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TheNew World Order (NWO) is a term often used inconspiracy theories whichhypothesize a secretly emergingtotalitarian world government.[3][4][5][6][7] The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that asecretive powerelite with aglobalist agenda is conspiring to eventuallyrule the world through an authoritarian one-world government—which will replace sovereignnation-states—and an all-encompassing propaganda whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as theculmination of history's progress. Many influential historical and contemporary figures have therefore been alleged to be part of acabal that operates through numerousfront organizations to orchestrate significant political and financial events, including taking advantage of systemic crises or even causing them in order to push 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 Americancountercultures, primarily the militantly anti-government right, and secondarily the part offundamentalist Christianity concerned with theeschatological end-time emergence of theAntichrist.[8] Academics who study conspiracy theories and religious extremism, such asMichael Barkun andChip Berlet, observed thatright-wing populist conspiracy theories about a New World Order not only have been embraced by many seekers ofstigmatized knowledge but also have seeped into popular culture, thereby fueling a surge of interest and participation insurvivalism andparamilitarism as many people actively prepare forapocalyptic andmillenarian scenarios.[4][6] These political scientists warn thatmass hysteria over New World Order conspiracy theories could eventually have devastating effects on American political life, ranging from escalatinglone wolf terrorism to the rise to power of authoritarianultranationalistdemagogues.[4][6][9]
During the 20th century, political figures such asWoodrow Wilson andWinston Churchill used the term "new world order" to refer to a new period of history characterized by a dramatic change in world political thought and in theglobal balance of power afterWorld War I andWorld War II.[10] Theinterwar andpost-World War II period were seen as opportunities to implementidealistic proposals forglobal governance by collective efforts to address worldwide problems that go beyond the capacity of individualnation-states to resolve, while nevertheless respecting the right of nations toself-determination. Such collective initiatives manifested in the formation ofintergovernmental organizations such as theLeague of Nations in 1920, the United Nations (UN) in 1945, and theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, along with international regimes such as theBretton Woods system and theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), implemented to maintain a cooperative balance of power and facilitate reconciliation between nations to prevent the prospect ofanother global conflict. Thesecosmopolitan efforts to instillliberal internationalism were regularly criticized and opposed by Americanpaleoconservativebusiness nationalists from the 1930s on.[11][need quotation to verify]
Progressives welcomed international organizations and regimes such as the United Nations in the aftermath of the two World Wars, but argued that these initiatives suffered from ademocratic deficit and were therefore inadequate not only to prevent anotherworld war, but also to fosterglobal justice, as the UN was chartered to be a free association of sovereign nation-states rather than a transition to democratic world government. Thus, cosmopolitan activists around the globe, perceiving the IGOs as too ineffectual for global change, formed a world federalist movement.[12]
British writer and futuristH. G. Wells went further than progressives in the 1940s, by appropriating and redefining the term "new world order" as a synonym for the establishment of a technocraticworld state and of aplanned economy, garnering popularity instate socialist circles.[13][14]
During theSecond Red Scare, both secular andChristian right American agitators, largely influenced by the work of Canadian conspiracy theoristWilliam Guy Carr, increasingly embraced and spread dubious fears ofFreemasons,Illuminati andJews as the alleged driving forces behind an "international communist conspiracy". The threat of "Godless communism", in the form of anatheistic,bureaucratic collectivist world government,demonized as the "Red Menace", became the focus ofapocalypticmillenarianconspiracism. The Red Scare came to shape one of the core ideas of the political right in the United States, which is thatliberals andprogressives, with theirwelfare-state policies and international cooperation programs such asforeign aid, supposedly contribute to a gradual process of globalcollectivism that will inevitably lead to nations being replaced with acommunistic/collectivist one-world government.[15]James Warburg, appearing before theUnited States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1950, famously stated: "We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest."[16]
Right-wing populist advocacy groups with apaleoconservative world-view, such as theJohn Birch Society, disseminated a multitude of conspiracy theories in the 1960s claiming that the governments of both the United States and theSoviet Union were controlled by acabal ofcorporate internationalists, "greedy" bankers and corrupt politicians who were intent on using the UN as the vehicle to create a "One World Government". Thisanti-globalist conspiracism fueled the campaign forU.S. withdrawal from the UN. American writerMary M. Davison, in her bookletThe Profound Revolution (1966), traced the alleged New World Order conspiracy to the establishment of the U.S.Federal Reserve in 1913 by international bankers, whom she claimed later formed theCouncil on Foreign Relations in 1921 as ashadow government.[citation needed] At the time the booklet was published, many readers would have interpreted "international bankers" as a reference to a postulated "internationalJewish banking conspiracy" masterminded by theRothschild family.[15][additional citation(s) needed]
Arguing that the term "New World Order" is used by a secretive global elite dedicated to the eradication of the sovereignty of the world's nations, American writerGary Allen—in his booksNone Dare Call It Conspiracy (1971),Rockefeller: Campaigning for the New World Order (1974), andSay "No!" to the New World Order (1987)—articulated the anti-globalist theme of contemporary right-wing conspiracism in the U.S. After thefall of communism in the early 1990s, thede facto subject of New World Orderconspiracism shifted fromcrypto-communists, perceived to be plotting to establish an atheistic world communist government, to globalists, perceived to be plotting to implement a collectivist generally, unified world government ultimately controlled by an untouchableoligarchy of international bankers, corrupt politicians, andcorporatists, or the United Nations itself. The shift in perception was inspired by growingopposition to corporate internationalism on the American right in the 1990s.[15][additional citation(s) needed]
In his speech,Toward a New World Order, delivered on 11 September 1990 during a joint session of theUS Congress, PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush describedhis objectives for post-Cold War global governance in cooperation withpost-Soviet states. He stated:
Until now, the world we've known has been a world divided—a world of barbed wire and concrete block, conflict, and the cold war. Now, we can see a new world coming into view. A world in which there is the genuine prospect of new world order. In the words of Winston Churchill, a "world order" in which "the principles of justice and fair play ... protect the weak against the strong ..." A world where the United Nations, freed from cold war stalemate, is poised to fulfill the historic vision of its founders. A world in which freedom and respect for human rights find a home among all nations.[17]
The New York Times observed that progressives were denouncing this new world order as a rationalization ofAmerican imperial ambitions in the Middle East at the time. At the same timeconservatives rejected any new security arrangements altogether and fulminated about any possibility of a UN revival.[18]Chip Berlet, an American investigative reporter specializing in the study of right-wing movements in the US, wrote that the Christian and secular far-right were especially terrified by Bush's speech. Fundamentalist Christian groups interpreted Bush's words as signaling theEnd Times. At the same time, more secular theorists approached it from an anti-communist and anti-collectivist standpoint and feared for hegemony over all countries by the United Nations.[4]
