It’s a conspiracy, I tell you

The term "conspiracy theory," since the mid-1960s it has acquired a somewhat derogatory meaning, implying a paranoid tendency to see the influence of some malign covert agency in events. The term is sometimes used to automatically dismiss claims that are deemed ridiculous, misconceived, paranoid, unfounded, outlandish or irrational. Once the conspiracy is proven, such as the when the United States President Richard Nixon and his aides conspired to cover up Watergate, is usually referred to as something else, such as investigative journalism or historical analysis.

A conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime, or do something harmful, at some time in the future. Perhaps it is because conspiracies are so common that people tend to disregard the term. Or maybe it is because the word harmful can be rationalized away too easily that instead of conspiracy it might be justified as “strategic” positioning.

The fact that smoking isn’t illegal even though it is well known and documented as harmful is one interesting conspiracy. And since the term conspiracy is so obviously fitting in this case, it’s interesting that with all of the government conspiracies attributed to the great hippy era this was probably one of their least concerns. It’s also interesting that this was the era in which “conspiracy theories” had such a large peak and then acquired such derogatory connotation.

I obviously have a vested interest in the regain in popularity of “conspiracy theories” since that might improve sales of my book. So as an interesting side note, my working with others to produce such a book might also be considered a conspiracy. This is interesting in part because, even though secrecy is generally inferred from the term conspiracy, it is actually not an essential part. The only essential part is “harm,” which of course I don’t intend. But if my book were to become so incredibly popular that large numbers of people were to suddenly be unable to do anything other than focus on it and me, this could accidentally cause some harm. – Suddenly mailmen aren’t delivering mail, teachers and students aren’t going to class, and the entire workforce suddenly doesn’t show up to complete their jobs. And I wouldn't really have a hard time or get all that upset if such a thing were to happen. But I think I can justify the problem as also being the solution, because nobody would really notice except for those people who refuse to appreciate my book like everyone else.

So in short, conspiracies are real, but you don’t really need to worry about my conspiracy to bring the world to stop while everyone admires my brilliance.