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From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics,net.religion
Subject: Re: Conspiracy Theories
Message-ID: <638@pyuxa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Mar-84 10:20:57 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxa.638
Posted: Wed Mar 21 10:20:57 1984
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If, as the last poster said, in effect," people Tend to act in a
conspiratory manner, and thus there is a conspiracy," then how
can there be a conspiracy?  To conspire means to come together
to agree to do something without the knowledge of the group or
person being aware of the conspiracy or agreement.  If the 
conspirators have no knowledge of one another or agreements with
one another, then, there is no conspiracy.  For instance, if A
and B meet or somehow contact each other and agree to boycott C,
that is conspiracy.  However, if A and B never meet or even have
knowledge of one another, and each on their own initiative decides
to boycott C, it is not conspiracy.  If, on the other hand, A and
B decide to boycott C on the basis of information they received
through the media, and still have not met, there is still no
conspiracy.  There are many ways in which A and B can come to the
same conclusion to boycott C, but conspiracy is only that instance
in which the two mutually agree to to do something in concert.

Conspiracy does not mean that the agreement is good or bad.  It
simply means that there was an agreement made in private to which
a third party was not made aware.  You could conspire to throw
a surprise party for a friend.  Thus, the contention that all
men are conspiring to keep women down is false.  I am a man.
I am, therefore, one of the "all men".  I have never meet with
"all men" (or even one other man) to agree to do anything to
women (other than throw the afformentioned party).  The Great
Conspiracy theory is a bunch of horse puckey.  People may tend
to act in concert, but much of this action can be attributed to
media influence, upbringing, economic factors, or social
pressure.  To attribute the actions of large, or even small
groups, to conspiracy is nothing more than a blatant generalization
of human behaviour.  

When a group of manufacturers get together to establish a price
structure for their products in order to make a monetary gain
or squeeze a competitor, that is conspiracy and there are laws
which cover this kind of situation.  This situation happened
in the electrical supplies industry several years ago and was
discovered and the participants punished.  The statement that
men are conspiring to keep women in the kitchen won't hold
water under close scrutiny.  I have no doubt that there are some
men who like this idea and talk to each other about it, but to
lump all men under that guise is unworthy of the writer.  
T. C. Wheeler