The New World Order has been a focus of the American Christian right, and specifically the Protestant right. The NWO is seen as a prophesied anti-Christian enemy established by globalists which uses perceived secular philosophies such asenvironmentalism,feminism, andsocialism (collectively referred to as globalism) to thwart Christianity through the work of organizations such as the United Nations, European Union, World Trade Organization, and World Health Organization. Organizations like the UN, as well as concepts such as the New World Order and globalism have played a significant role in right-wing Protestant prophecy media.[19]
AmericantelevangelistPat Robertson, with his best-selling bookThe New World Order (1991), became the most prominent Christiandisseminator of conspiracy theories about recent American history. He describes a scenario whereWall Street, the Federal Reserve System, the Council on Foreign Relations, theBilderberg Group and theTrilateral Commission control the flow of events from behind the scenes, constantly nudging people covertly in the direction of world government for theAntichrist.[6]
It has been observed that, throughout the 1990s, the galvanizing language used by conspiracy theorists such asLinda Thompson,Mark Koernke andRobert K. Spear led to militancy and the rise of theAmerican militia movement.[20] The militia movement'santi-government ideology was spread through speeches at rallies and meetings, books and videotapes sold atgun shows, shortwave and satellite radio, fax networks, and computer bulletin boards.[15] It has been argued that it was overnight AM radio shows and propagandisticviral content on the internet that most effectively contributed to more extremist responses to the perceived threat of the New World Order. This led to the substantial growth of New World Order conspiracism, with it retroactively finding its way into the previously apolitical literature of numerousKennedy assassinologists,ufologists,lost land theorists and—partially inspired by fears surrounding the"Satanic panic"—occultists. From the mid-1990s onward, the amorphous appeal of those subcultures transmitted New World Order conspiracism to a larger audience of seekers ofstigmatized knowledge, with the common characteristic of disillusionment ofpolitical efficacy.[6]
From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, Hollywoodconspiracy-thriller television shows and films also played a role in introducing a general audience to variousfringe, esoteric theories related to New World Order conspiracism—which by that point had developed to includeblack helicopters,FEMA "concentration camps", etc.—theories which for decades previously were confined to largely right-wing subcultures. The 1993–2002 television seriesThe X-Files, the 1997 filmConspiracy Theory and the 1998 filmThe X-Files: Fight the Future are often cited as notable examples.[6]
Following the start of the 21st century, and specifically during the2008 financial crisis, many politicians and pundits, such asGordon Brown[21] andHenry Kissinger,[22] used the term "new world order" in their advocacy for a comprehensive reform of theglobal financial system and theircalls for a "New Bretton Woods" taking into accountemerging markets such as China and India. These public declarations reinvigorated New World Order conspiracism, culminating in talk-show hostSean Hannity stating on hisFox News programHannity that the "conspiracy theorists were right".[23] Progressivemedia-watchdog groups have repeatedly criticized Fox News in general, and its now-defunct opinion showGlenn Beck in particular, for not only disseminating New World Order conspiracy theories to mainstream audiences, but possibly agitating so-called "lone wolf" extremism, particularly from theradical right.[24][25]
In 2009, American film directorsLuke Meyer andAndrew Neel releasedNew World Order, a critically acclaimed documentary film which explores the world of conspiracy theorists—such as American radio hostAlex Jones—who vigorously oppose what they perceive as an emerging New World Order.[26] The growing dissemination and popularity of conspiracy theories has also created an alliance between right-wing agitators andhip hop music's left-wing rappers (such asKRS-One,Professor Griff ofPublic Enemy andImmortal Technique), illustrating howanti-elitist conspiracism can create unlikely political allies in efforts to oppose a political system.[27]
There are numeroussystemic conspiracy theories through which the concept of a New World Order is viewed. The following is a list of the major ones in roughly chronological order:[28]
Since the 19th century, manyapocalypticmillennialChristian eschatologists, starting withJohn Nelson Darby, have predicted a globalist conspiracy to impose a tyrannical New World Order governing structure as the fulfillment ofprophecies about the "end time" in the Bible, specifically in theBook of Ezekiel, theBook of Daniel, theOlivet Discourse found in theSynoptic Gospels,2 Esdras 11:32 andRevelation 13:7.[29] They claim that people who have made adeal with the Devil to gain wealth and power have become pawns in a supernatural chess game to move humanity into accepting autopian world government that rests on the spiritual foundations of asyncretic-messianic world religion, which will later reveal itself to be adystopian world empire that imposes theimperial cult of an "Unholy Trinity" ofSatan, theAntichrist and theFalse Prophet.[citation needed] In many contemporary Christian conspiracy theories, the False Prophet will be either the last pope of theCatholic Church (groomed and installed by anAlta Vendita orJesuit conspiracy), aguru from theNew Age movement, or even the leader of an elitefundamentalist Christian organization likethe Fellowship, while the Antichrist will be either thePresident of the European Union, theCaliph of apan-Islamic state, or even theSecretary-General of the United Nations.[6][29]
Some of the most vocal critics of end-time conspiracy theories come from within Christianity.[15] In 1993, historian Bruce Barron wrote a stern rebuke of apocalyptic Christian conspiracism in theChristian Research Journal, when reviewingRobertson's 1991 bookThe New World Order.[30] Another critique can be found in historian Gregory S. Camp's 1997 bookSelling Fear: Conspiracy Theories and End-Times Paranoia.[3] Religious studies scholar Richard T. Hughes argues that "New World Order" rhetoric libels the Christian faith, since the "New World Order" as defined by Christian conspiracy theorists has no basis in the Bible whatsoever. Furthermore, he argues that not only is this idea unbiblical, it is positively anti-biblical and fundamentallyanti-Christian, because by misinterpreting key passages in the Book of Revelation, it turns a comforting message about the comingkingdom of God into one of fear, panic and despair in the face of an allegedly approaching one-world government.[29]Progressive Christians, such as preacher-theologianPeter J. Gomes, cautionChristian fundamentalists that a "spirit of fear" can distort scripture and history through dangerously combiningbiblical literalism,apocalyptic timetables,demonization and oppressive prejudices,[31][32] while Camp warns of the "very real danger that Christians could pick up some extra spiritual baggage" by credulously embracing conspiracy theories.[3] They therefore call on Christians who indulge in conspiracism torepent.[33][34]
Freemasonry is one of the world's oldest secularfraternal organizations and arose in Great Britain during the 18th century. Over the years, several allegations and conspiracy theories have been directed towards Freemasonry, including the allegation that Freemasons have a hiddenpolitical agenda and are conspiring to bring about a New World Order, a world government organized according to Masonic principles or governed only by Freemasons.[15]
