Politics and Economics
Where does the Power Really Lie?
Global Integration
There are many forces at work creating on Earth a new global village. In the current village, power appears divided among nation states. The question that arises is whether, with greater integration of planetary life in most areas, we can expect a companion integration of power of governance over the residents of the planet?
One force leading to world integration is rapidly advancing technology.
Another force is the rise of multi-national corporations in major economic areas, which have no national allegiances….they determine their own paths, and then try to influence the existing power brokers to set things up to favour them and their goals of profit maximization. These are vehicles of individuals who have some power in a limited domain. The goals of these individuals are most often driven purely by self-interest – to improve the status/wealth of these individuals within their own domain.
We see that the change in national cooperation as integration continues is reflected in national cooperation in the United Nations, and its many operating sections.
The Control Issue
The issue of interest to the ordinary planetary citizen is whether this rich elite of the world have designs beyond economic power? They must have certain global features in place for them to be successful, and often control over these features rests with national political power. A theory known as vertical integration would postulate that it would be in the interest of the wealthy elite to take control of the political system, since then they would not be dependent to continue their world strategy on wild card government fickleness. National governments could decide not to cooperate, and pose road-blocks to “progress”.
There are wealthy humans that are the directing minds behind all the international conglomerates…..it is they that work out the strategies for profit maximization on the economic front, and national borders are no obstacle……..they can get the national levers of power to act in their interest. The interesting fact is that all these wealthy elite directing minds think the same way.
Dare we assume they know each other? Dare we assume that they talk world business with each other? Dare we assume that they cooperate economically through their corporations, and in helping influence political activity for the benefit of some friend (And his/her corporation)? If they require from the political sector, certain concessions to operate at maximum velocity, dare we assume that they are entering into a role affecting governance? And if so, why does the political sector cooperate? Dare we suggest that these directing minds work in concert to get their political needs met? Dare we assume it is because they in fact have some control over parts of the political governance in the world?
If there is no deliberate conspiracy of elite individuals, then is there just a subconscious direction of the like-minded to assert world power so as to maximize the benefit to themselves, the owners/shareholders of these profit-making vehicles?
Which is it? And whichever it is, how far implemented is it at this point in world integration?
What evidence is there, if any, that might point to the fact that the wealthy elite are pursuing direct or indirect control of national political power, and thus global power (This is referred to as “world oligarchy” – rule by the wealthy elite of the world)?
Some Publicly-known Global Elite Organizations
Here are some of the known public organizations of the elite, none of which will acknowledge any role in attempting to govern the planet (Though they clearly state their goals of “influencing” certain aspects of global life):
- Tri-lateral Commission:
Founded – 1973
Founder – David Rockefeller
Type – Annual conference
Location – Washington, D.C. (main meeting place); Paris; Tokyo
Members – More than 390
Key people – Joseph S. Nye, Jr. (North American chairman)
Yasuchika Hasegawa (Pacific Asian chairman)
Jean-Claude Trichet (European chairman)
Website – www.trilateral.org
Stated Purpose originally – to foster closer cooperation among North America, Western Europe, and Japan. [Wikipedia]
Current purpose (Or companion purpose) – ??
- The Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, Bilderberg meetings or Bilderberg Club
This is an annual private conference of 120 to 150 people of the European and North American political elite, experts from industry, finance, academia, and the media, established in 1954.
Goal – The group’s original goal of promoting Atlanticism, of strengthening US-European relations and preventing another world war has grown; the Bilderberg Group’s theme is to “bolster a consensus around free market Western capitalism and its interests around the globe” [Wikipedia]
Current Purpose (Or companion purpose) – ??
- The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS)
This is an international organization composed of economists (including eight winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences), philosophers, historians, intellectuals, business leaders, and others committed to their understanding of personal and political freedom.[2]
Founders: included Friedrich Hayek, Frank Knight, Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, George Stigler, and Milton Friedman.[2]
Original Purpose: The society advocates freedom of expression, free market economic policies, the political values of an open society. The members see the Society as an effort to interpret in modern terms the fundamental principles of economic society as expressed by those classical economists, political scientists, and philosophers who have inspired many in Europe, America and throughout the Western World. [Wikipedia]
Current Purpose (Or companion purpose) – ??
Global Governance Questions
- Are these many world forces in many different areas of human life and governance totally random and disconnected?
- Is the new global village that is developing the simple result of ungoverned world chaos and lack of planning, and individuals and groups simply operating to improve their wealth and status in their local area?
- Are there some calculating human minds, observing and aiding the rush to globalization? Is this because they see an opportunity to exert greater control over human life?
- Is there any type of “conscious, deliberate cooperation” between these minds to somehow gain greater world governance control?
What do you think? Let’s look further at the competing arguments around “the conspiracy theory”.
The Common Ideology Theory
Some argue that the allegation that there is some concrete “conspiracy”, by one or more elite human organizations, is false and totally unfounded. Their explanation for what is currently being seen re power in globalization is different. Below is a sample argument put on Facebook re this topic. It seems clear and fairly well-argued:
Jake Jacobs Fb Comment – 16/12/27
“Lest anyone be tempted to stay down conspiratorial paths, there is no “they” as in: the Illuminati; the Elders of Zion; the Trilateral Commission (well, there is one of those, but it doesn’t control the world in an Oliver Stone sense); etc.[This article delves into these references further below]
But there are elites whose mindset has been shifted to a neo-liberal view, one where profit maximization is viewed as part and parcel of the greater good. And there were and are people who worked to promote that view, from the Mount Perlerin Society to the Koch brothers.
