from: http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2000/05-08-2000/vo16no10_skulls.htm Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2000/05-08-2000/vo16no10_skulls.htm">T he New American - The Skulls, the Bell, and Sk�</A> ----- Vol. 16, No. 10 May 8, 2000 Table of Contents More on Conspiracy The Skulls, the Bell, and Skull & Bones by William Norman Grigg The Order of Skull & Bones, and the Establishment of which it is a part, offers an inviting target for Hollywood, but the makers of The Skulls miss the mark. The Brotherhood of the Bell, on the other hand, credibly illustrates both how actual conspiracies operate and the moral responsibility to combat such entrenched evil. ��I can honestly say that there are good things about secret societies," declares screenwriter John Pogue, who scripted the current Universal Pictures feature The Skulls. Film patrons who have seen Pogue�s movie might find that statement a bit odd, considering the fact that the secret society for which his film is named is a vicious elitist cabal that has no compunctions about using murder and other foul means to achieve its objectives. Pogue�s qualified defense of secret societies is also difficult to reconcile with Universal�s description of the picture as "an original thriller that is rooted in undisputable facts that are more frightening than any film." However, The Skulls ends with a none-too-subtle hint that secret societies can be quite benign once they are taken over by "good" men � and that their machinations are best ignored, rather than exposed and fought. Pogue�s qualified endorsement of secret societies makes perfect sense once it is understood that he was "tapped" for membership in a secret society during his senior year at Yale, although he doesn�t specify whether he was recruited by Wolf�s Head, Scroll & Key, or Skull & Bones (the model for his screenplay). During his freshman year, Pogue noticed that a senior counselor wore a curious pin on the inside of his jacket. "I asked him if he was a member of a secret society," Pogue recounts. "Without a word he just turned on his heel and walked away. It was obvious to me that he took his organization very seriously and was willing to put its interests ahead of his responsibilities as a counselor." Nonetheless, when membership was extended to Pogue in his senior year, he eagerly accepted � although he now insists that secret societies are part of "an anachronistic system which is more appropriate for the Robber Barons of the 19th Century than for today�s world." The Order of Skull & Bones, which is also known as the Russell Trust, was founded at Yale College in 1833 as chapter 322 of a German secret society. Every year "the Order" invites 15 promising senior students into its ranks, offering them entr�e into the inner core of the Power Elite. In 1873, an anonymous writer for Yale�s The Iconoclast observed: "Out of every class Skull and Bones takes its men. They have gone out into the world and have become, in many instances, leaders in society. They have obtained control of Yale." "Bonesmen" are arrayed in positions of influence in academia, high finance, and diplomacy. The society�s historical roster includes Presidents William Howard Taft and George Bush (as well as presidential aspirant George W. Bush), Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, financial giants such as Percy Rockefeller and W. Averell Harriman, and scores of other architects of the American Establishment. Each of these men (the Order was closed to women until 1991) was required, as part of the initiation rite, to lie naked in a coffin, disclose every detail of his sexual history to his associates (which could be used as leverage against the initiate, should he prove insufficiently submissive), and wrestle naked with his fellow initiates in a mud pile. The purpose of these arcane rituals, commented Ron Rosenbaum in a September 1977 Esquire magazine expos�, was to transform "the idle progeny of the ruling class into morally serious leaders of the establishment." Obviously, the Order, and the Establishment of which it is a part, offers an inviting target for Hollywood, but the makers of The Skulls have made the least of their opportunity. Although the film�s producers maintain that it is a socially consequential examination of serious issues, they have created a fairly standard paranoid thriller that is calculated to appeal to the teen market. Director Rob Cohen describes the film as a "morally complex tale, that in a way speaks to many of the issues young men and women are faced with as they start out in life � friendship, loyalty, ambition, success." To its credit, the film does offer a useful endorsement of the virtue of honorable friendship, in contrast to the amoral networking that characterizes secret societies. "If it�s secret and elite, it can�t be good," observes Will Beckford (Hill Harper), a student journalist and the best friend to the film�s hero, Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson). But in its treatment of a potent and important subject, The Skulls is ultimately trite and surprisingly inert, and it fares very poorly in comparison with The Brotherhood of the Bell, a 1970 made-for-television film starring Glenn Ford that covered the same territory in much more compelling fashion. Not only did The Brotherhood of the Bell offer a much sounder depiction of the genuine evil that is wrought by elite secret societies such as Skull & Bones, its ending, although dramatically ambiguous, illustrated the moral responsibility of honorable people to expose conspiracies, rather than simply to co-exist with them. The Privileged Few Luke McNamara, The Skulls� central character, is a hard-working New Haven "Townie" who is working his way through Yale (the name is never mentioned, but the setting is