Taking the Theory Out of Conspiracy

Posted by David Sirota, Open Left at 1:45 PM on May 25, 2009.

This ABC News story won't help quell conspiracy theories about a Grand Council of Rich People conspiring to control the world:

Under a cloak of secrecy, some of the world's wealthiest people gathered in an unprecedented meeting early this month in New York City "to see how they can join together to do more," according to one attendee.

Invited by the world's two richest men Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, along with David Rockefeller, a Who's Who of American wealth and influence gathered around a long table in a window-lined private room overlooking the East River on May 5...

A clandestine meeting of the country's rich and powerful, left off their public calendars and hidden from the press, is enough to spark the imaginations of conspiracy theorists everywhere.

My take on this kind of stuff is pretty simple: While some of the Bilderberg Group/Trilateral Commission/Rothschild Power obsession gets irritatingly close to Protocols of the Elders of Zion/International Jewish Cabal crap, it's no "theory" to believe that rich people work together to protect their wealth. Whether this meeting is truly a philanthropic venture or something more nefarios is kinda beside the point - all you have to do is look at, say, the Davos conference to know that the wealthy work to hoard wealth.