-Caveat Lector- ..............................................................
>From the New Paradigms Project [Not Necessarily Endorsed] Note: We store 100's of related "New Paradigms Posts" at: http://www.msen.com/~lloyd/oldprojects/recentmail.html Subject: Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Posted by Ronald R. Williams, 04/30/2002, 02:51:33 For some months I have wanted to put some thoughts on paper about Jim Marrs' latest book, RULE BY SECRECY (HarperCollins, New York, 2000, ISBN 0-06-019368-9). Any book by Jim Marrs, especially one like this, should be of serious interest to students of the JFK case. Marrs is of course the author of CROSSFIRE: THE PLOT THAT KILLED KENNEDY, a long time Dallas/Fort Worth area journalist, and the teacher of a college course on the JFK Assassination. Because I liked CROSSFIRE very much, and have often recommended it to people new to the JFK case, I also wanted very much to like this book, but the farther I got into it I began to see that this was not the book I was hoping for. I was hoping for a book that would be a major addition to the field of conspiracy theory, or more accurately the idea of history as conspiracy or geopolitics as conspiracy, a field in which we already have a great beginning with such writers and thinkers as Carroll Quigley, Lloyd Miller, Lyndon LaRouche (and his associates), Eustace Mullins, and Antony Sutton. I was also hoping for a book that could have expanded on a recent development in the field, Tony Brown's wonderful book, EMPOWER THE PEOPLE. But in the end, this book is not an advancement in the field and is in many ways a step backward. This could have been a great book. Jim Marrs has done some excellent research and has some great material to work with, but the book does not succeed in being an advancement in the field because of what I see as two major problems. In the first place it does not appear that Marrs is at all familiar with the work of the dean of the conspiracy writers himself, Lloyd Miller, and secondly much of the book rests on a foundation of already discredited works of John Robison, Nesta Webster, and on John Birch Society oriented writers of more recent times. If Jim Marrs had thoroughly studied the work of Lloyd Miller alone, I believe this would have been a very different book. It should be noted that Marrs no where says that this is a book about conspiracy theory, but he does tell us in the introduction that the "Question of Conspiracy" will be dealt with. The subtitle tells us that the book is about the Hidden History That Connects The Trilateral Commission, The Freemasons, And The Great Pyramids and the introduction tells us that, "In Rule By Secrecy will be found new information and new ways to view history. An attempt will be made to tie together the loose ends of our collective knowledge, to make sense of a long trail of conspiratorial leads and evidence." (p. 17) Instead of tackling the idea of history as conspiracy or geopolitics as conspiracy, RULE BY SECRECY attempts to explain assassinations, wars, and revolutions as being products of secret society intrigue and attempts to fit prestige organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, The Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderburgers into the category of "secret societies". This will not work. Secret societies, prestige organizations, intelligence agencies, foundations, media cartels, and thinks tanks, are mid level groupings serving something much larger, or as Lloyd Miller would define it, as organs that serve a larger power organism. As already mentioned Jim Marrs has some great material and in places he is moving in the right direction. For example, on page 10 he tells us, "The idea that a small, wealthy ruling elite-an oligarchy-controls America appears to be well supported by facts.", and "...the overwhelming evidence of obstruction to a truthful investigation of Kennedy's death indicates the use of tremendous and lasting force wielded at the highest level of the American power structure...." Also on page 181 is a great quote from James Steward Martin's ALL HONORABLE MEN that is more than moving in the right direction. Martin was sent to Europe after World War II as part of an investigative team that attempted to sort out "the tangled web of business dealings" before and during the war between American and German interests. "He (Martin) was blocked continually and finally resigned in frustration. ...We had not been stopped in Germany by German business. We had been stopped in Germany by American business. The forces that stopped us had operated from the Untied States but had not operated in the open. We were not stopped by a law of Congress, by an Executive Order of the President, or even by a change of policy approved by the President ...in short, whatever it was that stopped us was not 'the government.' But it clearly had command of channels through which the government normally operates. The relative powerlessness of governments...is of course not new...national governments [have] stood on the sidelines while bigger operators arranged the world's affairs." Also to the author's credit, he quotes extensively from Donald Gibson's BATTLING WALL STREET, in a section of the book entitled: "JFK Opposed Globalists." On page 127, "It soon became apparent that Kennedy, unlike his predecessors, was not content to be manipulated by the Eastern Establishment." If only Marrs would have followed the leads provided by Gibson and Martin, and further developed concepts like the Eastern Establishment and that of a "small, wealthy ruling elite-an oligarchy" that dominates America. If he could have done this, instead of lapsing into the swamp of John Birch Society type "secret society" mythology, then this indeed would have been a very different book. This great material appears mostly in the first two parts of the book. Parts three through five contain mostly a rehash of what I believe to be this already discredited "secret society" mythology based on Robison, Nesta Webster and the John Birch Society oriented writers. It makes one wonder if Jim Marrs is aware of what a questionable foundation this last part of the book rests on. English conspiracy writer Nesta Webster (1876-1960) in particular warrants further comment because much of this foundation is based on her work. Richard Gilman in his book, BEHIND WORLD REVOLUTION: THE STRANGE CAREER OF NESTA H. WEBSTER, tells us, "for nearly fifty years, the ideas expressed in the political writings of Mrs. Nesta Webster have played a crucial -- if not dominant -- role in shaping of the right-wing conspiracy theories in the English speaking world." He also quotes Antony Sutton on Nesta Webster. "...Concerning her work, Dr. (Antony) Sutton said: 'Nesta Webster has assumed an answer; consequently there is no impetus to look for evidence. Energy is spent on propagandizing the answer rather than investigation of facts... Nesta Webster has to be rejected because it is difficult to separate fact from fiction (in her work)'." And from Lloyd Miller's July 1985 issue of his PROJECT journal we find, "It becomes more and more certain that Nesta (Bevan) Webster was a knowing or unknowing vehicle for calculated disinformation. Webster, as (Benjamin) Disraeli before her, feigned a British concern for the Church and traditional society while Britain's covert, cabalistic apparatus spread subversion! Webster may have been selected as an unknowing, enthusiastic dupe in this task." Lloyd Miller's PROJECT journal is also worth quoting further on secret societies. In the October 1985 issue he tells us about a book by J. M. Roberts entitled, THE MYTHOLOGHY OF SECRET SOCIETIES, "the above titled book by an Oxford scholar, financed by the Rockefeller Foundation, and published in England by Warburg (Institute?) proves rather conclusively that the belief in Secret Societies as 'prime movers' in history is a myth, but a 'potent one'." The Roberts book also "shows that secret societies are not what they seem to be to either their partisans or their enemies, but are, in fact, 'pre-mass media' propaganda tools. ...The primary lesson for current day conspiracy theorists should be to stop expecting with such certainty that the secrets of conspiracy will emerge from the detailed study of secret society lore. Secret Societies, far from being prime movers, are propaganda and intelligence fronts used by the real conspirators, the super rich Royal/Noble Dynasties, to disguise the source and motives of their propaganda campaigns." I would welcome any further discussion by others who have read RULE BY SECRECY. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Highest Regards, Ronald R. Williams 651.735.0196 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Forwarded for info and discussion from the New Paradigms Discussion List, not necessarily endorsed by: *********************************** Lloyd Miller, Research Director for A-albionic Research a ruling class/conspiracy research resource for the entire political-ideological spectrum. **FREE RARE BOOK SEARCH: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ** Explore Our Archive: <http://a-albionic.com/a-albionic.html> <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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