What if there were a conspiracy, and nobody knew about it? What if nobody could know about

From: The Bard, CULT_WATCH Echo

What if  there were a conspiracy, and nobody knew about it?  What if nobody
could know about it because the conspirators removed all  evidence  of  its
existence?   What  if it was part of a sinister brotherhood that planned to
conquer the world and had the people to do it?  What if they were  planning
to do  it  tomorrow?    What could be done to stop them; what could even be
done to discover their very existence?

There are certain organizational principles  that  successful  conspiracies
tend  to  follow, and an understanding of these can help us to uncover that
which would ordinarily be un-uncoverable.

FIRST: because all evidence of the conspiracy's existence has been removed,
the -absence- of evidence is not -evidence of absence.-  On  the  contrary,
because  one  can  find evidence of virtually anything, whether it actually
exists or not, finding some evidence  in  and  of  itself  proves  nothing.
Since  we  know  that  the  conspirators have removed all evidence of their
conspiracy, we must  deduce  the  conspiracy's  existence  by  looking  for
conspicuous absence of any evidence of its existence.  Having searched for,
but  -not- found, evidence of a conspiracy, we must then logically conclude
that there -is,- in fact, a conspiracy, and further, that the  conspirators
are extremely clever and therefore very dangerous.

SECOND: Conspiracies tend to have five members.  This makes it difficult if
not  impossible  for  an outsider to keep track of the conspiracy should it
somehow be discovered.  This is how it works: Any conspiracy is composed of
members who communicate with every other person in the conspiracy, and thus
the conspiracy can be defined in terms of persons who communicate with each
other to a common end.

Persons within a conspiracy can form a subconspiracy with necessarily fewer
members.  The number of possible combinations of subconspiracies  within  a
conspiracy increases with the size of the major conspiracy.  For example, a
conspiracy  of  2  has  only  one  possible  combination,  and therefore no
subconspiracies; a conspiracy of 3 can  have  3  subconspiracies  of  2,  a
conspiracy   of  4  can  have  6  subconspiracies  of  2,  three  pairs  of
subconspiracies of 2 and 4 subconspiracies of 3 for a total of 14  possible
combinations of  (sub)  conspiracies.  For a conspiracy of 5, the number of
possible combinations is so great that it is not feasable for  an  outsider
to  keep  track  of  them  all,  thus  affording  a measure of security via
complexity.  In a conspiracy of more than 5,  the  conspirators  themselves
have   trouble   keeping   track   of  all  the  possible  combinations  of
conspiracies, thus they tend to limit their numbers to 5.

THIRD: In addition to secrecy and complexity, another method of security is
Ignorance.

It is an axiom among the intelligence community that the most  secure,  and
therefore  the  potentially  most  effective agent is one who does not know
that he is an agent.

The same is true for conspirators.  If caught, they cannot reveal what they
do not know; yet the conspiracy is only dependent on what they do, not what
they know.  Therefore, in a conspiracy that is  observing  proper  security
measures,  -none-  of  the  conspirators would know that they are part of a
conspiracy, in order to confuse the enemy and avoid suspicion.   Therefore,
whether or not a conspirator believes s/he is part of a conspiracy is not a
valid indicator.

How  do  we  identify  the conspirators, having proved the existence of the
conspiracy by observing a total absence of evidence of its existence?

Since  the  conspirators  are  members  of  a  larger  organization,  which
ulitmately  runs  the  conspiracy,  we  must  look for common factors among
members of our own organization that would tend to indicate  that  some  of
our  members  are  also  members  of  some other organization that might be
plotting to take over the world.

Do some people give others secret handshakes?

Do some wear some sort of insignia?

Do some people make obscure jokes that seem only  to  be  funny  to  a  few
others?

Do  some  seem  to  sit  off  in  a  group  by  themselves,  talking  about
God-knows-what?

Watch for these signs!

They are indicators of a group affiliation, and since we know that there is
a conspiracy within our organization, we must assume that this  group  that
some  of  our people are affiliated with is the organization that is behind
the conspiracy.

Remember: conspiracies usually have five members, although it would be just
like a conspiracy to have a different number, just to confuse us.  But  let
us start  by assuming that they number five.  First we must observe deviant
behaviors by groups within  our  group  and  make  not  of  the  individual
identities.   We must then observe how these individuals interact, and with
whom, in order to establish patterns of conspiracies within the conspiracy.
And we must keep dossiers on all of these individuals so that we  can  keep
track of their activities and contacts.

We  must  be  ever  vigilant,  lest  we  be  drawn down and consumed by the
conspiracies for world domination.  As foulness we shall know  them;  their
hand is  at  our  throats.    Their habitation is even one with our guarded
threshold.  We rule now where they ruled once; they shall soon  rule  where
we rule  now.    After  winter  is summer, after summer, winter; they wait,
patient and potent, for tommorrow belongs to them.