>From NEWSMAX.COM }}>Begin CommentMax The Conspiracy of Dunces Diane Alden July 12, 2000 The second of two parts. It is difficult to think of Bill Clinton as part of the elite, but he is. Most people in government, academia, foundations and large corporations are. They move easily in and out of the agencies and institutions that rule us or shape policy or opinion. They believe they have the answers to everything. Young Bill Clinton had a college teacher who is given credit or blame for his view of history, his mind-set as to the purpose of government, the function of the citizen and the place of the elite in society. Professor Carroll Quigley was considered to be a macrohistorian, a historian of the big picture, one who theorizes how civilizations rise and fall and man's place in that process. Quigley also seems to be someone conspiracy buffs love, and they offer his writings as proof that conspiracies exist. Receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard at age 23, Quigley taught for 28 years at one of the education factories for upper echelon leaders of the elite, i.e. Georgetown University. >From 1967 to 1968 Bill Clinton was one of his students. Clinton often quotes Quigley's remarking that his influence was profound. After reading Quigley's basic philosophy I can see why Bill Clinton thinks and believes the way he does. Just like conspiracy buffs, Quigley and Clinton share the view that history is decided by a series of interrelated events and decisions made by a particular "them." This "them" are the elite groups that bend and form history to some agenda. In this worldview there is room for invention and expansion but very little for variables such as personal responsibility, faith in God, individual excellence, creativity, imagination or the built-in desire for man to decide his own fate. The Quigley and Clinton outlook is at its core a statist and an interventionist belief system. It does allow lots of room for "saving" things for future generations. This is an important aspect because it seems to propose that the future has greater worth than any cost to the present and those who live in it. It makes Clinton and his policies more understandable. It is why environmentalism is attractive to people who hold this particular worldview. It is no wonder that its proponents have an obsessive need to interfere at all levels of society - for they are creating the future. Of course they would maintain that this is not interference but rather the desire to "guide" society into whatever agenda they have conjured. This mind- set is profoundly elitist, statist and collectivist. There is a pervasive belief that the privileged "them" should spend money and government resources in "guiding" others. Quigley believed in the state's function as savior of the great unwashed. The worldview of the fringe conspiracy types and those who share Clinton's view have several things in common. The two theories give little credit to individual decision-making, to responsibility and accountability as well as adaptability and creativity. Neither group has much respect for the Founding Fathers. The dunce factor in both the fringe conspiracists and those who would follow the mind-set of Bill Clinton is the fact that they demonize and name-call anyone who does not agree with them. They are both elitist in that they exclude just about everybody from their particular elite. Everything that happens is blamed on something outside oneself or one’s groupthink. An individual has absolutely no control over any of it because everything is being manipulated and decided by "them." This offers a huge and convenient reason not to do anything or make needed changes to one’s mind-set or behavior. It also explains Bill Clinton. Common Ground As standard practice both the far-out fringe conspiracy buffs and the controlling elite demonize groups or individuals who do not accept their historical overview. It is a system that would impose tyranny over others, only they would call it governing. The fringe folks believe in something called the Illuminati.This Illuminati is a "them," and it includes just about everyone and everything that doesn't buy into their theory. Most web sites dedicated to uncovering of the Illuminati conspiracy are firmly grounded in anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism. Nearly every known group from banking to the Boy Scouts is involved in a "plot." With these guys you either agree with them, or you are the devil and part of the plot, or you are a "useful idiot." When you don't agree with them the vitriol and name-calling reaches epic proportions. Ask anyone who has ever challenged their belief system. It is on its face irrational. The proofs they offer to justify their beliefs and subsequent demonization of just about everyone since Adam and Eve are not based on logic but rather on a hatred and prejudice. They take some historical facts and extrapolate them into the most mind-boggling lunacy. One well-known conspiracy author's web site was filled with virulent anti-Semiticism and anti-Catholicism. A proof this "Dr." offered that Catholics were in league with the controlling Illuminati was the shape of the papal cross that Pope John Paul II carries. This "expert" on the Illuminati maintains that Protestant Christians would never accept such a cross. It is an artsy rendition of the cross on which Christ died. It looks like two bent tree limbs joined at the top. Silly me - here I thought that was exactly how Christ was crucified. Nonetheless, the shape of that cross is offered as a prime example to show that the pope is one of "them." There is no documentation or opposing opinion, just the "doctor’s" version of what the cross means. They