiracism" and argues that not only does the ruling class construct conspiracies to maintain its power, but that we should also conspire to overthrow them.

The 4-star instead of 5-star rating comes from the writing not quite being on par with Invisible Committee's other work. While certain specific passages are eloquent, carefully constructed, and incisive, and it builds its arguments clearly and thoroughly, in other places it veers into the more casual language of an internet post; I like the inclusion of a greater number of pictures as visual aids but in at least one instance they use a cheesy meme that breaks the mood.

Overall great read, unique and an original perspective among all the voices on the left & post-left tripping over themselves to affirm the necessity of the State's attacks on liberty under the guise of public health.

[channel · Rating 5 out of 5]

a book this comprehensively blackpilled that, at every moment it's about to bottom out, ultimately channels itself back into an invigoration to completely dismantle the whalefall that our constructed reality has become. that the solution to the grim outlook of debord's 1985 'comments on the society of the spectacle' was to, simply, not be grim - or otherwise that patience was needed for this process to eat itself sick, while it demanded everyone watch.

critical art ensemble's "marching plague" provides a more comprehensive analysis of the very-well-funded darling industry that ceaselessly engineers epidemics if you find yourself doubting this assertion (a text that was also seized by the american government on the basis of, naturally, mail fraud, forcing it to be re-written)

the real enemy is, still, the liberals.

[Cyprien Crabbé · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'ai apprécié la conclusion, mais l'argumentation qui y menait ne tenait, à mon avis, pas tant le coup. À mon goût, c'était plutôt une suite de fait, régulièrement non sourcés, dont le.la lecteur.ice est sensé.e tirer des conclusions évidentes. En ce sens-là, ce livre n'assume pas vraiment son titre de manifeste.
Ce qui m'a encore le plus gêné, c'est comment ce livre qui, critiquant la rhétorique de la guerre pendant la pandémie, y tombe, lui aussi, en parlant de "collabo". J'ai trouvé ça très maladroit, voir malhonnête.
Malgré tout, la conclusion m'a fort plu. Le dernier chapitre a un bel effet galvanisant, comme le final d'une grande symphonie. En somme, si le livre ne m'a pas convaincu pour son aspect d'essai, il a des belles qualités comme œuvre d'art.

[Io Perl-Strahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

passionate and clear thinking in a world beyond "truth." Trying to save our souls as relational emergences rather than the precious inside. Anti-essence which is my main thing, and a bid for life lived together.
I wasn't convinced of the plandemic by the end but i don't think that was totally the point -- really gives you a historical and theoretical foundation for distrust of power as the default, fodder to encourage the discerning habit of the brain against the far stronger tendency to fall in line. Many excellent passages, couldn't read without my pencil nearby to underline.

[Francois Boubal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Très philosophique, peu de concret

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of hits and a lot of misses.

[Zone Farmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

not 100% cohesive but lots of inspirational tidbits.

[Rubí · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found some ideas/history interesting but overall too close to schizo and, to my understanding, kind of contradictory. Not for me :/