The Reactionary Utopian
                     August 23, 2007


UNDERWORLD AND OVERWORLD
by Joe Sobran

     We're supposed to smirk automatically at the phrase 
"conspiracy theory," as if the very idea of a conspiracy 
were somehow outlandish and, well, paranoid. But federal 
prosecutors seem to have made a pretty convincing case 
that Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh conspired to blow 
up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City 
in 1995. At least nobody is suggesting that all the 
jurors in the two trials were loco.

     The idea of conspiracy is essential to criminal law. 
It means nothing more than secret cooperation to commit 
criminal acts. It's implicit in such common expressions 
as "accomplice," "organized crime," and "getaway car." 
The alternative is to believe that criminals always act 
alone. Yes, and musicians always play solo.

     Of course there are silly conspiracy theories. That 
doesn't mean that there aren't also sane and 
sophisticated conspiracy theories. Those who 
indiscriminately deride curiosity about conspiracy are 
often trying to steer our attention away from the 
possibility of official corruption, the existence of 
which is pretty well attested.

     But the most damaging corruption may not consist in 
illegal acts. Just as there is a criminal "underworld" 
that continuously conspires to break the law, you can 
think of the political process as the working of an 
"overworld" in a sort of continuous conspiracy to remake 
the laws to suit itself.

     If the widget industry can get tax subsidies by 
persuading legislators to make laws in its favor, no 
crime has been committed. And this can be accomplished 
without gross bribery. Key senators and congressmen may 
be receptive to the argument that new, high-tech widgets 
are vital to national defense (and might be manufactured 
in those honorable gentlemen's states). This patriotic 
proposal may be transacted over an informal lunch, 
immensely boosting the profits of the widget industry, 
and the taxpayer never the wiser.

     When there are no limits on what the taxing power 
may be used for, you are bound to get a whole class of 
people seeking to have it used in their behalf. What 
would otherwise be illegal -- taking people's earnings by 
force -- becomes legal when a government does it (just as 
inflating the currency, otherwise known as 
counterfeiting, becomes "increasing the money supply" 
when a government does or authorizes it).

     The class of people who live and prosper by 
discreetly arranging to have their larceny legalized is 
what I mean by the "overworld." Their ranks include 
politicians, businessmen, educators, and many others. 
Because they control the legislative process, they not 
only don't have to commit crimes, they don't even think 
of themselves as shady operators.

     These folks do share certain characteristic 
attitudes. They dislike "extremism," by which they mean 
any political principle that would keep government power 
and activity to a minimum. They are equally opposed to 
communism and "cutthroat capitalism" (whose evils they 
impartially equate with those of communism). They believe 
in an "affirmative role" for government, "flexible," 
"compassionate," and "adapted to today's needs." They 
tout the virtues of "compromise." They favor 
"partnership" between government and "the private 
sector," because the modern world is so "complex" and 
"interdependent." And of course they are scornful of 
"conspiracy theories."

     Such people always sound reasonable, and they are 
the type who control the government. If their sense of 
honor isn't very strong, it would also be hard to catch 
them doing anything flatly illegal.

     They aren't a secret cabal or a closed society. 
Anyone can join their ranks -- anyone who wants to play 
the angles, to use the government for his own special 
benefit at the expense of the unsuspecting taxpayer.

     An overworld exists in every society, a parasite 
class that figures out how to get others to work for them 
while keeping the law on their side. In many societies 
there are outright lords and slave owners who may 
directly command their serfs and bondsmen; in a nominally 
egalitarian society a more devious approach is necessary.

     You may be working much of the day to support your 
neighbor without knowing it. You know that a lot of your 
income goes to the government, but you don't exactly know 
where it goes from there. That's how the system is 
designed to work.

[This column was originally published by Universal Press 
Syndicate December 25, 1997.]

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