Alliance - in international politics the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.
That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe.
There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful.