Wordplay - conspiracy

Johnson’s dictionary 3^rd edition published 1766 defines conspiracy as:-

CONSPIRACY
1. A plot; a concerted treason. Dryden
2. An agreement of men to do anything; evil part.
3. Tendency of many causes to one event.

People still conspire as they always have. How we view it and describe it tends to depend on whether we are inside, outside or uninvolved. Governments describe their conspiracies as 'consensus' or 'seeking consensus', as if it might be some noble quest. The promotion of consensus over conspiracy has been so successful, that it is now seen as a little outré or unsophisticated to fall into the social trap of espousing conspiracy theories.

Yet governments conspire all the time, as do institutions. It's what they do, what they have always done, how they evolve new ways of protecting their tribe, new ways to promote their tribal interests. To deny or ridicule the idea of active conspiracies seems to me to be no more than another conspiracy, yet another way for the great to conspire against the small. Which is what they have always done anyway.