It Takes Two to Collude

Have you ever seen two of your children huddled together and you know that they are plotting and planning and up to no good?  They are colluding on performing some sort of mischief.

Collude [kuh lood] is a verb that means to conspire.  Those two kids are definitely conspiring about something!  Collude also means to conspire especially in fraudulent ways. Say I want to get rich quick.  I come up with a scheme but I need a partner to help me carry out my plan.  I would find someone with whom I could collude (conspire). If I’m lucky, I scam people out of their hard earned dollars.  If I’m not, I land up in the state penitentiary.

Collude also means to act together through a secret understanding, especially with evil or harmful intent.  Doesn’t that sound like our congressmen of today?  They collude with their special interest groups.  The congressman creates a rider for a bill that gets passed in congress and then the special interest group gives kick back to the congressman in terms of votes, money, privileges, or perks.  That’s collusion in its finest form.

The mafia collude with their thugs for ways to collect money due to them.  Drug lords collude with underlings in a network to distribute and sale drugs.  Terrorist collude with subordinates to convince them to become suicide bombers.

Me?  I collude with my husband about warm, tropical places to visit in the winter time.  But, hey!  That’s not conspiring against anybody or anything — unless you talk to our kids who moan that they don’t get to go with us . . .