Book of Revelation, Nostradamus, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Aum Shinrikyo was the Japanese religious organization whose members tried to set off an apocalyptic war by releasing sarin gas in the Tokyo subway in 1993. In his indiscriminate combination of beliefs, Asahara was typical of contemporary millenarian entrepreneurs—by which I mean individuals who create apocalyptic belief systems outside of customary religious or secular traditions. In a similar vein, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, until 1999 the head of the Church Universal and Triumphant, combined Christianity with Theosophy, channeling, and conspiracy theory. Her Montana-based church, near Yellowstone National Park, built elaborate underground bomb shelters after Prophet became convinced that a Soviet nuclear attack was imminent. In 1990, hundreds of her followers took to the shelters, only to emerge eventually into the same world they had left.
These idiosyncratic combinations highlight the improvisational style’s characteristic bricolage. Such odd conceptual structures are apt to contain elements from more than one religious tradition, together with ideas from the New Age, occultism, science, and radical politics. The combinations do not appear “natural,” since the elements often come from seemingly unrelated domains, such as conspiracy theories and fringe science, or from domains that appear to be in opposition, such as fundamentalist religion and the New Age. “New Age” is clearly the most recent constituent, and its very recency poses definitional problems. For present purposes, I employ J. Gordon Melton’s definition, which includes the following elements: mystical individual transformation; an awareness of new, nonmaterial realities; “the imposition of [a] personal vision onto society”; and belief in universally pervasive but invisible forms of energy.4
The appeal of these collages lies in their claim to provide holistic and comprehensive pictures of the world. The variety of their elements implies that the belief system can explain a comparably wide range of phenomena, from the spiritual to the scientific and the political. The combinations also suggest that apparent oppositions and contradictions can be resolved, and that an underlying unity transcends outward differences.
Such belief systems can flourish only in an environment in which two conditions are present. The first requirement is that a wide range of potential material—motifs that might be incorporated into a belief system—be easily accessible. The second is that existing authority structures be sufficiently weakened so that novel combinations of ideas can be proposed and taken seriously. The first condition, accessibility, has resulted from cultural exchanges now taken for granted, and from the communications infrastructure through which diverse messages move. New technologies and marketing devices have vastly increased the ease with which unusual and unpopular ideas may be spread. For print media, this has been facilitated by the ubiquitous availability of mass-market paperbacks through large bookstore chains, such as Borders and Barnes and Noble, and specialty stores catering to niche audiences such as evangelical Christians and New Age believers. Millenarian books have proved to be massive sellers—epitomized by the extraordinary success of the Left Behind series of millennialist novels by Tim La Haye and Jim Jenkins, which has sold more than fifty million copies. In addition, computer, photocopying, and other technologies have made possible the production of self-published print periodicals (zines) by individuals and groups who previously had no access to this medium.5
But changes in electronic communication have been far more important. Cable television, including its legally mandated community access channels, has given exponents of fringe ideas who were traditionally relegated to subcultures entrée to mass audiences. Related technology permits the sale of videocassette recordings to the general public. A number of radio talk shows cater to the conspiracist audience, sometimes stressing political plots, sometimes with an emphasis on the occult or what they consider “alternative science.” The most prominent hosts have included Art Bell, Hal Turner, and Alex Jones. In addition to spreading the “real news” through exposés, they also offer national platforms for the ideas of prominent conspiracy theorists through interviews. The influence of these media, however, pales beside that of the Internet.6
By the beginning of the year 2000, there were in excess of a billion Web pages in existence, as compared to only 1.3 million five years earlier. Besides the sheer volume of material it can accommodate, the Internet is the first mass medium without gatekeepers. No intermediaries, such as editors, publishers, or producers, stand between the content provider and the distribution of the message. In addition, the creation and dissemination of content require only a modest financial investment. Anyone can place a message before a potentially global audience.7
One effect of the Internet is to obscure the distinction between mainstream and fringe sources; another is to bind together individuals who hold fringe views. The validation that comes from seeing one’s beliefs echoed by others provides a sense of connection for otherwise isolated individuals. Excessive claims have sometimes been made for “virtual community,” but surely one effect of the Internet is to confirm and embolden those whose beliefs normally receive scant social reinforcement. The result insofar as millennialism is concerned is that the dissemination of a message is no longer linked to such traditional requirements as financial investment, popularity, or social acceptability. The bizarre, eccentric, and obscene appear on the same screen that might display the Times of London or CNN.com.
The second condition for the flourishing of improvisational millennialism, as mentioned earlier, is the erosion of existing authority structures. Even repressive governments find it difficult to block unwanted communications. Although secularization has not marginalized religion, it has weakened many traditional religious authority structures. Contributing factors to this decline have been the prestige of science and technology; population migration to diverse, media-rich urban areas; and the spread of compulsory secular education. Many religious authorities have responded by attempting to withdraw into enclaves, while others have tried to adapt their teachings to avoid conflicting with secular ideas. In either case, a reduction in power, scope of authority, and prestige have commonly resulted. Paradoxically, although science has contributed to the decline of religious authority, science too has seen its standing decline, especially in the last three decades of the twentieth century. The fruits of scientific research—whether they be nuclear weapons and nuclear power, the application of fossil fuels, or the manipulation of genetics—appear morally ambiguous. Hence science itself, instead of emerging as a surrogate for religion, has faced challenges to its authority, notably from those claiming access to nonrational forms of knowledge.
In short, many forms of authority that might in other circumstances have interfered with the ability of new belief systems to arise have proved unable to do so. Taken together, open communications and weakened authority create an environment favorable to millenarian entrepreneurs. Unconstrained by confessional traditions or ideological systems, they are free to engage in the kind of bricolage that distinguishes the improvisational millenarian style. They can borrow freely from many religious traditions, from occultism and the esoteric, from radical politics, and from both orthodox and fringe science.
In an environment in which authority has come into question, the very unclassifiability of these belief systems makes them attractive. Are they Christian or Buddhist, Western or non-Western, scientific or antiscientific, religious or secular? The very questions and categories seem out of place when the belief systems themselves ignore such boundaries. In the act of ignoring boundaries, improvisational millenarians implicitly challenge orthodox conceptions of belief and knowledge. By picking and choosing among a variety of beliefs, improvisationalists convey the message that no single belief system, whether religious or secular, is authoritative. By implication, only the idiosyncratic combination associated with a particular leader or group is deemed to be valid. The millenarian entrepreneurs who construct such collages of beliefs assert that they alone possess insights that transcend conventional differences, whether among religious traditions, between religion and politics, or between science and esotericism. The result has been a dramatic proliferation of millenarian schemata, both in terms of the number of competing visions and in terms of their diversity.
THE SOURCES OF IMPROVISATIONAL MILLENNIALISM
Where does
