The Secret behind Secret Societies by Jon Rappoport
2003, Truth Seeker Books, 392 pages
This is a 'different' book even for me, or perhaps especially for me, as I'm at least a common-sense advocate of Aristotelian-Randian rationality. The author's main proposition is:
Two artistic visions have fought with each other about the course of humanity:
One is the formula of the secret society which uses symbols and ritual to control and dominate others and claims exclusive knowledge. The other is the "Tradition of the Imagination," which holds each of us possesses immense creative power to achieve our own fascinating artistic vision of life in voluntary community with others.
In this Tradition of Imagination lies our future if we are to have a future, and we shall overcome the secret-society conspiracy of power by outcreating it.
I see success of the Tradition as probable and imminent; it's clearly straight along the lines that virtually everyone even close to the freedom movement is thinking these days. It certainly motivates my Free State Portal buds.
I like to use the analogy of how the alien imperial walkers are destroyed in War of the Worlds. The walkers appear invincible, shielded against missiles and explosives, yet they collapse from ingesting ordinary earth-bacteria. It may not be flattering to visualize our meme of political freedom as a microbe, but who cares?
As we run through the litany of horrors unleashed upon the people of the world by The Beast[1], particularly its current tyrants who have seized the federal government, it's hard to imagine this multitrillion-dollar killing machine is about to bite the dust like a Saddam statue.
Yet just as Toto pulls back the curtain from the Great Oz, when a brave soul shines a flashlight on the deep workings of the dynasty, we see its limitations. We also see that whatever domination the creature does exercise rests on blind acquiescence of uncritical minds.
The Secret behind Secret Societies performs a timely public service in exposing these workings, particularly the more recent threads of control leading from the Church of Rome to those Wild and Crazy Nazi Cultists to the CIA as the premier secret society for the modern global-corporate-superstate bonecrushing machinery.
For those who want a more thorough treatment of the gory day-to-day details, I recommend an earlier book, actually an interview Jon conducts with David Icke: Lifting the Veil. This work is more what one would expect in the uncovering of suppressed truth of demonstrable conspiratorial power.
Then as one begins to look at the world through one's own eyes, one never again views the evening news the same.
You've been living in a dream world, Neo. — Morpheus [2]
What distinguishes Secret is the author's assertion of our own creative powers. He even claims evidence for paranormal capability (this is where I draw the line—I recall several scientific and philosophical debunkments—but I'll certainly revisit the question again someday).
Finally what I like about the book is its image of of a future society. It helps me flesh out my own ideas. Here's an excerpt in which Jon imagines a US senator in 2048 addressing a Senate committee:
[The President has concerns] about the emerging New Citizen who has essentially graduated from the collective power grid of the planet into a status of freedom unprecedented in the history of Earth. [It's happening with people of all nations.] This development, coupled with the triumph of infrastructure-technology as usable by small companies, has made it possible for the most elementary of communities to own land in the secure knowledge that they can afford to maintain the infrastructure of that land in excellent condition, without reference to, or reliance upon, large corporations, power utilities, or government officials. This has made much of government obsolete.... [!!!]
So that's my review and I'm sticking to it. He's definitely leading edge, and spiritually libertarian, you might want to check out his Jon Rappoport website.
[1] I've been using the Beast (or the Cartel or the Pathocracy) as my name for the largely hidden central dominating power in the West (aka the power-elite), which has its roots in the merging of fortunes made during the Industrial Revolution with old world remnants of royal interests and central European banks. An interesting illustration of who "they" are is provided on a website www.theyrule.net.
[2] Quote from the watershed movie, The Matrix, which I'm reviewing in a couple of days. The idea of power-elite qua The Matrix is intriguing; it illustrates in art what humanity—and by humanity I mean real people who think for themselves and seek freedom—is up against. Good emotional fuel for our warriors as they face off against agents of The Beast.
Read the soon to be updated first edition of the only FS book so far:
