EPIGRAPH
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, also known as The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, The Protocols of Zion, and The Protocols are a set of alleged transcriptions of a secret Jewish meeting that was held to discuss the Jews' plan for world domination. They were first published in completion in Russia in 1903 and 1905 and are, according to Norman Cohn in his introduction to Herman Bernstein's book The Truth About "The Protocols of Zion", "a notorious fabrication". Not only is there no evidential basis for this meeting having happened, large parts of The Protocols are plagiarized from Maurice Joly's work entitled Le dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu (The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu), which was originally published in 1864.
Despite multiple articles pointing out the fallacies and comparing the plagiarisms of The Protocols, including an exposé series published on the 16th, 17th, and 18th days of August 1921 in The London Times by a Mr. Philip P. Graves, many international and local governments used The Protocols to advance what they thought of "The Jewish World Conspiracy".
INTRODUCTION
So I begin in my introduction on the the Jewish World Conspiracy with respects to the pamphlet The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion (from here on out referenced as The Protocols). The Protocols have been used to justify the most heinous anti-Semitic attacks in history: one needs only to look at the Holocaust to see The Protocols’ devastating effects. [bibcite/redirect to Database here] For most people, there is no ethical or moral warrant to believe in the Jewish World Conspiracy. Furthermore, there is no epistemic warrant, but why is there no such warrant? To answer this question, I shall begin by briefly going over the outline provided by Matthew R.X. Dentith on what is a conspiracy theory, and then I shall go into Dentith’s qualifications for the epistemic warrant in believing a conspiracy theory.
CONSPIRACY THEORY ACCORDING TO DENTITH
According to Dentith, there are three conditions that a theory must meet in order to be classified as a conspiracy theory: “first, there must be a group of people with a set plan; second, there must be steps that are taken by said ‘group’ in order to minimize the awareness of the public; third, the proposed conspiracy theory must meet some ‘goal’ of the group. Most importantly, Dentith states that the ‘three conditions are both individually necessary and jointly sufficient’”. So as not to bog down the bulk of this paper with unnecessary information, I will only briefly go over these conditions. For a more complete breakdown, please reference my other paper here.[hyperlink]
Conspiracy Condition
The Jewish World Conspiracy as set forth in The Protocols consists of a group of people (the Jews) desiring to meet some end (world domination). As such, this condition is satisfied.
Secrecy Condition
Second, are the conspirators trying to keep this plan secret? While there is no way to know, we can safely assume that they are, as it would be extremely detrimental to their goals to do so otherwise, so I would say that, logically, this condition is satisfied.
Goal Condition
Finally, do the conspirators desire some end? In this case, the conspirators do desire “some end”: world domination. Now, it is important to mention that Dentith only says that they must desire some end; that is, their end does not have to be achieved in order for this condition to be met. Therefore, whether or not any end has been achieved is irrelevant in satisfying the requirements of this condition.
Having met all of these guidelines, we can safely assume that the theory put forth in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a conspiracy theory according to Dentith.
SHOULD WE BELIEVE IT
Dentith’s Guidelines (With the Guest Appearance of Buenting & Taylor!)
Dentith does not give any guidelines on whether or not we are warranted in believing a conspiracy theory by definition; rather, he encourages readers to take a particularist view, and judge each conspiracy by its own merits (or, in this case, detriments). Dentith references a paper by Buenting and Taylor on fortuitous data [cite here], and in it they define the particularist and generalist views more succinctly. Buenting and Taylor argue that we must look at the evidence that supports each theory in order to decide if we have some epistemic warrant in believing said “theory”. So, let’s look at the “evidence” in The Protocols and weigh it against the official story.
My Evaluation of the “Evidence”
As evidence, what kind of warrant, if any, do The Protocols offer in believing The Jewish World Conspiracy? Absolutely none. The Protocols are nothing but a fraud; significant sections are often taken word-for-word, line-for-line, paragraph-for-paragraph from Le dialogue by Maurice Joly; Le dialogue was itself published in Brussels, Belgium in 1864, thirty-nine years before the first edition of The Protocols was published in 1903 in Russia.
Furthermore, the circumstances of the meeting are directly inspired by the discredited German novelist Hermann Goedsche’s novel To Sedan.
According to Herman Bernstein in his novel The Truth About "The Protocols of Zion": A Complete Exposure:
[T]here appeared a chapter [in To Sedan] entitled “The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel,” in which he [Goedsche] described a secret centennial midnight meeting of the representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel in the ancient cemetery in Prague … for the purpose of reporting what had happened to the Jewish people during the past century and of elaborating plans for the next century. (p. 21)
When comparing this to the official story, which for the purposes of this paper I am defining as that which is set forth by academia, it becomes glaringly obvious that there is no such evidence that could ever support the Jewish World Conspiracy Theory. Every single event that the Jews are said to cause has much better, well-documented explanation. WWI was not caused by Jewish revolutionaries; it was caused by the assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand by the Serbian insurrectionist Gavrilo Princip. The Great Depression was not orchestrated by a secret group of Jewish bankers; it was the result of multiple bad investments and an inflated economy. Hitler’s justification for plunging the world into WWII on the basis of the “Jewish menace” has no basis in reality; he was an evil, racist man with a power complex looking for a scapegoat.
Thus, because The Protocols are nothing more than a set of plagiarized accounts of a fictional event, the Jewish World Conspiracy has absolutely no epistemic warrant whatsoever.