Sorry, the "conspiracy" that I mentioned is the back holding of diamonds to run up the prices. Diamonds are not that uncommon and so the prices should actually be a lot lower. De Beers managed to greatly decrease the supply while running up the demand with their ads. Historically, when they had a lot of bigger diamonds, they would push the large engagement rings and a shipment of smaller diamonds meant a push for eternity rings.
It's an incredible business strategy and worked brilliantly. They even managed to get around the US's monopoly laws, although I can't recall how now (I think the executives weren't allowed to set foot in America for awhile).
As I said in my previous message, I am very analytical and so this is what a diamond means to me. It doesn't matter where they were mined or any of the other social "issues", diamonds have been demoted to a business case study for me.
I'm a dork. I know.