L’invention du « complot judéo-maçonnique ». Avatars d’un mythe apocalyptique moderne

Modern political myths that claim the highest and longest lasting popularity are those which originate from different symbolic sources and various ideological frameworks of which they retain traces, thus fulfilling multiple social demands and requirements. As such they prove themselves “useful” towards several social classes and political streams. They can “last” on the sole condition that they are regularly “modified”. This was the case with the myth of the “Judeo-Freemasonry Complot” which called for the creation of a historical figure, the “Judeo-Freemasonry”, to whom myth believers attributed a secret power and an incredible capacity to activate historical events which was interpreted as directing the course of history.The idea of a “Judeo-Freemasonry Complot” had its origins in the “Century of Progress on the basis of a false anti-Jewish prototype, the “Letter of Simonini” that Abbot Barruel claimed to have received in August 1806.This letter is at the center of a counter-story of liberation which was invented by Catholic polemicists. A huge tale of manipulation, alienation and subjugation, similar to the discourse on the origins of Evil in History, was created around the “Judeo-Freemasonry Complot”.The article analyzes the main stages of the creation, adaptation and metamorphosis of this anti-Jewish myth that while presenting its double face – theological-religious and political – also brings back the belief in the power of the devil throughout history. This can be found thriving in the 20th century in the midst of anti-Jewish propaganda having as its vector The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.The article also shows that in later periods of history, this modern demonologist myth fed the imagination required to create both the anti-globalization and Islamist vision of the world

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