back up their claims using the writings of those who would agree with them. They point to events such as the Great Depression or the World Wars as part of a plot of international Jewish bankers and Catholics, and even Anglo- Saxon Protestants come in for a hit. The conspiracy buffs use Quigley's writing and views on the elite as proof. (It is most interesting to note that the founder of the Illuminati, Adam Weishaupt, and the conspiracists have one thing in common - they hate Jesuits. Weishaupt began his "enlightened" group back in the 1700s to counter the Jesuits and their influence.) These are just a few examples of the twisted kind of speculation that plays on prejudices and hatreds as old as mankind and predictable as Cain and Abel. And you don't want to know what the fringe conspiracy thinks about modern-day Jews and the Chase Manhattan Bank. The Clinton view of the world also blames outside forces for the problem of resistance to Clintonian programs and historical agenda. It blames “vast right- wing conspiracies” and outside "enemies" for problems of policy and problems of personal ethics and morality. Rather than taking responsibility, the Clinton worldview considers that the elite ARE in control of history. Only it's Bill Clinton's Baby Boomer 1960s elite that has the chance to shape the future in their image. His tendency to rule by executive order, to subvert the Constitution and Bill of Rights and to demonize his enemies and use government agencies against them is a profound elitist view. Like Quigley, Bill Clinton believes in a statist solution to life's problems. In 1965 historian Arthur Schlessinger described "them" as the "American Establishment." To be anti-establishment was the hallmark of the ’60s generation. Since that time the ’60s generation have become the establishment. The Source Professor Quigley wrote a 1,348-page tome called “Tragedy and Hope.” In it he maintained that the left and the Communists and fellow travelers during the 1930s were financed by an international financial coterie. The congressional investigations in the ’50s traced the relationship and interlocking network of tax-exempt foundations to the international bankers and Wall Street. With the 1964 election, Quigley maintains, the financial struggle was between old wealth and the foundations and new wealth rising out of profits of government- dependent corporations in the Southwest and West, mostly oil and defense. Quigley was associated with most of the elite. His other book on the Anglo- American establishment appeared only after his death. It had disappeared for years, with his publisher claiming it had accidentally destroyed the plates. The book has its debunkers and its apologists. Conspiracy buffs look at it as proof of conspiracies. However, the left says the book was hidden because Quigley was absolutely incensed and disappointed that the fringe right used it as a weapon. The right says the book was suppressed because it uncovers conspiracy. Round and round we go and where it stops is when some semblance of common sense arises out of the morass of speculation and prejudice and folly. In regard to modern times, Quigley theorizes that a financial struggle between old wealth including the foundations and new wealth rising out of profits of government-dependent corporations in the Southwest and West, mostly oil and defense, was the split between old money and new money - the Yankee and the Cowboy. Former Harvard professor and Clinton administration Cabinet member Robert Reich grabbed onto the Yankee versus Cowboy theory of economics and political power and dealt with them in his book “The Next American Frontier.” The notion of "Cowboy" economics versus "Yankee" economics is a war that might be seen between the Ronald Reagan-wing supply siders and the old elite Rockefeller wing. According to Quigley it is no longer the old Yankee WASP elite that run things but various uneasy combinations of the two elites. However, the left denies it is a part of it even though its policies and actions have been a controlling factor in elite policy-making for years. Writer and historian Daniel Brandt says that the counterculture movements of the 1960s were a reaction against the Yankee and the Cowboy elite. Carl Oglesby, an intellectual and leader of the New Left, had a pretty good handle on the war between the elite, says Brandt. Oglesby analysis was an emphasis on struggles within elite circles and a valuable context for making sense of the few existing attempts to investigate organized philanthropy, i.e., the foundations. The rise of foundations and think tanks on the right, however, threw a monkey wrench into the entire cozy worldview and agenda. Today those think tanks rival the think tanks on the left, but their policy development is not as readily acceptable to politicians of either party because they involve less government and more private endeavor. The Ten-Headed Horned Beast The foreign policy club for the elite is the dreaded Council on Foreign Relations. Quigley traced the CFR to the British Royal Institute, which grew out of the Rhodes Trust. (Cecil Rhodes instituted the Rhodes Scholarships in the early part of the 20th century.) He says that the CFR originally was a front for J.P. Morgan and Co. It was a $2.5 million grant in the 1950s that made the CFR the dominant private agency in foreign relations and policy development. Which is one reason it attracts those who would be kings or kingmakers. J.P. Morgan did indeed contribute to such elite bodies, but so did Carnegie and Rockefeller. Being a philanthropist in those days was part of the American view that wealth should be returned in some fashion for the improvement of society. Today's leftist