Conspiracies, Cults, and Moral Panics: The Affective Politics of Fear

3 units

This course takes an anthropological look at conspiracy theories, cults, and moral panics as manifestations of cultural distress and modes of everyday knowledge and practice. The thread that connects these phenomena is that they are constituted as counterhegemonic pathways to truths that the majority of people cannot (or refuse to) see. As such, they serve as provocative lenses on changing understandings of such issues as the relationship between the individual and the modern state, the contours of civil liberties and responsibilities, and the nature and purpose of human existence. Throughout the semesterwe will explore the evolution and social impact of conspiracies, cults, and moral panics, and examine the historical, cultural, political, and religious dynamics that inform all three using a variety of critical methods. Among other lines of inquiry, we will ask: What is the cultural and psychological work of these phenomena? And what do they suggest about our own experiences-especially of freedom, the exercise of power, and what counts as knowledge?