unmistakable) on the strength of his self-discipline and talent for the challenging sport of crewing. Luke serves the wealthier students in the school cafeteria, while using his spare time to refine his rowing ability. Although he aspires to attend an Ivy League law school, his meager means all but foreclose that possibility, unless he is willing to indenture himself by accepting the crushing burden of additional student loans. Luke is also convinced that his modest background precludes a future with Chloe (Leslie Bibb), a classmate and friend for whom he nurses a secret crush. Luke�s fortunes seem to change after he leads the crewing team in a dramatic regatta victory. (In keeping with the dictates of Hollywood political correctness, the regatta features crew teams that are not only racially diverse, but sex-integrated as well.) Luke�s athletic prowess attracts the att ention of recruiters for the "Skulls," and he is tapped for membership � much to the disapproval of his best friend Will Beckford. Luke is drugged and taken into the Skulls� inner sanctum for his initiation, where he is assigned a "soul-mate" � Caleb Mandrake (Paul Walker), the son of Judge Litten Mandrake (Craig T. Nelson). Luke�s friendship to the aristocratic Caleb, which is reinforced with oaths of secrecy, quickly alienates both Chloe and Will; nevertheless, Luke believes that the Skulls may offer him his only chance to achieve his dreams. Luke quickly discovers the privileges that come with membership in the elite. A mysterious $20,000 deposit leaves his bank account swollen beyond recognition; he and the other recruits are presented with an array of new sports cars, as well as the purchased attentions of a bevy of pricey prostitutes. While Luke is reveling in his sudden affluence, Will has launched an investigation of the secret society � and in short order turns up dead. The predictable cover-up ensues, and The Skulls becomes a fairly conventional action movie, distinguished only by the fact that its climax (which will not be described here, in the interest of those who have yet to see the film) is built upon an appeal to honor and compassion, rather than a resort to simple violence on the part of the hero. Fanning the Flames of War Like the 1997 Mel Gibson vehicle Conspiracy Theory, The Skulls is a somewhat cartoonish treatment of a serious subject � respectively, the CIA�s MK-Ultra program and the influence of Yale�s Skull & Bones society (which, in the view of some observers, essentially created the CIA). The only hint offered in The Skulls that secret societies might be involved in anything grander than Ivy League networking and petty corruption is offered by Senator Ames Levritt (William Petersen), a "Skull" veteran assigned to mentor Luke. Asked by Luke why the word "War" is carved into a marble wall of the Skulls� ritual room, Levritt explains that it is through war that the society�s members prove their valor. "But what if we�re at peace?" asks a puzzled Luke, to which Levritt offers the knowing reply, "There are always wars to be fought." In America�s Secret Establishment (1986), former Hoover Institution scholar Antony C. Sutton argues, quite convincingly, that members of Skull & Bones have carefully abetted conflicts � including world wars � in pursuit of a "dialectical" strategy for world government. The machinations of "Bonesmen" in the world of high finance and diplomacy, contends Sutton, have resulted in "the deliberate creation of war, the knowing finance of revolution to change governments, and the use of conflict to create a new world order." Sutton has written several densely researched studies of Western financial support to the Soviet and German National Socialist regimes. In America�s Secret Establishment, Sutton documents the intricate network of Skull & Bones veterans who were involved in creating the Communist and Nazi threats to Western survival. His working hypothesis is that the Bones-dominated Establishment has nurtured and controlled conflict as part of a grand dialectical strategy: "In the dialectical process a clash of opposites brings about a synthesis," observes Sutton � in this case, the use of war or the threat of war to tutor the masses about the supposed need to submit to a world government. "There is no question that the so-called establishment in the U.S. uses �managed conflict� [and that] decisions of war and peace are made by a few in the elite and not by the many in the voting process...." In other words, The Skulls has it right when it has a conspirator observe that "there are always wars to be fought." However, in the film the "wars" in question take the form of internecine power struggles within the conspiracy, rather than geopolitical tragedies that are orchestrated by Insiders seeking global dominion. Secrecy and Death For Luke McNamara, the moral predicament in The Skulls is precipitated by the death of his friend and the vows of secrecy that keep him from pursuing the truth of that tragedy. Professor Andrew Patterson (Glenn Ford), the hero of Th e Brotherhood of the Bell, also confronts the death of a close friend � but there the similarities end. Professor Patterson learns that the seemingly innocuous oaths he had sworn decades before as an undergraduate had granted him wealth, influence, and prestige � but that the "due bill" of these perquisites was little less than his soul. The Brotherhood of the Bell opens with an initiation ritual held in a fraternity house in the mythical St. George�s College in San Francisco. Patterson is present to serve as a "senior" to a college student named Philip Dunning (Robert Pine), who is to be inducted at a pre-dawn ceremony. Presiding over the affair is financier Chad Halmon (Dean Jagger), who is Patterson�s "senior." The brotherhood, Halmon informs Dunning, "will continue long after all