billionaires don't build libraries, hospitals or think tanks. Rather, like Ted Turner and Bill Gates, they give billions to the United Nations or AIDS research. In any event, over the years there have been investigations of the foundations. But most of the investigation had to do with tax issues rather than foundation interaction, and their tendency to run policy and have more than reasonable influence on law making and lawmakers. Tax Reform Act of 1969 curtailed many of the questionable practices by adding regulations, restrictions, and reporting requirements. The foundations immediately began organizing in opposition to these new measures. While Congress did some backtracking with the Revenue Act of 1976 and the Economic Recovery Act of 1981, most of the 1969 reforms remain in place today. Congress first investigated foundations such as Carnegie and Rockefeller during the Walsh Combustion hearings in 1915. Years later Texan Wright Patman never missed an opportunity to look into the Byzantine world of the movers and the shakers. Teddy Roosevelt's anti-trust government activism was a great deal in response to the accumulation of wealth in a few hands and the class warfare generated because of opposition to what appeared as unfairness. We are still fighting this war today. The Soldiers of the Elite Historian Brandt says, "Easterners had scrambled for cover by backing first Jimmy Carter and then Bill Clinton - both Easterners in southern costume, who obediently stacked the White House with Trilateralists and Rhodes scholars." However, the stacking of government by the elite has gone on since the founding. The Founders were not a bunch of crazed pitchfork-wielding yahoos. They were educated men steeped in Enlightenment thinking. Alexander Hamilton had a most definite view that government should be composed of elite and that it was a “natural” form of aristocracy. More often than not, Secretaries of State such as Dean Rusk and Henry Kissinger and McGeorge Bundy and many other high officials move easily between foundations, think tanks or government and back again. The foundation and Secretary of State connection may also be illustrated by the back and forth of such notables as Edward Stettinius, Henry Stimson, Frank Kellogg and Charles Evans Hughes. As part of the elite and a foundation mainstay, McGeorge Bundy oversaw the early Ford Foundation funding for multiculturalism. Bundy said in a interview "that everything the foundation did could be regarded as making the world safe for capitalism … by reducing social tensions … and improve the functioning of government." But what has happened is that social tensions got worse as government interference skewed culture and the course of human events with big spending programs and inflicting bureaucracy and the foolish policy of social engineering on the citizenry. The various "wars on poverty" that came out of the elite policy-making centers ended up creating an even worse cultural and political phenomenon. The rise of a dependent culture and the trashing of minority family life may be traced directly to policy coming out of these organizations and institutions. Is this really conspiracy, or a bad case of dumb and arrogant human beings trying to have their way by manipulating policy and attempting to run our lives? In the same vein, elite interference with American capitalism has meant that it is institutionally secure but not really free. Over the years the government and the elite have sought control of business and economics by creating laws that regulate large and small business alike. Corporations respond by buying government favor or colluding with government and vice versa. Meanwhile, the hapless small business attempts to adjust and create its own markets and growth and more or less has to do it underneath the radar. Lawmakers pay lip service to the notion of small business, the ranch the farm, etc., but tax policies make them pay dearly for the privilege of doing business. Because large corporations can afford to buy influence they have been given an edge. Additionally, it is one more reason why the elite moves so easily between foundations, government, and academia and back again into large corporations. However, theorists, central planners and clubby good old boys are constantly creating their own demise by their interference in the market. They cannot respond fast enough to changes in technology or interaction between people so there is no way they can maintain control forever. By formulating bad policy and thrusting it on everyone using academia, the media, and corporate America as well as government, they force the creators of ideas and wealth to go outside their control and institutions. Thus, central planning in the form of social engineering or economic engineering creates its own destruction. The creative chaos that makes up life is not to be denied. Creativity and individual brilliance will make their own river channel if they have to. It is a fact that foundations have a history of funding really bad social engineering projects. For instance the Ford Foundation has supported women's and gender studies, spending large sums on the National Organization for Women and groups like it. A former financial officer of the Ford Foundation reports that the foundation passed out millions to fund politically correct efforts. Rockefeller Foundation has done the same, only most of the money they spend goes into the arts. The big three foundations gave grants to groups working against the ballot measure that would bar race preferences in California. Additionally, the Pew Trust and the big three foundations are prime contributors to environmental measures that promote government ownership of half the American landmass. Overcoming the Elite ‘Mafia’ With leftist Democrats and "moderate" Republicans in control of Congress for decades, it is not surprising that the elite "Mafia" of central planners in the foundations and other such groups have managed to fend off any oversight. