The nature of conspiracies

I once had a John Birch member suggest I read their literature. I did. When we met, later, he asked what I thought. I told him,

“Your theory is that a Tri-Lateral Commission has conspired to control world economics, wars and nations for hundreds of years, right?” He agreed with that assessment. “Let’s assume that overnight the majority of world citizens read and agreed with your hypothesis. On that belief, worldwide, governments are voted out of office and John Birch Society members are voted into office. My question is … Then who are the conspirators?”

He was quite taken aback by this idea. After all, everyone who works with another person to accomplish a goal is, by definition, a conspirator. Examples:

1) Mother Theresa conspired with the Catholic church to help the plight of the poor.

2) Every ruler/president of every nation conspires to further their vision for their nation.

3) Every religious leader conspires to further his/her vision for “the flock.”

Let’s try and remember conspiracy is not necessarily bad. Only motivations and methods are bad.