of us are dead. That continuity depends on one thing � obedience. Absolute obedience." He advises the young student that his "due bill" for the Bell�s benedictions "may come in twenty years, or not at all. It will be an act of fealty, a royalty to the Brotherhood of the Bell." (This line of dialogue, incidentally, is echoed in The Skulls.) "You know, I could get anything I want," muses Dunning after his initiation. "Anything that one can get with money, power, and the best connections," replies Patterson. Pondering his status further, the student muses, "We�re part of the Establishment now." "We are the Establishment," declares Patterson, just before being presented with his own "due bill" from the Bell. Halmon advises Patterson that the Bell has an assignment for him: He is to go to an address and receive his assignment and "the means to carry it out." His instructions are to discourage, by whatever necessary means, a close friend � a defector from a Communist country � from taking an academic position at an eastern university. Should his friend refuse to cooperate, Patterson is to use the "means" provided him, a list containing the names of every person who helped his friend defect. Patterson protests his assignment to Halmon: "This file is the death sentence for over thirty people if I send it to the embassy." His reluctance earns a frigid rebuke from his superior in the conspiracy: "Your presence at the initiation this morning was no accident. It was a reminder of your vow of obedience.... You have received an assignment and the means to carry it out. Do it, Andy. Do it � and be grateful more isn�t asked of you." Patterson performs as ordered, telling his friend � who has survived depression, war, the Nazis, the Communists, and the death of his family in a concentration camp � that, "if you fail to turn down the appointment, that list will be sent to people who will use it." "These are men and women who will be shot," his friend exclaims. "They will be taken beneath the police station, tortured, and killed." Reeling from the betrayal and heartbroken over the threatened exposure of his fellow freedom-fighters, Patterson�s friend kills himself. "I have no place left to go," explains the suicide note. Subtle but Deadly Stricken in conscience by his role as a blackmailer and convinced that he is little better than a murderer, Patterson confides in his wife and resolves to expose the conspiracy that effectively murdered his friend. When he tries to resign from the Bell, Halmon tells him, "You had your option twenty-two years ago.... You have received every option, every fellowship, every post you�ve ever wanted. You have never competed for any thing in the last twenty-two years, since you took that oath at sunrise." What the conspiracy has given Patterson, the same conspiracy was now taking away, with a vengeance. When Patterson goes to work he learns that the funding for his Institute has been cut off by its bank, the chairman of which is a "brother." After Patterson calls a press conference to denounce the Bell, his father�s business is suddenly hit with an IRS audit and the media resounds with insinuations that he is in need of psychiatric care. Where The Skulls depicts the rewards and punishments offered by elite conspiracies in vulgar, lowest-common-denominator terms, The Brotherhood of the Bell dealt with the same issues with a degree of subtlety. Patterson hadn�t suddenly discovered a bulging bank account or been instantly rewarded with the accoutrements of wealth and power; rather, he and his father had received, at crucial junctures, covert preferential treatment that gave them prosperity and prestige. And when Patterson rebelled he discovered that he remained dependent upon his hidden benefactors, who were able to destroy his life with a few simple phone calls. "It�s as though your name is on an invisible national blacklist," observes one of Patterson�s friends. With his livelihood destroyed, his marriage in peril, and his reputation all but destroyed, Patterson decides that his only hope would be to persuade Philip Dunning � the undergraduate student whom he inducted into the Bell � to help him expose the cabal. "I�m at war with them," he tells Dunning. "You�ve either got to be at war with them or you�re in their service." Just as importantly, he advises the young man, "I�m your way out.... I�m giving you a chance to see what your �due bill� will be before you take anything from them. That bill is a blank check." Eventually Dunning overcomes his reluctance and allies himself with Patterson in an effort to expose and rout the Bell � at whatever cost to his personal prospects. By way of contrast, The Skulls ends with Luke McNamara having been freed from the secret society by the benevolent "reformer" who is in control of the cabal by the film�s end. In the film, McNamara, ostensibly the hero, seeks nothing more than to extricate himself. Now that his "war" is over (a point made explicitly in the film), Luke is content to row off into the New England sunset with his badly undernourished girlfriend, meaning � as Andrew Patterson would put it � that he sees nothing amiss in serving the conspiracy by refusing to fight the evil it represents. For all of its campiness, The Brotherhood of the Bell offers a credible illustration of how actual conspiracies operate, and a very sound moral message about the responsibility to confront entrenched evil. The Skulls is little more than a diversionary confection for those � and their numbers are legion � who eagerly consume lurid fiction depicting conspiracies, but can�t be troubled to investigate the evidence regarding the real thing.. � Copyright 1994-2000 American Opinion Publishing Incorporated ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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