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, R-Idaho, tried to open an investigation into the unholy alliance between foundations and government but found little interest in the project. Recently, she made a statement regarding the amount of control and influence these groups have in the establishment of environmental policy and indeed the general law and policy-making of the United States and Congress. She maintains that their status influences the growing move by the elite toward one-size-fits-all globalization and single-world government. But because many congressman and senators have been on the boards of these foundations and other elite bodies, or eventually go to work for them, the lawmakers are loathe to pursue any serious investigation. Throughout mankind's history the elite eventually destroys itself. That is one of the main components of Quigley's theory of history. The Industrial Revolution and the invention of labor-saving machinery and the need for oil and other natural resources created the new millionaires and funded the American elite foundations such as the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Vanderbilts and the Fords. So too the new revolution in technology and information are creating a new elite. Along those lines the mainstream elite press is undergoing a shift the size of the New Madrid fault. Between talk radio, the Internet, and upstart cable operations such as Fox News Channel, the elite media Mafia is no longer in total control. Manipulating and spoon-feeding the populace is getting harder all the time. Even when independent American news operations drop the ball, the news is being written through information vehicles all over the globe. The truth cannot be hidden forever. Granted there is a lot of garbage and misinformation on the Net, but there is also enough information for people to come to their own conclusions. Tomorrow the World Recently, Walter Cronkite came out of the closet and exposed his unabashed bias for all things statist and collectivist. His elitist worldview of one-world government and the creation of an international rule of law should not be surprising. While our own system and rule of law is near chaos, Cronkite actually believes that the only answer is one-world government. Like all elites he would deny the fact that the farther away government gets from those it purports to lead and serve the more it doesn't work. More importantly, government is ignored by the people when it is far away and out of touch. The elite might eventually have to round everyone up and put them in urban rabbit hutches with electronic ankle bracelets or chips under the skin, but as long as people are not concentrated behind concertina wire they skip outside governments’ best efforts to control them. Which proves people may be asleep, but not everyone is a sheep. The new elite, Bill Gates for instance, will create its own history and paradigm. In turn as future inventions, creations and discoveries come about the new elite will be replaced as well. This is history and the way things happen - not a conspiracy. This is the adaptability of human beings to prevailing conditions and the historical catalyst that imagination and creativity spawn. Freedom and the rise of free markets may be slowed down for a while because of government control of corporations and the incestuous relationship between them. But the bastard child they produce will have a short life span. The bigger it is the less it is able to respond - just like the Russians in Afghanistan found out and the British during the unpleasantness of 1776. It is hard for big business to defend itself against the creativity of a Bill Gates, as IBM found out. A big anything usually collapses of its own weight. It cannot sustain itself for too long without destroying its environment, and it cannot move fast enough to keep up with change. Groups forming out of think tanks, foundations and gatherings of the elite such as the CFR and the IMF will also fail. Like all organizations they have a life span. Not even trees live forever, and neither do elite organizations. Life changes, and so do institutions. When they manipulate events on the short term the unintended consequences are much like wage and price controls - a short- term solution to a long-term problem, but the results are skewed and eventually the correction takes place. They will continue only as long as people are willing to pay attention to them and fund them. Policy in this brave new world will have to be developed in new ways using new people and new concepts. Historical Variables One of the remarkable historical variables of the last 40 years was the appearance of a man like Ronald Reagan. Had he followed the advice of the crew from the CFR, the statue of Lenin would still be standing in Red Square and the Berlin Wall would still be in place and the world in Eastern Europe would still be praying for freedom. His term as president and his ideas were the triumph over elitism. History is too full of creative chaos and too many variables to be so easily manipulated indefinitely. "Them" can’t control everything or everyone forever. They are not God or the devil. They are not omniscient. They may be dumb, evil or, even worse, well intentioned - but they are not masters of the universe. Most importantly, they are not in charge of God-given creativity and imagination. The computer and the Internet may indeed be this generation's