Umm, if we're going to go quoting definitions.. http://dictionary.com gives,
..for "Conspiracy" :
y1.the act of conspiring.
y2.an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated
in secret by two or more persons; plot.
y3.a combination of persons for a secret, unlawful, or evil purpose:
He joined the conspiracy to overthrow the government.
y4.Law. an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud,
or other wrongful act.
y5.any concurrence in action; combination in bringing about a given result.
..and for "Conspire" :
e1.to agree together, esp. secretly, to do something wrong, evil, or
illegal: They conspired to kill the king.
e2.to act or work together toward the same result or goal.
e3.to plot (something wrong, evil, or illegal).
Now, while I'll admit that there's a preponderance of tastily
dramatic words such as "evil", "wrongdoing", "fraud" & "illegal" in
the definitions y2, y3 and y4 (for "conspiracy") and in definitions
e1 & e3 (for "conspire") I think we should be careful not to overlook
the countless relatively innocent "conspiracies" involved when, say,
a wife and children "conspire" to arrange a nice surprise on Dad's birthday.
Modern media (for whom the best news is always bad news) tend to
overdramatise everything, fighting for our ears, eyeballs and
attention by using words like "slammed" or "blasted" rather than
"criticised", for example.
This post is simply a plea for us to keep our heads when all about
are losing theirs. :-)
Now, where's that slab of "Global Cooling" beer I had in the garage..
<snippage>
That statement clearly implies an impropriety. And since you are
referring to a company, it is considered a conspiracy.
Conspiracy: an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud,
or other wrongful act.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO
Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
