In 1994, the officers of the Federal Reserve announced they would pursue monetary policies designed to maintain a high level of unemployment in order to safeguard against “overheating” the economy. Even when they openly profess their designs, there are those who deny that intent is involved. Often the term “conspiracy” is applied dismissively whenever one suggests that people who occupy positions of political and economic power are consciously dedicated to advancing their elite interests. The savings and loan scandal was described by the Justice Department as “a thousand conspiracies of fraud, theft, and bribery,” the greatest financial crime in history. Iran-contra was a conspiracy of immense scope, much of it still uncovered. The Watergate break-in was a conspiracy, as was the Watergate cover-up, which led to Nixon’s downfall. Conspiracies are a matter of public record, and some are of real political significance. People go to jail for committing conspiratorial acts. But it does not logically follow that all conspiracies are imaginary.Ĭonspiracy is a legitimate concept in law: the collusion of two or more people pursuing illegal means to effect some illegal or immoral end. There are people who believe that the United States has been invaded by a secret United Nations army equipped with black helicopters, or that the country is secretly controlled by Jews or gays or feminists or black nationalists or communists or extraterrestrial aliens. To be sure, wacko conspiracy theories do exist.

“Almost as an article of faith, some individuals believe that conspiracies are either kooky fantasies or unimportant aberrations.

Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti