Millenarian movements adopt conspiracy beliefs to explain their unpopularity and delayed end-times

Evidence

To be sure, one can believe in a struggle between good and evil without believing in conspiracies. In such a scenario, evil would operate openly—a picture often drawn by millenarian preachers when they point to widespread manifestations of greed, unbridled sexuality, or hostility to religion. But millennialists tend to gravitate toward conspiracism for two specifi c reasons. First, a millenarian movement without a mass following fi nds hidden evil an attractive way to explain its lack of popularity. Surely the masses would believe if only they knew what the concealed malefactors were up to. Second, the more elusive the end-times are, the more tempting it is to blame their delay on secret evil powers, whether in the form of a capitalist conspiracy or of the minions of Satan. Conspiracism explains failure, both for organizations and for the larger world. — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 69

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in sacrifice and belief systems — why marginal movements construct hidden enemies — connects to: New World Order conspiracy theory fuses millenarian Christianity with secret-society pseudohistory — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 245; Unpopular millenarian movements invoke hidden evil to explain failed recruitment — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 69; A major millenarian movement can flourish without conspiracy beliefs — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 104 (+2 more)
• SEED: Angle for an essay: conspiracy theory as failure-management technology — how fringe movements rationalize their own irrelevance rather than revise doctrine

Broader Connections

• Unpopular millenarian movements invoke hidden evil to explain failed recruitment #expands (0.85) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 69
• A major millenarian movement can flourish without conspiracy beliefs #contradicts (0.80) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 104
• Conspiracy theories give concrete form to a group’s sensed loss of power #expands (0.80) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 58
• Conspiracism and millennialism relate but not causally or simply #qualifies (0.75) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 103