Theesoteric nature ofMasonic symbolism andrites led to Freemasons first being accused of secretly practicingSatanism in the late 18th century.[15] The original allegation of aconspiracy within Freemasonry to subvert religions and governments to take over the world traces back to Scottish authorJohn Robison, whosereactionary conspiracy theories crossed the Atlantic and influenced outbreaks of Protestantanti-Masonry in the United States during the 19th century.[15] In the 1890s, French writerLéo Taxil wrote a series of pamphlets and books denouncing Freemasonry and charging their lodges with worshipingLucifer as theSupreme Being andGreat Architect of the Universe. Despite the fact that Taxil admitted thathis claims were all a hoax, they were and still are believed and repeated by numerous conspiracy theorists and had a huge influence on subsequent anti-Masonic claims about Freemasonry.[35]
Some conspiracy theorists eventually speculated that someFounding Fathers of the United States, such asGeorge Washington andBenjamin Franklin, were having Masonicsacred geometric designs interwoven into American society, particularly in theGreat Seal of the United States, theUnited States one-dollar bill, the architecture ofNational Mall landmarks and thestreets and highways of Washington, D.C., as part of a master plan to create the first "Masonic government" as a model for the coming New World Order.[6]
Freemasons rebut these claims of a Masonic conspiracy. Freemasonry, which promotesrationalism, places no power in occult symbols themselves, and it is not a part of its principles to view the drawing of symbols, no matter how large, as an act of consolidating or controlling power.[36] Furthermore, there is no published information establishing the Masonic membership of the men responsible for the design of the Great Seal.[36][37] While conspiracy theorists assert that there are elements of Masonic influence on the Great Seal of the United States and that these elements were intentionally or unintentionally used because the creators were familiar with the symbols,[38] in fact, the all-seeingEye of Providence and the unfinished pyramid were symbols used as much outside Masonic lodges as within them in the late 18th century. Therefore, the designers were drawing from common esoteric symbols.[39] The Latin phrase "novus ordo seclorum", appearing on the reverse side of the Great Seal since 1782 and the back of the one-dollar bill since 1935, translates to "New Order of the Ages",[1] and alludes to the beginning of an era where the United States of America is an independent nation-state; conspiracy theorists often mistranslate it as "New World Order".[2]
Although theEuropean continental branch of Freemasonry has organizations that allow political discussion within their Masonic Lodges, Masonic researcher Trevor W. McKeown argues that the accusations ignore several facts. Firstly, the many Grand Lodges are independent and sovereign, meaning they act independently and do not have a common agenda. The points of belief of the various lodges often differ. Secondly, famous Freemasons have always held views that span the political spectrum and show no particular pattern or preference. As such, the term "Masonic government" is erroneous; there is no consensus among Freemasons about what an ideal government would look like.[40]
The Order of theIlluminati was anEnlightenment-age secret society founded by university professorAdam Weishaupt on 1 May 1776, inUpper Bavaria, Germany. The movement consisted of advocates offreethought,secularism, liberalism,republicanism, andgender equality, recruited from the GermanMasonic Lodges, who sought to teachrationalism throughmystery schools. In 1785, the order was infiltrated, broken up, and suppressed by the government agents ofCharles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, in his preemptive campaign to neutralize the threat of secret societies ever becoming hotbeds of conspiracies to overthrow the Bavarian monarchy and itsstate religion, Roman Catholicism.[41] There is no evidence that the Bavarian Illuminati survived its suppression in 1785.[42]
In the late 18th century,reactionary conspiracy theorists, such as Scottish physicistJohn Robison and FrenchJesuit priestAugustin Barruel, began speculating that the Illuminati had survived their suppression and become the masterminds behind theFrench Revolution and theReign of Terror. The Illuminati were accused of beingsubversives who were attempting to secretly orchestrate arevolutionary wave in Europe and the rest of the world by spreading the mostradical ideas and movements of the Enlightenment—anti-clericalism,anti-monarchism, andanti-patriarchalism— which the accusers feared would lead to the destruction of thenatural order of things.[43][44] During the 19th century, fear of an Illuminati conspiracy was a real concern of the Europeanruling classes, and their oppressive reactions to this unfounded fear provoked in 1848the very revolutions they sought to prevent.[42]
During theinterwar period of the 20th century,fascist propagandists, such as British revisionist historianNesta Helen Webster and American socialiteEdith Starr Miller, not only popularized the myth of an Illuminati conspiracy but claimed that it was a subversive secret society which served the Jewish elites that supposedly propped up bothfinance capitalism andSoviet communism todivide and rule the world. American evangelistGerald Burton Winrod and other conspiracy theorists within thefundamentalist Christian movement in the United States—which emerged in the 1910s as a backlash against the principles of Enlightenmentsecular humanism,modernism, and liberalism—became the main channel of dissemination of Illuminati conspiracy theories in the U.S..Right-wing populists, such as members of theJohn Birch Society, subsequently began speculating that some collegiate fraternities (Skull and Bones), gentlemen's clubs (Bohemian Club), and think tanks (Council on Foreign Relations,Trilateral Commission) of theAmerican upper class arefront organizations of the Illuminati, which they accuse of plotting to create a New World Order through a one-world government.[6]The Illuminatus! Trilogy, a series of three satirical novels by American writersRobert Shea andRobert Anton Wilson, first published in 1975, which attributed the alleged majorcover-ups of the era – such aswho shot John F. Kennedy – to the Illuminati, was extremely influential in popularizing the myth of an Illuminati superconspiracy during the 1960s and onward.[45]
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is anantisemitic canard, originally published in Russian in 1903, alleging aJudeo-Masonic conspiracy to achieve world domination. The text purports to be the minutes of the secret meetings of acabal of Jewish masterminds, which has co-optedFreemasonry and is plotting to rule the world on behalf of all Jews because they believe themselves to be thechosen people of God.[46]The Protocols incorporate many of the core conspiracist themes outlined in theRobison andBarruel attacks on the Freemasons and overlay them with antisemitic allegations about anti-Tsarist movements in Russia.The Protocols reflect themes similar to more generalcritiques of Enlightenment liberalism byconservative aristocrats who support monarchies andstate religions. The interpretation intended by the publication ofThe Protocols is that if one peels away the layers of theMasonic conspiracy, past theIlluminati, one finds the rotten Jewish core.[15]
Numerous polemicists, such as Irish journalistPhilip Graves in a 1921 article inThe Times, and British academicNorman Cohn in his 1967 bookWarrant for Genocide, have provenThe Protocols to be both ahoax and a clear case of plagiarism. There is general agreement that Russian-French writer and political activistMatvei Golovinski fabricated the text forOkhrana, thesecret police of theRussian Empire, as a work ofcounter-revolutionary propaganda prior to the1905 Russian Revolution, by plagiarizing, almost word for word in some passages, fromThe Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, a 19th-century satire againstNapoleon III of France written by French political satirist andLegitimist militantMaurice Joly.[47]