gift from God. How individuals use it may be selfish at times, but it also allows the natural formation and association of like-minded people all over the world. This places people out of the control of the elite, and that is one reason they hate the Internet. They can no longer control information that think tanks, foundations, media and government have always attempted to control. It is difficult to see all the ramifications, as the Internet becomes a worldwide phenomenon. But the interconnected aspects of it will unite people in a natural rather than a forced way. One expert on computer systems, Bob Lewis, said recently: "The future is a Markov process ... a random walk. Every step is random; every step starts where the last one stopped." Badly conceived attempts by government or the elite to create its own system will make government less relevant to mankind. It is happening as I write this. People vote less and are involved less because government means less to them. It is hardly relevant to their lives. When government becomes too oppressive they will defeat it by noncompliance, by rebellion or, worse, by working outside the system. This is one reason the Soviet system failed. Reality, the creative dynamic, economic and political change was happening outside the system. The Reagan common-sense approach to the Soviets merely pushed it over the edge. Conspiracy of Dunces Government will always be a necessary evil, but it seldom is the main player in history. In the end mankind removes the chains, which bind his imagination and inhibits his freedom. Man is always creating his own reality free from control by any single elite. Foundations, government or elite central planning will not survive for long because they deny the basic need for men to be at liberty. Globalists such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Strobe Talbot and Walter Cronkite notwithstanding, the forces of creativity and freedom are loose in our day and age. Genius cannot be put back into the bottle. Imagination and individual's sense of purpose do not follow a plan. In the end the natural desire for freedom will over come control by "special" groups and their elitist prescriptions to heal what ails mankind. Does this make me unrealistic? Perhaps it does. Of course there is evil in the world, and there are those who consciously or unconsciously seek to control others. But those who profess to believe in thousands of years of conspiracy theories to explain history have absolutely no faith in God, in themselves, or in the basic goodness and creativity of others. Billions of people live very well outside the control of control freaks - they just don't pay attention. When things get too oppressive they respond and fight back. In the end the high school theory of history survives. The oddballs and creative types outside the “in” group accomplish wonderful things and change the world. The nerds become Bill Gates or Jonas Salk. The outsiders become Ronald Reagan and Colin Powell. The shy ones become actors and actresses like Charlton Heston, Ingrid Bergman, Tom Selleck, or Harrison Ford. The unknown writers, artists and class clowns become Tom Wolfe, Andrew Wyeth or Rush Limbaugh. Excellence almost always survives prejudice and lack of support. Excellence always wins in the end, and nothing the "in" group does can stop it. High school reunions are where my theory of history is proved out. More often than not these events show that those who belonged to the in crowd rarely got beyond the limits of their experience and status in high school. They can't escape their mind-set or the paralyzing factor of having life come too easily. They cannot suppress the creativity of others. They may succeed in small ways, but for the most part members of the in crowd are stuck in place, doing the same things the same way and wondering why and how they are no longer in charge. Seldom reaching beyond themselves and their prejudices and self-limitations, they achieve neither greatness nor goodness. Rather they remain in the backwaters and dustbin of events convinced they are still very "special." (Researching and writing about the elite and the theory of conspiracy has been an eye opener. I have never received so much hate mail. The folks who sent it did nothing to prove their theories, but they did a lot of name-calling. The web sites they suggested I go to in order to "learn" the truth and find the "evidence" of this conspiracy is so hate filled as to boggle the mind. The theory takes some historical details and morphs them into the most outrageous lunacy that makes the “X-Files” seem like a historical documentary. Most of them have some money-making scam going as well, so it’s the same old story - follow the money. I will bow to them on one issue because I did make a mistake. Adam Weishaupt the Bavarian invented the Illuminati, not Adam Westhempt, who might have sat behind me in high school history class. I must have confused them both with Hitler, who was part of the conspiracy, or was he a variable, I can't remember. But then I probably made the mistake of thinking the hateful were people who have a modicum of intelligence or at the very least are capable making a case without resorting to name-calling. I shall not make that mistake again.) ------------------------------ Diane Alden is a research analyst, writer, historian and political economist. She writes a column for NewsMax.com, Etherzone, Enterstageright, American Partisan and many other online publications. She also does occasional radio commentaries for Georgia Radio Inc. Reach her at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or www.inflyovercountry.com. 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