The Conspiracy Buffs

In the days when much of my work was devoted to discrimination investigations, I would sometimes encounter people who had constructed elaborate conspiracy theories.

The word "coincidence" did not exist in their vocabulary. Mistakes were only grudgingly admitted. Almost everything, in their eyes, was the result of a plot and, of course, any evidence to the contrary had been cooked. These individuals were beyond persuasion.

In most, if not all, cases, they were also devoid of any real experience in how organizations work. [But you see, they'd declare, if you have the experience, then you're on the inside. You've been co-opted.] I would try to explain that they credited far too much competence to organizations and that the coincidences that they thought were so suspicious were, in fact, coincidences. It was not possible to convince them that the department heads who had supposedly formed some sort of cabal couldn't stand one another or that rules they thought had been recently devised had been on the books for years.

Their suspicions often revealed a great deal about themselves. They believed that others would act in a selfish or self-serving manner because, so they reasoned, wouldn't anyone if given that power? Economic motives were their favorite tags. They loved to boil life down to a dollar sign. Some would question how I, as an employee of the organization, could ever reach a finding against my employer. The fact that I frequently did so did not dissuade them. Such acts were all part of a ruse to hide a larger bias.

I concluded that these rather sad people completely lack the capacity to question their own assumptions or behavior. They go through life looking for ulterior motives. No act of kindness is ever taken at face value. A rigid world view explains all of life's complexities. There are plots aplenty and only a chosen few are wise enough to spot them.

One of my many faults was not recognizing their genius.