Responsible for feeding manyantisemitic andanti-Masonic mass hysteria of the twentieth century,The Protocols has been influential in the development of some conspiracy theories, including some New World Order theories, and repeatedly appears in certain contemporary conspiracy literature.[6] For example, the authors of the 1982 controversial bookThe Holy Blood and the Holy Grail concluded thatThe Protocols was the most persuasive piece of evidence for the existence and activities of thePriory of Sion. They speculated that this secret society was working behind the scenes to establish atheocratic "United States of Europe". Politically and religiously unified through theimperial cult of aMerovingianGreat Monarch—supposedly descended from aJesus bloodline—who occupies both the throne of Europe and theHoly See, this "Holy European Empire" would become the hyperpower of the 21st century.[48] Although the Priory of Sion itself has been exhaustivelydebunked by journalists and scholars as a hoax,[49] someapocalypticmillenarianChristian eschatologists who believeThe Protocols is authentic became convinced that the Priory of Sion was a fulfillment ofprophecies found in theBook of Revelation and further proof of ananti-Christian conspiracy of epic proportions signaling the imminence of a New World Order.[50]
Skeptics argue that the current gambit of contemporary conspiracy theorists who useThe Protocols is to claim that they "really" come from some group other than the Jews, such asfallen angels oralien invaders. Although it is hard to determine whether the conspiracy-minded actually believe this or are simply trying to sanitize a discredited text, skeptics argue that it does not make much difference, since they leave the actual, antisemitic text unchanged, givingThe Protocols credibility and circulation.[8]
During the second half ofBritain's "imperial century" between 1815 and 1914, English-born South African businessman, mining magnate, and politicianCecil Rhodes advocated theBritish Empire reannexing the United States of America and reforming itself into an "Imperial Federation" to bring about a hyperpower and lastingworld peace. In his first will, written in 1877 at the age of 23, he expressed his wish to fund asecret society (known as theSociety of the Elect) that would advance this goal:
To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonisation by British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia [Crete], the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and promote the best interests of humanity.[51]
In 1890, thirteen years after "his now-famous will," Rhodes elaborated on the same idea: establishment of "England everywhere," which would "ultimately lead to the cessation of all wars, and one language throughout the world." "The only thing feasible to carry out this idea is a secret society gradually absorbing the wealth of the world ["and human minds of the higher-order"] to be devoted to such an object."[52]
Rhodes also concentrated on theRhodes Scholarship, which had British statesmanAlfred Milner as one of its trustees. Established in 1902, the original goal of the trust fund was to foster peace among thegreat powers by creating a sense of fraternity and a shared world view among future British, American, and German leaders by having enabled them to study for free at theUniversity of Oxford.[51]
Milner and British officialLionel George Curtis were the architects of theRound Table movement, a network of organizations promoting closer union between Britain and itsself-governing colonies. To this end, Curtis founded theRoyal Institute of International Affairs in June 1919 and, with his 1938 bookThe Commonwealth of God, began advocating for the creation of an imperial federation that eventually reannexes the U.S., which would be presented toProtestant churches as being the work of theChristian God to elicit their support.[53] TheCommonwealth of Nations was created in 1949, but it would only be a free association of independent states rather than the powerful imperial federation imagined by Rhodes, Milner, and Curtis.
TheCouncil on Foreign Relations began in 1917 with a group of New York academics who were asked by PresidentWoodrow Wilson to offer options for theforeign policy of the United States in theinterwar period. Originally envisioned as a group of American and British scholars and diplomats, some of whom belonging to the Round Table movement, it was a subsequent group of 108 New York financiers, manufacturers, and international lawyers organized in June 1918 by Nobel Peace Prize recipient and U.S. secretary of stateElihu Root, that became the Council on Foreign Relations on 29 July 1921. The first of the council's projects was a quarterly journal launched in September 1922, calledForeign Affairs.[54] TheTrilateral Commission was founded in July 1973, at the initiative of American bankerDavid Rockefeller, who was chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations at that time. It is a private organization established to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe, and Japan. The Trilateral Commission is widely seen as a counterpart to the Council on Foreign Relations.
In the 1960s,right-wing populist individuals and groups with apaleoconservative worldview, such as members of theJohn Birch Society, were the first to combine and spread abusiness nationalist critique ofcorporate internationalists networked through think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations with a grand conspiracy theory casting them asfront organizations for the Round Table of the "Anglo-AmericanEstablishment", which are financed by an "international banking cabal" that has supposedly been plotting from the late 19th century on to impose anoligarchic new world order through aglobal financial system. Anti-globalist conspiracy theorists therefore fear that international bankers are planning to eventually subvert the independence of the U.S. by subordinating nationalsovereignty to a strengthenedBank for International Settlements.[55]
The research findings of historianCarroll Quigley, author of the 1966 bookTragedy and Hope, are taken by both conspiracy theorists of the AmericanOld Right (W. Cleon Skousen) andNew Left (Carl Oglesby) to substantiate this view, even though Quigley argued that the Establishment is not involved in a plot to implement a one-world government but ratherBritish andAmerican "benevolent imperialism" driven by the mutual interests of economic elites in the United Kingdom and the United States. Quigley also argued that, although theRound Table still exists today, its position in influencing the policies of world leaders has been much reduced from its heyday duringWorld War I and slowly waned after the end ofWorld War II and theSuez Crisis. Today the Round Table is largely aginger group, designed to consider and gradually influence the policies of theCommonwealth of Nations, but faces strong opposition. Furthermore, in American society after 1965, the problem, according to Quigley, was that no elite was in charge and acting responsibly.[55]
Larry McDonald, the second president of the John Birch Society and aconservative Democratic member of theUnited States House of Representatives who represented the 7th congressional district ofGeorgia, wrote a foreword forAllen's 1976 bookThe Rockefeller File, wherein he claimed that the Rockefellers and their allies were driven by a desire to create a one-world government that combined "super-capitalism" withcommunism and would be fully under their control. He saw a conspiracy plot that was "international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent."[56]
In his 2002 autobiographyMemoirs, David Rockefeller wrote:
For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents ... to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure—one world if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.[57]
Barkun argues that this statement is partly facetious (the claim of "conspiracy" and "treason") and partly serious—the desire to encourage trilateral cooperation among the U.S., Europe, and Japan;[citation needed] for example — an ideal that used to be a hallmark of theinternationalist wing of theRepublican Party (known as "Rockefeller Republicans" in honor ofNelson Rockefeller) when there was an internationalist wing.[citation needed] The statement, however, is taken at face value and widely cited by conspiracy theorists as proof that the Council on Foreign Relations uses its role as thebrain trust of American presidents, senators and representatives to manipulate them into supporting a New World Order in the form of a one-world government.[citation needed]
In a 13 November 2007 interview with Canadian journalist Benjamin Fulford, Rockefeller countered that he felt no need for a world government and wished for the world's governments to work together and collaborate. He also stated that it seemed neither likely nor desirable to have only one elected government rule worldwide. He criticized accusations of him being "ruler of the world" as nonsensical.[58]
