In the days of my misspent youth, I was fascinated with
conspiracy theories. My first, and favorite, was of course, Area 51 and the
Roswell UFO crash. After all, I was a child of the seventies and space was
on every kid’s brain. UFOs and governmental cover-ups found their way into all
of the popular television shows of the day. Where do you think Mork and Mindy came from?
I was too young to hear about the faked moon
landing conspiracy theory that eventually found its way into that great
O.J. Simpson vehicle, Capricorn One.
It’s probably just as well. Whatever marginal entertainment value the idea of a
faked space program contained, there was just too much facts, evidence, and
truth to give it much credence. I think
that’s part of what makes a good conspiracy theory. There has to be a lot of
interesting coincidences, or incidents that can’t be explained, or questions
that have no answers, in order to be really compelling.
