"conspiracy theory"

WSN,

It is odd that some people on this list would adopt the language of
"conspiracy" to describe NGOs/INGOs. In law, a conspiracy is a combination
of persons agreeing to break the law (crime, fraud, etc.). More generally,
a conspiracy is typically thought of as a combination of persons who meet
in secret to plan an act or acts that might be described as "evil,"
"treacherous," etc. If we broaden the word to indicate any combination of
persons to bring about a certain result then the term becomes vacuous.

There are of course conspiracies (price-fixing is a clear example of
organizational conspiracy, but any act of wrong-doing hatched in secret by
two or more persons qualifies), but the term "conspiracy theory" is
immediately understood to indicate a false and paranoid vision of the
world. The idea that the direction of world development is the
string-pulling of a secret clan of Jews designing to transform the world
into a global socialist empire is a conspiracy theory.

There are elements of the decisions of NGOs/INGOs that are made in secret,
and from a particular point of view, these decisions are "evil" and
"treacherous." The Council on Foreign Relations, for example, meets in
secret. But the CFR operates in the open. They are not a "secret society."
GM, a combination of individuals organized to exploit labor-power,
arguably an evil and treacherous end, has meetings/memos that are not
publically accessible. But these ordinary operations are not conspiracies.

Andrew Austin
Knoxville, TN