Keith wrote:
> The whole human world operates by means of cliques of no more than a
> dozen individuals, usually fewer. This applies to [list of nerly
> everything]....
Putting aside several quibbles and some (probably inadequately
informed) remarks on distributed systems, this is more or less
obviously true, as Keith opines:
> It takes no more than a few minutes of thoughtful scrutiny of any
> purposeful decision-making activity that we read or see about us to
> realize this fact.
Which is why knee-jerk accusations of "conspiracy theorist" are
risible. Brought against those who suppose that such cliques have
undertaken intentionally malicious, calculatedly risky projects, they
support success of outrageous big-lie conspiracies by those with
the wealth or power to undertake them.
Of course, "conspiracy" covers everything from the demonstrably false
-- e.g. that information on a hollow earth or an alien base on the moon
are being kept from us -- to the far more logical -- e.g that numerous
facts give us good reason to doubt the complete legitimacy of the
official 9/11 account.
Parading the true loonies as examples allows those who wish to hide
malfeasance or outright crime to dismiss scrutiny and brand critics --
those who ask "cui bono" [1], who note that certain cliques have
benefited from some event -- as cranks, crackpots and "post hoc, ergo
propter hoc" thinkers.
By that rubric, generously applied, even Keith's assertion that "The
whole human world operates by means of cliques of no more than a dozen
individuals..." might itself be branded as "conspiracy theory".
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for
merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a
conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to
raise prices.
---Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776.
- Mike
[1] Could someone with some serious Latin tell me why it's
conventionally written "cui bono", not "qui bono"? There was
never any "cui" in my Latin courses, only "qui". Is it some kind
of academic bunfight between the teaching of church Latin,
classical Latin and/or medieval Latin? Sort of like that between
the math teachers who're inclined to Newton's calculus notation
and those who espouse Leibniz'?
--
Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
/V\
[email protected] /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^
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