“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public.”
– Adam Smith, 1776
“You don’t need a formal conspiracy when interests converge… They know what’s good for them and they’re getting it.”
– George Carlin, 2004
You don’t need cloaked figures in a smoky backroom to understand how the world is run. You don’t need to believe in secret symbols, lizard people, or an Illuminati handshake.
Because the truth is: we don’t need a conspiracy.
All we need is a shared interest — and the people at the top already have one.
They went to the same elite schools.
They sit on the same corporate boards.
They move seamlessly between government, finance, media, and tech.
They don’t need to plot in secret.
They already know the rules — because they wrote them.
Power Doesn’t Need to Plot. It Aligns.
Look around: corporate CEOs, hedge fund managers, media moguls, politicians — they might wear different hats, but they speak the same language.
They’re incentivised to maximise profit, not care for public wellbeing.
They’re rewarded for market growth, not sound moral choices.
They are bound not by duty to society, but by allegiance to shareholders, donors, and legacy.
So when someone asks, “Why would they all be doing the same thing unless they were conspiring?” — the answer is simple: because it’s in their interest.
Exhibit A: Big Pharma and the Revolving Door
Take the pharmaceutical industry. The price of insulin — a 100-year-old drug — has skyrocketed in the United States, despite costing just a few dollars to produce. Three companies — Eli Lilly, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk — dominate the market and repeatedly raise prices in lockstep.
Did they have a meeting to screw diabetics? Probably not. But their incentives are clear. Maximise profit. Exploit monopolies. And because the same former FDA officials end up on their boards — and vice versa — there’s little chance of meaningful regulation.
Nobody had to whisper, “Let’s keep the prices high.” They already knew.
Exhibit B: Media Conglomerates and Manufactured Consent
Six corporations control roughly 90% of all US media. That means a tiny elite class shapes the narrative — of politics, economics, foreign policy, and beyond. When every newspaper, news channel, and social media platform serves the same economic system that made their owners billionaires, do you really think you’re getting an honest picture?
It’s no surprise that working-class struggles, strikes, or systemic critiques rarely make the headlines — and when they do, they’re diluted, distorted, dismissed, or more often than not, vilified. The system doesn’t have to silence dissent with force — it just drowns it in distraction and spin.
Exhibit C: Davos and the False Gods of “Global Leadership”
Every year, billionaires and political leaders fly their private jets into the Swiss Alps for the World Economic Forum in Davos — where they talk about poverty, climate change, and inequality as if they’re not the ones causing it.
They call themselves “stakeholders in a better future” while lobbying against wealth taxes and gutting labour protections.
They nod along to speeches on climate action while investing in oil.
They speak of equity while hoarding wealth in offshore tax havens.
No secret plot required. Just a shared interest in maintaining the status quo.
Power Networks — Not Conspiracies, But Cartels
The polite term is “networking.” But what we’re looking at is a soft cartel. A class of people who see the world the same way because they benefit from the same system — and who, consciously or not, conspire by omission, by inaction, by prioritising profit over people.
And when someone does speak out — a whistleblower, a dissenter, a truth-teller — they’re ridiculed, blacklisted, or buried in legal threats. The system corrects itself like an immune response.
We’re Not Talking Theory — We’re Talking Survival
This is not just academic. It affects real lives.
- When housing developers lobby for deregulation and your rent goes up — that’s not a conspiracy. That’s profit.
- When fossil fuel companies knew about climate change in the 1970s and buried the evidence — that’s not just greed. That’s the preservation of power.
- When global billionaires doubled their wealth during COVID while billions faced hunger and job loss — that wasn’t a plan. That was the system working exactly as designed.
The Bottom Line
Conspiracies make the problem sound exotic — a secret cabal of villains pulling strings. But the real problem is hiding in plain sight. It wears suits, not robes. It has lobbyists, not assassins. It signs contracts, not pacts.
And that’s what makes it so dangerous.
Because you can’t fight what you refuse to see.
We don’t need to overthrow a secret society.
We need to challenge a system where concentrated wealth protects itself at the expense of everyone else.
We need solidarity, not spectacle.
We need class consciousness, not conspiracy theories.
Because until we understand how power really works — we’ll keep punching shadows while the rich laugh in daylight.