Some Americansocial critics, such as Laurence H. Shoup, argue that the Council on Foreign Relations is an "imperial brain trust" which has, for decades, played a central behind-the-scenes role in shaping U.S. foreign policy choices for the post-World War II international order and theCold War by determining what options show up on theagenda and what options do not even make it to the table;[59] others, such asG. William Domhoff, argue that it is in fact a mere policy discussion forum[60] which provides the businessinput to U.S. foreign policy planning.[citation needed] Domhoff argues that "[i]t has nearly 3,000 members, far too many for secret plans to be kept within the group. All the council does is sponsor discussion groups, debates, and speakers. As far as being secretive, it issues annual reports and allows access to its historical archives." However, all these critics agree[citation needed] that "[h]istorical studies of the CFR show that it has a very different role in the overall power structure than what is claimed by conspiracy theorists."[60]
In his 1928 bookThe Open Conspiracy British writer and futuristH. G. Wells promotedcosmopolitanism and offered blueprints for aworld revolution andWorld Brain to establish a technocraticworld state andplanned economy.[61] Wells warned, however, in his 1940 bookThe New World Order that:
... when the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people ... will hate the new world order, be rendered unhappy by the frustration of their passions and ambitions through its advent and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people.[13]
Wells's books were influential in giving a second meaning to the term "new world order", which would only be used bystate socialist supporters andanti-communist opponents. However, despite the popularity and notoriety of his ideas, Wells failed to exert a deeper and more lasting influence because he was unable to concentrate his energies on a direct appeal tointelligentsias who would, ultimately, have to coordinate the Wellsian new world order.[62]
Britishneo-Theosophical occultistAlice Bailey, one of the founders of the so-calledNew Age movement, prophesied in 1940 the eventual victory of theAllies of World War II over theAxis powers (which occurred in 1945) and the establishment by the Allies of a political and religious New World Order. She saw a federal world government as the culmination ofWells' Open Conspiracy but favorably argued that it would besynarchist because it was guided by theMasters of the Ancient Wisdom, intent on preparing humanity for themystical second coming of Christ, and the dawning of theAge of Aquarius. According to Bailey, a group of ascended masters called theGreat White Brotherhood works on the "inner planes" to oversee the transition to the New World Order but, for now, the members of thisSpiritual Hierarchy are only known to a few occult scientists, with whom they communicatetelepathically, but as the need for their personal involvement in the plan increases, there will be an "Externalization of the Hierarchy" and everyone will know of their presence on Earth.[63]
Bailey's writings, along with American writerMarilyn Ferguson's 1980 bookThe Aquarian Conspiracy, contributed to conspiracy theorists of theChristian right viewing the New Age movement as the "false religion" that wouldsupersede Christianity in a New World Order.[64] Skeptics argue that the term "New Age movement" is a misnomer, generally used by conspiracy theorists as a catch-all rubric for anynew religious movement that is notfundamentalist Christian. By this logic, anything that is not Christian is by definition actively and willfullyanti-Christian.[65]
Paradoxically, since the first decade of the 21st century, New World Order conspiracism is increasingly being embraced and propagandized by New Ageoccultists, who are people bored byrationalism and drawn tostigmatized knowledge—such asalternative medicine,astrology,quantum mysticism,spiritualism, andtheosophy.[6] Thus, New Age conspiracy theorists, such as the makers of documentary films likeEsoteric Agenda, claim that globalists who plot on behalf of the New World Order are simply misusing occultism for Machiavellian ends, such as adopting 21 December 2012 as the exact date for the establishment of the New World Order to take advantage of the growing2012 phenomenon, which has its origins in the fringeMayanist theories of New Age writersJosé Argüelles,Terence McKenna, andDaniel Pinchbeck.[citation needed]
Skeptics argue that the connection of conspiracy theorists and occultists follows from their common fallacious premises. First, any widely accepted belief must necessarily be false. Second, stigmatized knowledge—whatthe Establishment spurns—must be true. The result is a large,self-referential network in which, for example, someUFO religionists promote anti-Jewish phobias while some antisemites practice Peruvianshamanism.[6]
In 1994, the esoteric group theOrder of the Solar Temple, in letters justifying their1994 mass suicide, claimed they were being persecuted by the New World Order, and that this persecution was why they had been driven to mass suicide.[66]
Conspiracy theorists often use the term "Fourth Reich" simply as a pejorative synonym for the "New World Order" to imply that its state ideology and government will be similar to Germany'sThird Reich.[citation needed]
Conspiracy theorists, such as American writerJim Marrs, claim that someex-Nazis, who survived the fall of theGreater German Reich, along with sympathizers in the United States and elsewhere, given haven by organizations likeODESSA andDie Spinne, has been working behind the scenes since the end ofWorld War II to enact at least some principles ofNazism (e.g.,militarism,imperialism,widespread spying on citizens,corporatism, the use ofpropaganda to manufacture a national consensus) into culture, government, and business worldwide, but primarily in the U.S. They cite the influence of ex-Nazi scientists brought in underOperation Paperclip to help advance aerospace manufacturing in the U.S. with technological principles fromNazi UFOs, and the acquisition and creation ofconglomerates by ex-Nazis and their sympathizers after the war, in both Europe and the U.S.[67]
Thisneo-Nazi conspiracy is said to be animated by an "Iron Dream" in which theAmerican Empire, having thwarted theJudeo-Masonic conspiracy and overthrown itsZionist Occupation Government, gradually establishes a Fourth Reich formerly known as the "Western Imperium"—apan-Aryan world empire modeled afterAdolf Hitler'sNew Order—which reverses the "decline of the West" and ushers a golden age ofwhite supremacy.[68]
Skeptics argue that conspiracy theorists grossly overestimate the influence of ex-Nazis and neo-Nazis on American society and point out thatpolitical repression at home andimperialism abroad have a long history in the United States that predates the 20th century. Political theoristSheldon Wolin has expressed concern that the twin forces ofdemocratic deficit and superpower status have paved the way in the U.S. for the emergence of aninverted totalitarianism which contradicts many principles of Nazism.[69]
Since the late 1970s,extraterrestrials from otherhabitable planets orparallel dimensions (such as "Greys") and intraterrestrials fromHollow Earth (such as "Reptilians") have been included in the New World Order conspiracy, in more or less dominant roles, as in the theories put forward by American writers Stan Deyo andMilton William Cooper, and British writerDavid Icke.[6]
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The common theme in these conspiracy theories is that aliens have been among us for decades, centuries or millennia. Still, a governmentcover-up enforced by "Men in black" has shielded the public from knowledge of a secretalien invasion. Motivated byspeciesism andimperialism, these aliens have been and are secretly manipulating developments and changes in human society to more efficiently control and exploit human beings. In some theories, alien infiltrators haveshapeshifted into human form andmove freely throughout human society, even to the point of taking control of command positions in governmental, corporate, and religious institutions, and are now in the final stages of their plan to take over the world.[citation needed] A mythical covert government agency of the United States code-namedMajestic 12 is often imagined being theshadow government whichcollaborates with the alien occupation and permitsalien abductions, in exchange for assistance in the development and testing ofmilitary "flying saucers" atArea 51, forUnited States armed forces to achievefull-spectrum dominance.[6]
