A poll carried out for a recent BBC Two documentary on the subject, suggested that just 68% of those Brits believe that there was no conspiracy behind the 9/11 attacks. That leaves a rather worryingly large margin of those who either believed there had been a conspiracy or that they could not be sure there had not been. Overall more than one in every ten (fourteen percent) claimed the US government had been involved in the atrocities, while among 16-24 year olds the number jumped to a quarter (twenty four percent).
What is it that makes the absurd and unbelievable so appealing to those who indulge in outlandish alternative narratives to the truth? Perhaps given the anti-American sentiments prevalent in some sections of the British media it is hardly surprising that some find it conceivable that the Bush administration was behind such terrible acts against its own people. Yet that still fails to account for how people are able to convince themselves of notions that patently run counter to every available shred of reliable evidence. Of course books and websites and youtube videos abound that purport to have come across indisputable proof that the Twin Towers were demolished as part of an inside job or that a plane could not possibly have flown into the Pentagon. But what could ever make these people believe that an anonymous and shoddily cobbled together website had come across evidence that countless experts had somehow missed?
Part of me wonders if those who claim to believe these versions of events are really being fully honest with either themselves or the pollsters. Perhaps fixing one's mind on extravagant and outlandish fictions is rather comforting in as far as it prevents one from having to face the stark and grim reality of things. And for those who truly believe these theories, particularly those who initiate them; again it still might be preferable to believe that 'the truth' is something you are essentially exclusively privy to and able to neatly explain, rather than having to try and grapple and make sense of the enormity of what actually happened on the morning of September 11th 2001.
Trying to convince yourself that your own government is plotting against the public is convenient in as far as it means you need never again listen to anything else unpalatable that it says. Furthermore if our own governments were involved in conspiracies, at least the problem would be closer to home and so perhaps within our grasp of solving. Much worse to have to contemplate that these attacks were carried out by those operating far beyond our borders, under the radar and out of our control.
9/11 conspiracy myths, like all make believe, offer comforting escapism to those dabble in it, but this also seems indicative of a childishness in our own society that refuses to face those facts that it does not want to hear.