Along the way, the military and industrial and energy and financial conglomerates have merged. If CNN and the NYT help promote Bush’s war (as they certainly did) it isn’t because the government controls them, but because they are part of interlocking circles of influence. And when guys like Bush and Cheney launch wars that happen to look as though they will benefit oil companies (though how’d that work out?), it isn’t that Exxon-Mobil calls with marching orders. It is all part of the “What’s good for General Motors is good for America” mindset.) (Or what’s good for Israel is good for America – again, not because Netanyahu pulls strings, though he has a few he can pull – but because guys like Paul Wolfowitz genuinely believe that if we change the regimes from Libya to Iran, the world will wear a big smiley face.)
There is an interesting book called “Voltaire’s Bastards” that described how we ended up where we are. One of the key figures was Robert McNamara, who among other brilliancies, decided that what the arms industry needed was economy of scale. We’d get our arms cheaper, and the excess could be sold to our “allies.” What if they couldn’t afford to buy from our loyal companies lick Lockheed-Martin? That’s what foreign aid is for. The Middle East, from Egypt to Afghanistan is tooled up better than the Latin Kings on Saturday night because … what’s good for Raytheon is good for the USA.”
The World Conspiracy Theory
Here is one of the main alleged “secret” organizations of the elite which is conspiring towards global control (It is sometimes thought to be a matrix of similar secret organizations), and its modern existence is extrapolated from various pieces of anecdotal evidence:
The Illuminati (plural of Latin illuminatus, “enlightened”)
This is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1 May 1776.
Original Goal – The society’s goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life and abuses of state power. “The order of the day,” they wrote in their general statutes, “is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them”.[1]
History – The Illuminati—along with Freemasonry and other secret societies—were outlawed through edict, by the Bavarian ruler, Charles Theodore, with the encouragement of the Roman Catholic Church, in 1784, 1785, 1787 and 1790.[2] In the several years following, the group was vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed that they continued underground and were responsible for the French Revolution.
Many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians counted themselves as members, including Ferdinand of Brunswick and the diplomat Xavier von Zwack, who was the Order’s second-in-command.[3] It attracted literary men such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder and the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar.[4]
Modern View – In subsequent use, “Illuminati” refers to various organisations which claim or are purported to have links to the original Bavarian Illuminati or similar secret societies, though these links are unsubstantiated. They are often alleged to conspire to control world affairs, by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations, in order to gain political power and influence and to establish a New World Order. Central to some of the most widely known and elaborate conspiracy theories, the Illuminati have been depicted as lurking in the shadows and pulling the strings and levers of power in dozens of novels, films, television shows, comics, video games, and music videos. [Wikipedia] The New World Order or NWO (As a conspiracy theory) – refers to the emergence of a totalitarian world government.[3][4][5][6][7]
The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government—which will replace sovereign nation-states—and an all-encompassing propaganda whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as the culmination of history’s progress. Many influential historical and contemporary figures have therefore been purported to be part of a cabal that operates through many front organizations to orchestrate significant political and financial events, ranging from causing systemic crises to pushing through controversial policies, at both national and international levels, as steps in an ongoing plot to achieve world domination.[3][4][5][6][7]
Before the early 1990s, New World Order conspiracism was limited to two American countercultures, primarily the militantly anti-government right and secondarily that part of fundamentalist Christianity concerned with the end-time emergence of the Antichrist.[8] Skeptics such as Michael Barkun and Chip Berlet observed that right-wing populist conspiracy theories about a New World Order had not only been embraced by many seekers of stigmatized knowledge but had seeped into popular culture, thereby inaugurating a period during the late 20th and early 21st centuries in the United States where people are actively preparing for apocalyptic millenarian scenarios.[4][6] Those political scientists are concerned that mass hysteria over New World Order conspiracy theories could eventually have devastating effects on American political life, ranging from escalating lone-wolf terrorism to the rise to power of authoritarian ultranationalist demagogues.[4][6][9]” [Wikipedia]
We believe the modern world first heard of this concept publicly from a major world politician from USA President, George H.W.Bush (Bush Senior). But research on this concept had been going on for some time. Partly it had arisen out of the rapid globalization of our world, and the rise of the new technologies. The research above shows very old roots to this concept.
Note two other applications of NWO [from Wikipedia]:
- New world order (politics), any period of history evidencing a dramatic change in world political thought and the balance of power
- New world order (Bahá’í), a body of teachings of the Bahá’í Faith
Note: In this context, some often raise that the conspiracy to govern the globe is a world Jewish conspiracy. Here are the roots of this seemingly refuted view:
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Russian: Протоколы сионских мудрецов) or The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion
This is an anti-Semitic fabricated [Proved false by the Times of London in 1921] TEXT [emphasis added] purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The forgery was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. According to the claims made by some of its publishers, the Protocols are the minutes of a late 19th-century meeting where Jewish leaders discussed their goal of global Jewish hegemony by subverting the morals of Gentiles, and by controlling the press and the world’s economies.[Wikipedia]
The New World Order – Concept or Fact?
The issue is whether NWO is just a critically important concept for our future as we become more globalized, OR, in addition, whether there is a “deliberate conspiracy” of some unknown group, with a secret agenda to implement the NWO concept, to their advantage?
Is it of importance to note the views of former USA President John F. Kennedy on this issue? See below – 7 days before Kennedy was assassinated (It should be noted that the veracity of this statement and its attribution to the USA President has been challenged):
“There is a plot in this country [USA] to enslave every man, woman and child. Before I leave this high and noble office, I intend to expose this plot.”
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