Królowie nie giną w wypadkach drogowych : teorie spisku i narracje gier wideo

Abstract

The author proposes to view conspiracy theories from a new angle resulting from a comparison between their rhetorical features, the mechanisms of emergent narratives and the procedural rhetoric which characterises contemporary video games. Conspiracy theories offer their recipients a rhetorically rich alternative reading of historical events, challenging the crises caused by the lack of the sense of agency, which is a mark of the societies where such theories gain greatest popularity. In turn, the artistic and commercial success of video games is based on a similar illusion of agency whereby players are under an impression that it is them who control the events within the game’s world. By referring to the most popular of all conspiracy universes constructed around the assassination of President Kennedy and to the theory of procedural rhetoric proposed by Ian Bogost, the author presents numerous common traits of both types of rhetoric. The most important among them is the focus of rhetorical attention on expected action: while video games, in order to exist, require action from the gamer, conspiracy theories, resorting to similar mechanisms of the emergent narrative, also expect action, even if symbolic. This conclusion explains why conspiracy theories are continuously politically valid, despite the fact that many consider them to be harmless hobbies. The aim of juxtaposing conspiracy theories and video games is itself rhetorically laden as it is effectuated by a conviction that the contemporary academia seems to have exhausted the possibility of influencing the social perception of conspiracy theories in the world saturated with constant new‑media messages. The academic world is thus more of a remote commentator than a participant in social debates. From such a sense of exhaustion and ineffectiveness flows the proposal to view conspiracy theories from new perspectives, including perspectives so unorthodox that they may even seem unserious.