Those who adhere to thepsychosocial hypothesis forunidentified flying objects argue that the convergence of New World Order conspiracy theory andUFO conspiracy theory is a product of not only the era's widespread mistrust of governments and the popularity of theextraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs but of the far right andufologists joining forces. Barkun notes that the only positive side to this development is that, if conspirators plotting to rule the world are believed to be aliens, traditional humanscapegoats (Freemasons,Illuminati, Jews, etc.) are downgraded or exonerated.[6]
Antiscience andneo-Luddite conspiracy theorists emphasizetechnology forecasting in their New World Order conspiracy theories. They speculate that the global power elite arereactionary modernists pursuing atranshumanist plan to develop and usehuman enhancement technologies to become a "posthuman rulingcaste", whilechange accelerates toward atechnological singularity—a theorized future point of discontinuity when events will accelerate at such a pace that normal unenhanced humans will be unable to predict or even understand the rapid changes occurring in the world around them. Conspiracy theorists fear the outcome will either be the emergence of aBrave New World–likedystopia—a "Brave New World Order"—or theextinction of the human species.[70]
Democratic transhumanists, such as American sociologistJames Hughes, counter that many influential members of the United States establishment arebioconservatives strongly opposed tohuman enhancement, as demonstrated byPresident Bush's Council on Bioethics's proposed international treaty prohibitinghuman cloning andgermline engineering. Furthermore, he argues that conspiracy theorists underestimate how fringe the transhumanist movement really is.[71]
Just as there are several overlapping or conflicting theories among conspiracists about the nature of the New World Order, so are there several beliefs about how its architects and planners will implement it:
Conspiracy theorists generally speculate that the New World Order is being implementedgradually, citing the formation of theU.S. Federal Reserve System in 1913; theLeague of Nations in 1919; theInternational Monetary Fund in 1944; the United Nations in 1945; theWorld Bank in 1945; theWorld Health Organization in 1948; the European Union and theEuro in 1993; theWorld Trade Organization in 1998; theAfrican Union in 2002, and theUnion of South American Nations in 2008 as major milestones.[6]
An increasingly popular conspiracy theory among Americanright-wing populists is that the hypotheticalNorth American Union and theamero currency, proposed by theCouncil on Foreign Relations and its counterparts in Mexico and Canada, will be the next milestone in the implementation of the New World Order. The theory holds that a group of shadowy and mostly nameless international elites is planning to replace thefederal government of the United States with atransnational government. Therefore, conspiracy theorists believe the borders between Mexico, Canada, and the United States are in the process of being erased, covertly, by a group of globalists whose ultimate goal is to replace national governments in Washington, D.C., Ottawa, and Mexico City with a European-style political union and a bloated E.U.-style bureaucracy.[citation needed]
Skeptics argue that the North American Union exists only as a proposal contained in one of a thousand academic and policy papers published each year that advocate all manner of idealistic but ultimately unrealistic approaches to social, economic, and political problems. Most of these are passed around in their circles and eventually filed away and forgotten by junior staffers in congressional offices. However, some of these papers become touchstones for the conspiracy-minded and form the basis of all kinds of unfounded xenophobic fears, especially during times of economic anxiety.[citation needed]
For example, in March 2009, due to the2008 financial crisis, the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation pressed for urgent consideration of a new internationalreserve currency and theUnited Nations Conference on Trade and Development proposed greatly expanding the I.M.F.'sspecial drawing rights. Conspiracy theorists fear these proposals are a call for the U.S. to adopt asingle global currency for a New World Order.[72][73]
Judging that both national governments and global institutions have proven ineffective in addressing global problems that go beyond the capacity of individual nation-states to solve, some political scientists critical of New World Order conspiracism, such as Mark C. Partridge, argue thatregionalism will be the major force in the coming decades, pockets of power around regional centers: Western Europe around Brussels, the Western Hemisphere around Washington, D.C., East Asia around Beijing, and Eastern Europe around Moscow. As such, the E.U., theShanghai Cooperation Organisation, and theG-20 will likely become more influential as time progresses. The question then is not whetherglobal governance is gradually emerging, but rather how will theseregional powers interact with one another.[74]
Americanright-wing populist conspiracy theorists, especially those who joined themilitia movement in the United States, speculate that the New World Order will be implemented through a dramatic coup d'état by a "secret team", usingblack helicopters, in the U.S. and other nation-states to bring about atotalitarian world government controlled by the United Nations and enforced by troops of foreignU.N. peacekeepers. Following theRex 84 andOperation Garden Plot plans, this military coup would involve the suspension of theConstitution, the imposition ofmartial law, and the appointment ofmilitary commanders to head state and local governments and to detain dissidents.[75]
These conspiracy theorists, who are all strong believers in aright to keep and bear arms, are extremely fearful that the passing of anygun control legislation will be later followed by the abolition of personal gun ownership and a campaign of gun confiscation, and that therefugee camps of emergency management agencies such asFEMA will be used for theinternment of suspectedsubversives, making little effort to distinguish true threats to the New World Order from pacifist dissidents.[25]
Before 2000, somesurvivalists believed this process would be set in motion by the predictedY2K problem causingsocietal collapse.[76] Since many left-wing and right-wing conspiracy theorists believe that the11 September attacks were a false flag operation carried out by theUnited States intelligence community, as part of astrategy of tension to justifypolitical repression at home andpreemptive war abroad, they have become convinced that a more catastrophicterrorist incident will be responsible for triggeringExecutive Directive 51 to complete the transition to apolice state.[77]
Skeptics argue that unfounded fears about an imminent or eventual gun ban, military coup, internment, or U.N. invasion and occupation are rooted in thesiege mentality of the American militia movement but also anapocalypticmillenarianism which provides a basic narrative within the political right in the U.S., claiming that the idealized society (i.e., constitutional republic,Jeffersonian democracy, "Christian nation", "white nation") is thwarted by subversive conspiracies ofliberalsecular humanists who want "Big Government" and globalists who plot on behalf of the New World Order.[15]
Conspiracy theorists concerned withsurveillance abuse believe that the New World Order is being implemented by thecult of intelligence at the core of thesurveillance-industrial complex throughmass surveillance and the use ofSocial Security numbers, thebar-coding of retail goods withUniversal Product Code markings, and, most recently,RFID tagging bymicrochip implants.[6]
