Rings Within Rings: How Secret Societies Direct World Politics

by James Corbett
BoilingFrogsPost.com
January 8, 2013

The idea that global politics is directed by a small group of well-connected elite has long been decried as “conspiracy theory” by the establishment and their media outlets. As listeners to the most recent Corbett Report podcast will know, however, this idea is now openly discussed and acknowledged by those very figures that once sought to deride it (see here and here and here).

In fact, while these types of admissions may be new in our current sociopolitical context, they have been well-known, well understood and widely promulgated by respected statesmen and scholars for centuries.

In a letter to George Snyder on October 24, 1798, first U.S. President George Washington warned that “the doctrines of the Illuminati” had “spread in the United States,” adding that the notion that members of secret societies were trying to separate the American people from their government “is too evident to be questioned.”

In 1828, the Anti-Masonic Party became America’s first “third-party” political grouping. The party was formed after the murder of Freemasonic whistleblower William Morgan. The Morgan affair ignited anger in a public that was becoming weary of Masonic influence over their society and the Anti-Masonic Party was surprisingly popular in the 1828 elections, introducing the concepts of nominating conventions and political platforms to U.S. electoral politics.

In his 1913 book The New Freedom, President Woodrow Wilson, whose Presidency saw the introduction of the Federal Reserve, the first income tax, and the proposal for the League of Nations, wrote: “Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”

One of the most scholarly treatises on this subject in the 20th century came from the pen of Georgetown scholar and respected historian Carroll Quigley. An influential political scholar whose students included the likes of Bill Clinton, Quigley wrote extensively about the organizations controlling world politics from behind the scenes and the methods they used to achieve their goals in works like The Anglo-American Establishment and Tragedy and Hope.

As researcher and author G. Edward Griffin explains, Quigley outlined how these secret organizations direct world politics by creating a network of interlocking organizations able to influence policymakers and decision takers around the world.

What one develops through an exploration of Quigley’s writings is not some easily-parodied amorphous conspiracy of “them” or some vaguely defined “Illuminati” that may or may not have anything to do with the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776, but an interlocking series of centrally-controlled organizations of interest populated mostly by those on the outer circle who have no idea what agenda those on the inner circle are aiming at. In this view, the conspiracy is not monolithic, but made up of groupings of individuals united by a common ideology, sometimes with differing views of how to achieve their goals.

In 2009 I talked to G. Edward Griffin about what he believes to be the uniting ideology behind these various groups.

If we are to find the organizing principle of these interlocking societies in the philosophy of collectivism and the quest for world government, the obvious question is “Who are these people and what organizations are part of this conspiracy?” For those with even a slight acquaintance with this subject, there are obvious (and well-known) examples: the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group. In this series of Eyeopener reports, we will examine some of the lesser known groups that constitute part of this system of “rings within rings:” the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Common Purpose UK.

Meanwhile, it is important to note that this conspiracy is not the monolithic, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful cabal that controls every event in the world, however much those in positions of genuine political power would like the public to see them in the light. Instead, they are people motivated by a shared goal who are privy to all of the common failings of organizations: insularity, hubris, infighting, irrationality. As such, it is also important to note that just because a small number of people currently wield enormous power in world politics does not mean that it necessarily has to be so. Instead, an informed, engaged, motivated and active citizenry must be organized to counter this conspiracy, and it must do so by refusing to be intimidated by “conspiracy theory” labels or other cheap rhetorical tactics, and deal with the facts as they present themselves.