Our pandemic of unreason

Conspiracy theories stalk the west on both sides of the political divide

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters; Goya, 1799

As has often been remarked, we are living in an era of conspiracy theories. Many plausible reasons are given for this, chief amongst which is the fact that, in times of cultural cataclysm or crisis, people try to explain the otherwise terrifyingly incomprehensible by alighting upon an explanation which se…