Claiming that corporations and government are planning to track every move of consumers and citizens with RFID as the latest step toward a1984-likesurveillance state,consumer privacy advocates, such asKatherine Albrecht andLiz McIntyre,[78] have become Christian conspiracy theorists who believespychips must be resisted, because they argue that moderndatabase andcommunications technologies, coupled withpoint of saledata-capture equipment and sophisticated ID andauthentication systems, now make it possible to require abiometrically associated number or mark to make purchases. They fear that the ability to implement such a system closely resembles theNumber of the beast prophesied in theBook of Revelation.[6]
In January 2002, theInformation Awareness Office (IAO) was established by theDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying information technology to counterasymmetric threats tonational security. Following public criticism that the development and deployment of these technologies could potentially lead to a mass surveillance system, the IAO was defunded by the United States Congress in 2003.[79] The second source of controversy involved IAO's original logo, which depicted the "all-seeing"Eye of Providence atop of a pyramid looking down over the globe, accompanied by the Latin phrasescientia est potentia (knowledge is power). Although DARPA eventually removed the logo from its website, it left a lasting impression on privacy advocates.[80] It also inflamed conspiracy theorists,[81] who misinterpret the "eye and pyramid" as theMasonic symbol of theIlluminati,[37][82] an 18th-century secret society they speculate continues to exist and is plotting on behalf of a New World Order.[41][42]
American historianRichard Landes, who specialized in the history ofapocalypticism and was co-founder and director of theCenter for Millennial Studies at Boston University, argues that new and emerging technologies often triggeralarmism amongmillenarians. Even the introduction ofGutenberg's printing press in 1436 caused waves of apocalyptic thinking. TheYear 2000 problem, bar codes, and Social Security numbers all triggeredend-time warnings which either proved to be false or were no longer taken seriously once the public became accustomed to these technological changes.[83] Civil libertarians argue that the privatization of surveillance and the rise of the surveillance-industrial complex in the United States does raise legitimate concerns about the erosion ofprivacy.[84] However, skeptics of mass surveillance conspiracism caution that such concerns should be disentangled from secular paranoia aboutBig Brother or religious hysteria about theAntichrist.[6]
Conspiracy theorists of theChristian right, starting with British revisionist historianNesta Helen Webster, believe there is an ancientoccult conspiracy—started by the firstmystagogues ofGnosticism and perpetuated by their allegedesoteric successors, such as theKabbalists,Cathars,Knights Templar,Hermeticists,Rosicrucians,Freemasons, and, ultimately, theIlluminati—which seeks to subvert theJudeo-Christian foundations of the Western world and implement the New World Order through a one-world religion that prepares the masses to embrace theimperial cult of theAntichrist.[6] More broadly, they speculate that globalists who plot on behalf of a New World Order are directed by occult agencies of some sort:unknown superiors,spiritual hierarchies,demons,fallen angels orLucifer. They believe that these conspirators use the power of occult sciences (numerology), symbols (Eye of Providence), rituals (Masonic degrees), monuments (National Mall landmarks), buildings (Manitoba Legislative Building[85]) and facilities (Denver International Airport) to advance their plot to rule the world.[6][86]
For example, in June 1979, an unknown benefactor under the pseudonym "R. C. Christian" had a huge granitemegalith built in the U.S. state ofGeorgia, which acts like a compass, calendar, and clock. A message comprising ten guides is inscribed on the occult structure in many languages to serve as instructions for survivors of adoomsday event to establish a more enlightened and sustainable civilization than the destroyed one. The "Georgia Guidestones" has subsequently become a spiritual and politicalRorschach test onto which any number of ideas can be imposed. Some New Agers andneo-pagans revere it as aley-line power nexus, while a few conspiracy theorists are convinced that they are engraved with the New World Order's anti-Christian "Ten Commandments." Should the Guidestones survive for centuries as their creators intended, many more meanings could arise, equally unrelated to the designer's original intention.[citation needed]
Skeptics argue that thedemonization ofWestern esotericism by conspiracy theorists is rooted inreligious intolerance but also in the samemoral panics that have fueledwitch trials in the Early Modern period, andsatanic ritual abuse allegations in the United States.[6]
Conspiracy theorists believe that the New World Order will also be implemented throughhuman population control to more easily monitor and control the movement of individuals.[6] The means range from stopping the growth of human societies throughreproductive health andfamily planning programs, which promoteabstinence,contraception and abortion, or intentionally reducing the bulk of theworld population throughgenocides by mongering unnecessary wars, throughplagues by engineeringemergent viruses andtaintingvaccines, and throughenvironmental disasters bycontrolling the weather (HAARP,chemtrails), etc. Conspiracy theorists argue that globalists plotting on behalf of a New World Order areneo-Malthusians who engage inoverpopulation andclimate change alarmism to create public support for coercive population control and ultimately world government. United NationsAgenda 21 is condemned as "reconcentrating" people into urban areas and depopulating rural ones, even generating a dystopian novel byGlenn Beck where single-family homes are a distant memory. Conspiracy theorists in Australia linkedsmart city technologies to an agenda to create a one world government and install "big brother" technology to control the community.[87]
Skeptics argue that fears of population control can be traced back to the traumatic legacy of theeugenics movement's "war against the weak" in the United States during the first decades of the 20th century but also theSecond Red Scare in the U.S. during the late 1940s and 1950s, and to a lesser extent in the 1960s, when activists on the far right of American politics routinely opposedpublic health programs, notablywater fluoridation, massvaccination andmental health services, by asserting they were all part of a far-reaching plot to impose a socialist or communist regime.[88] Their views were influenced by opposition to a number of major social and political changes that had happened in recent years: the growth ofinternationalism, particularly the United Nations and its programs; the introduction of social welfare provisions, particularly the various programs established by theNew Deal; and government efforts to reduce inequalities in thesocial structure of the U.S.[89] Opposition towards mass vaccinations in particular got significant attention in the late 2010s, so much so theWorld Health Organization listedvaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats of 2019. By this time, people that refused or refused to allow their children to be vaccinated were known colloquially as "anti-vaxxers", though citing the New World Order conspiracy theory or resistance to a perceived population control plan as a reason to refuse vaccination were few and far between.[90][91]
Social critics accuse governments, corporations, and the mass media of being involved in themanufacturing of a national consensus and, paradoxically, aculture of fear due to the potential for increasedsocial control that a mistrustful and mutually fearing population might offer to those in power. The worst fear of some conspiracy theorists, however, is that the New World Order will be implemented through the use ofmind control—a broad range of tactics able to subvert an individual's control of their own thinking, behavior, emotions, or decisions. These tactics are said to include everything fromManchurian candidate-stylebrainwashing ofsleeper agents (Project MKULTRA, "Project Monarch") to engineeringpsychological operations (water fluoridation,subliminal advertising, "Silent Sound Spread Spectrum",MEDUSA) andparapsychological operations (Stargate Project) to influence the masses.[92] The concept of wearing atin foil hat for protection from such threats has become a popular stereotype and term of derision; the phrase serves as a byword forparanoia and is associated with conspiracy theorists.
