That’s my answer to those who dismiss conspiracy theory. I firmly believe that any honest reading of history demonstrates that the Accident Theory is not even a theory, but rather a post-facto neo-teleological rationalization. The Marxian Theory is absurd, as social classes have never done anything of note, much less been the causal factor anywhere at anytime. There is instead growing doubt that class consciousness even exists, for as one staunch left-liberal friend recently lamented, even the poorest members of our society hate the estate tax since they can envision becoming wealthy themselves one day. Trans-class consciousness, perhaps? The Great Man theory is nothing but appellation mining, often with very little regard for whether the Great Man in question actually had much, if anything, to do with that for which they were supposedly a determining factor.
And yet, history is clear that from the earliest days of recorded history, groups of men have plotted and worked tirelessly to gain power over their fellow men. It’s true in every single historical epoch, in every single society I’ve ever studied, except, according to the lords of the media, our own. This defies reason, especially when one can easily find numerous examples of group activities that would meet the definition of conspiracy except for one thing: they are not hidden. The Commission on Global Governance, for example, is openly working to establish what anti-conspiracists would otherwise prefer to dismiss as the black helicopter notion of one world government. But it’s hard to deny what is proudly laid out on a web page for all to see.
There is no one grand conspiracy, instead there are thousands, intertwining, merging and battling each other for dominance as they each work towards their own goals in their own way. But one thing that is in common with all of them is that they seek power for their members. Because totalitarian power flows from the center, all of them that seek such power are drawn to things that centralize. This is why groups with absolutely nothing in common will still appear to be working as one towards establishing the United Nations as a central taxing and governing authority, since each believes that even a small amount of influence with a single global authority will be much greater than a great amount of influence in a single country.
I don’t know why this concept should be difficult to understand. We’ve seen precisely the same thing at work in the United States, as diverse special interest groups constantly push for increasing central federal power, because it is much easier to lobby one Congress instead of fifty. The same logic is at work in the EU, NAFTA and every other entity that promises to replace numerous smaller authorities with a single, larger one.
It is this common ground that tends to mislead people into thinking that the various conspiracies, or interest groups, if you prefer, are all somehow bound together. They are not, but seen from a distance, it is not hard to understand why one might be led to believe so. There is no one grand conspiracy, but there is nevertheless a meta-conspiracy that springs, ever new and refreshed, from the bottomless well of man’s lust for power over his fellow man.