Oil company executives are testifying for a Senate subcommittee this week answering allegations that price fixing is to blame for recent increases in the price of gasoline. Accusations of this sort are not new. There were charges of price gouging during the 2000 election that were very quietly dismissed after investigation. However, that these hearings are even going on is representative of an interesting and disconcerting group of people in the American political discourse that, for a lack of a better term, I will call conspiracists.
Conspiracists are the type of people that truly believe that the world is really run by any number of minority groups that usually have nefarious aims. They are the people that think the oil companies set gas prices, corporations control the news content of the mainstream media, that the CIA sells crack-cocaine to inner-city blacks, or that they need to own numerous high-powered firearms to eventually fight off the coming government takeover.
This mindset transcends political ideology, and you are just as likely to hear them on the Rush Limbaugh show as at some lefty political protest. Now, there are some fairly crazy conspiracists like those that believe aliens are among us, but recently more serious (or at least less silly) conspiracists have become more prominent in the political landscape.
Foremost in this wave of paranoia are those that believe large corporations control significant chunks of our lives to the point that we should all be very, very concerned about it. They are the type that dispatch angry e-mails every time I write anything that could concern a corporation, deriding me for not being aware of the truth that nearly all governmental actions have been subverted by a continual sellout to big business. The charge of corporate conspiracy has a rote quality to it, ignoring indications that events are on the level. To suggest that maybe things are what they seem to be is to be stupid at best and proof of collaboration at worst. As the bumper sticker says, "If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention."
Examples of this sort of thinking are abound, especially on this campus, but one instance glares clearly in my mind. It was the morning of Sept. 11 and the Twin Towers had just collapsed. Not sure of what to do, I went to class, but, like many other classes, we spent class discussing the events of the morning. During our discussion, one student expressed concern that we would go to war because it would be good for business and the economy. Needless to say, I was shocked that the first reaction somebody had to the attack was alarm that a war would be started because of corporate concerns. This individual was not alone in that sentiment. I have heard it repeated by many people who are convinced oil interests or other corporations are running this war in order to make a profit.
Besides the common sense implausibility to the conspiracists' claims, they all irrationally overestimate the capabilities of governmental and corporate actors. I bet that the vast majority of all corporate officers or government workers would be shocked to know that people think they have the ability to really control anybody's life. On the whole, corporations have very little to do with how you live. They seek only one thing - your money - and are good instruments for monetary extraction. However, they are incredibly inefficient and just about everything else. It just doesn't make market sense to be involved in secret plots or to join a price-fixing cartel.
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Still, the allure of a conspiracy is so great because it allows accusers to attain a moral high ground and seem sophisticated in their ability to divine the secret intentions behind events. More often than not, though, these charges are just wishful thinking by people that are already disposed to oppose the accused conspirators.
Those that naturally disapprove of free enterprise easily imagine scenarios where companies engage in wrongdoing, just as those with pre-existing fears of government rationalize hysteria over governmental actions. Being smart about these sorts of allegations doesn't mean you have to bury your head in the sand and ignore clear-cut examples of wrongdoing, but it does mean you should take them with a grain of salt or two.
Next time a politician appears on TV trying to score cheap political points by blaming a corporation for some phenomenon, use some common sense and remember that things usually are what they seem.
by Michael Carrasco
Daily Lobo