Skeptics argue that the paranoia behind a conspiracy theorist's obsession with mind control,population control,occultism,surveillance abuse,Big Business,Big Government, andglobalization arises from a combination of two factors, when he or she: 1) holds strongindividualist values and 2) lackspower. The first attribute refers to people who care deeply about an individual's right to make their own choices and direct their own lives without interference or obligations to a larger system (like the government), but combine this with a sense of powerlessness in one's own life. One gets what some psychologists call "agency panic," intense anxiety about an apparent loss of autonomy to outside forces or regulators. When fervent individualists feel that they cannot exercise their independence, they experience a crisis and assume that larger forces are to blame for usurping this freedom.[93][94]
According to Domhoff, many people seem to believe that the United States isruled from behind the scenes by aconspiratorial elite with secret desires, i.e., by a small, secretive group that wants to change the government system or put the country under the control of aworld government. In the past, the conspirators were usually said to becrypto-communists who were intent upon bringing the United States under a common world government with the Soviet Union, but thedissolution of the USSR in 1991 undercut that theory. Domhoff notes that most conspiracy theorists changed their focus to the United Nations as the likely controlling force in a New World Order, an idea which is undermined by the powerlessness of the U.N. and the unwillingness of even moderates within the AmericanEstablishment to give it anything but a limited role.[60]
Although skeptical of New World Order conspiracism, political scientistDavid Rothkopf argues, in the 2008 bookSuperclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making, that the world population of 6 billion people is governed by an elite of 6,000 individuals. Until the late 20th century, governments of thegreat powers provided most of the superclass, accompanied by a few heads of international movements (i.e., the Pope of theCatholic Church) and entrepreneurs (Rothschilds,Rockefellers). According to Rothkopf, in the early 21st century, economic clout—fueled by the explosive expansion of international trade, travel, and communication—rules; thenation-state's power has diminished shrinking politicians to minoritypower broker status; leaders in international business, finance, and the defense industry not only dominate the superclass, but they also move freely into high positions in their nations' governments and back to private life largely beyond the notice of elected legislatures (including the U.S. Congress), which remain abysmally ignorant of affairs beyond their borders. He asserts that the superclass' disproportionate influence over national policy is constructive but always self-interested and that across the world, few object to corruption and oppressive governments provided they can do business in these countries.[95]
Viewing the history of the world as the history of warfare betweensecret societies, conspiracy theorists go further than Rothkopf, and other scholars who have studied the globalpower elite, by claiming that established upper-class families with "old money" who founded and finance theBilderberg Group,Bohemian Club,Club of Rome,Council on Foreign Relations,Rhodes Trust,Skull and Bones,Trilateral Commission, and similar think tanks and private clubs, areilluminated conspirators plotting to impose atotalitarian New World Order—the implementation of an authoritarian world government controlled by the United Nations and aglobal central bank, which maintains political power through thefinancialization of the economy, regulation and restriction ofspeech through theconcentration of media ownership,mass surveillance, widespread use ofstate terrorism, and an all-encompassing propaganda that creates acult of personality around a puppet world leader andideologizes world government as theculmination of history's progress.[6]
Skeptics of New World Order conspiracy theories accuse its proponents of indulging in thefurtive fallacy, a belief that significant facts of history are necessarily sinister;conspiracism, a world view that centrally places conspiracy theories in the unfolding of history, rather than social and economic forces; andfusion paranoia, a promiscuous absorption of fears from any source whatsoever.[6]
Marxists, who are skeptical ofright-wing populist conspiracy theories, also accuse the global power elite of not having the best interests of all at heart, and many intergovernmental organizations of suffering from ademocratic deficit, but they argue that the superclass areplutocrats only interested in brazenly imposing aneoliberal orneoconservative new world order—the implementation ofglobal capitalism througheconomic and military coercion to protect the interests oftransnational corporations—which systematically undermines the possibility ofinternational socialism.[96] Arguing that the world is in the middle of a transition from theAmerican Empire to the rule of a global ruling class that has emerged from within the American Empire, they point out that right-wing populist conspiracy theorists, blinded by theiranti-communism, fail to see that what they demonize as the "New World Order" is, ironically, the highest stage of the verycapitalist economic system they defend.[96]
Domhoff, a professor in psychology and sociology who studies theories ofpower, wrote in 2005 an essay entitledThere Are No Conspiracies. He says that for this theory to be true, it required several "wealthy and highly educated people" to do things that don't "fit with what we know about power structures". Claims that this will happen go back decades and have always been proved wrong.
Partridge, a contributing editor to the global affairs magazineDiplomatic Courier, wrote a 2008 article entitledOne World Government: Conspiracy Theory or Inevitable Future? He says that if anything, nationalism, which is the opposite of a global government, is rising. He also says that attempts at creating global governments or global agreements "have been categorical failures".
Although some cultural critics seesuperconspiracy theories about a New World Order as "postmodernmetanarratives" that may be politically empowering, a way of giving ordinary people a narrative structure with which to question what they see around them,[97] skeptics argue that conspiracism leads people into cynicism, convoluted thinking, and a tendency to feel it is hopeless even as they denounce the alleged conspirators.[98]
Alexander Zaitchik from theSouthern Poverty Law Center wrote a report titled "'Patriot' Paranoia: A Look at the Top Ten Conspiracy Theories", in which he personally condemns such conspiracies as an effort of the radical right to undermine society.[99]
Concerned that theimprovisational millennialism of most conspiracy theories about a New World Order might motivatelone wolves to engage inleaderless resistance leading todomestic terrorist incidents like theOklahoma City bombing,[100] Barkun writes that "the danger lies less in such beliefs themselves ... than in the behavior they might stimulate or justify" and warns "should they believe that the prophesied evil day had in fact arrived, their behavior would become far more difficult to predict."
Warning of the threat to American democracy posed byright-wing populist movements led bydemagogues who mobilize support formob rule or even afascist revolution by exploiting the fear of conspiracies, Berlet writes that
Right-wing populist movements can cause serious damage to a society because they often popularizexenophobia, authoritarianism, scapegoating, and conspiracism. This can lure mainstream politicians to adopt these themes to attract voters, legitimize acts of discrimination (or even violence), and open the door for revolutionary right-wing populist movements, such as fascism, to recruit from the reformist populist movements.
Criticisms of New World Order conspiracy theorists also come from within their own community. Despite believing themselves to be "freedom fighters", many right-wing populist conspiracy theorists hold views that are incompatible with their professedlibertarianism, such asChristian dominionism, authoritarianultranationalism,white supremacy andeliminationism.[15]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The following is a list of non-self-published non-fiction books that discuss New World Order conspiracy theories.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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