In places where there is no such thing as a positive identity, one needs to be built, obviously, ex negativo. In that sense, anti-Semitism has always been a very strong resource for the formation of identity. And nearly nothing, as it seems, can be too absurd to be used in this process.

For more than 100 years, “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” have played a baleful role as one of the most significant examples of conspiracy theories used for producing collective hatred and aggression against a group of “others”. But since it has been apparent for a long time that these “protocols” are the result of a forgery produced in France at the instigation of members of the Russian secret police, Wolfgang Benz does not focus too much in his book on the question of their historical origin. He rather uses the “protocols” in the context of a research on the phenomenon of prejudice. It’s about the impact of irrationalism in modern politics and society. Anti-Semitism as well as anti-Zionism are of interest in as much as they represent social and political attitudes based on legends of conspiracy.

Theories of conspiracy are as attractive as they are only because they are not theoretical. Offering simple explanations for complex phenomena, they promise to be in the know, when bureaucratic rule and globalized economy make it difficult to understand why the world is as it is. And they provide everybody’s imagination with quite comfortable means for always identifying those who – without any doubt – are to be blamed for all the evils we are suffering from.

Readiness to adopt such theories – both individually and collectively – is growing worldwide, wherever phenomena of crisis, complexity and conflict become compelling. But all the energies mobilized that way – both on an individual and collective level – are always destructive and cannot contribute anything to an understanding, and thus solving of problems.