America's Unknown Enemy: Beyond Conspiracy
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AMERICA'S UNKNOWN ENEMY: BEYOND CONSPIRACY By The Editorial Staff ECONOMIC EDUCATION BULLETIN Published by AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH Great Barrington, Massachusetts Copyright American Institute for Economic Research 1987 ECONOMIC EDUCATION BULLETIN Vol. XXIV No. 5 May 1984 (Revised February 1993) Economic Education Bulletin (ISSN 0424-2769) (USPS 167-360) is published once a month at Great Barring ton, Massachusetts, by American Institute for Economic Research, a scientific and educational organization with no stockholders, chartered under Chapter 180 of the General Laws of Massachusetts. Second class postage paid at Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Printed in the United States of America. Subscription: $25 per year. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Economic Education Bulletin, American Insti- tute for Economic Research, Great Barrington, Massachusetts 01230. About A.I.E.R. MERICAN Institute for Economic Research, founded in 1933, is an independent scientific and educational organization. The A Institute's research is planned to help individuals protect their personal interests and those of the Nation. The industrious and thrifty, those who pay most of the Nation's taxes, must be the principal guardians of American civilization. By publishing the results of scientific inquiry, carried on with diligence, independence, and integrity, American Institute for Economic Research hopes to help those citizens preserve the best of the Nation's heritage and choose wisely the policies that will determine the Nation's future. The Institute represents no fund, concentration of wealth, or other special interests. Advertising is not accepted in its publications. Financial support for the Institute is provided primarily by the small annual fees from several thousand sustaining members, by receipts from sales of its publications, by tax-deductible contributions, and by the earnings of its wholly owned investment advisory organization, American Investment Services, Inc. Experience suggests that information and advice on eco- nomic subjects are most useful when they come from a source that is independent of special interests, either commercial or political. The provisions of the charter and bylaws ensure that neither the Insti- tute itself nor members of its staff may derive profit from organizations or businesses that happen to benefit from the results of Institute research. Institute financial accounts are available for public inspection during normal working hours of the Institute. Contents Preface to the 1993 Edition 1 I. CAPITALIZING ON CONSPIRACY 3 Foolish Attacks But Not False Issues 4 II. THE SOCIOLOGY OF CONSPIRACY 6 The Limits of Conspiracy 7 III. THE CONSPIRATORS 9 "Evident Connections" 12 "Coincidence" vs. History 14 More Recent Writings 15 IV. THE FEDERAL RESERVE CONSPIRACY 20 Behind-the-Scenes Collaboration 21 Open Debate Followed 23 Ownership and Control Separated 26 The Path to Easy Money 29 V. WHAT DO INTERNATIONAL BANKERS WANT? 31 The Ethnic Element 32 International "Development" Banking 34 Flawed Economic "Theory" 36 VI. THE TRILATERALISTS' ROAD TO POWER 38 Who "Commissioned" the Trilateralists? 40 An Elitist Bureaucracy 42 VII. THE NEW WORLD ORDER I: MOLDING PUBLIC THOUGHT AND OPINION 47 Thought Control? 48 Trilateral Commission Proposals 49 Trilateral Proposals Ignore History 52 The International "Debt Crisis" 53 Recent Trilateralist Directions 54 The Market Alternative to Elitist "Management" 55 Glossary of Globalist Names 59 VIII. THE NEW WORLD ORDER II: BEYOND CONSPIRACY 63 IX. THE PERSISTENT LURE OF THE FANTASTIC 65 "Better Worlds" Never Arrive 66 A "Human World Order" 67 Self-Action and the Quest for Certainty 68 A Compound Fantasy 70 Flawed Procedures of Inquiry 71 Losing the Faith? 73 X. HOW TO MAKE ENEMIES IN "BACKWARD" NATIONS 75 The Myth of the Witless Peasant 78 XL LORDS OF POVERTY 80 Economic Aid for Whom? 80 It Hasn't Worked in the Third World 81 And It Won't Work in "Formerly Developed" Countries 82 XII. THE END OF HISTORY? 84 Have People Run Out of Ideas? 86 A More Useful Approach to Understanding History 86 The Recent Past Reconsidered 87 XIII. IS SOCIALISM DEAD? 89 The Idea of Socialism 89 The Practice of Socialism 91 The Socialist Dream 93 XIV. SOCIALISM IN THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES 95 The Persistent Lure of Socialism 96 The Quest for Certainty 97 The Lure of Capitalism 98 The Social Implications of Free-Market Behavior 99 Ouüook 100 XV. A NEW EASTERN EUROPEAN ECONOMICS? 101 The Unhappy History of Raised Expectations 102 The Current Analogy 104 XVI. EARTH DAY FALLOUT: THE TWO CULTURES REVISITED 107 XVII. BOOMSTERS 1, DOOMSTERS 0 Ill The Resourceful Animal 112 Why Do People Believe "The End Is Near"? 113 XVIII. WHITHER THE NATIONAL INTEREST? 116 Globalism 117 ... vs. Realpolitik , 119 The Administration's Foreign Policy Dilemma 120 A Behavioral Science Critique 121 ... And An Analogy from Economics 122 "Friends of Liberty Everywhere, But Defenders of Our Own" 123 Appendix A: GLOBAL WARMING AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL MYTHS: The Economic Consequences of Fact vs. Media Perception by Dixy Lee Ray 125 Global Warming 126 Ozone Depletion 129 Human Population 131 The Earth Summit's Socialist Agenda 132 Appendix B: THE COUNTERREVOLUTION byE. C. Harwood 134 The Source of Communism's Strength 136 Lesson of the Immediate Past 138 What Can Be Done About Counterrevolution? 139 Domestic Policy 141 GLOSSARY OF ORGANIZATIONS .... 143 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY RELATING TO THE "GRAND CONSPIRACY" 147 Preface to the 1993 Edition N the past several years, interest apparently has been rekindled in the view that an elite conspiracy bent on world domination now is directing Iglobal events. Concern about such a conspiracy seems to have accelerated especially after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, when President Bush orchestrated United Nations' backing for the Persian Gulf War and made frequent references to a "New World Order." According to conspiracy mavens, that President Bush would publicly reveal his commitment to the "New World Order" simply testified to the haughtiness of the cabal's resolve to shape world events for its own nefarious purposes. Subsequent events, which have seen President Clinton reinstall in the State Department a number of officials affiliated with organizations said to be directing the conspiracy (such as the Council on Foreign Relations), have simply reconfirmed for "true believers" that the conspiracy lives. Notions of conspiracy have circulated for many years. As we observed in earlier editions of America's Unknown Enemy, however, and as is described in the first eight chapters of this edition, there is little if any support for the notion that a conspiracy per se is directing world events. Rather, we observed then that what some view as a "conspiracy" more closely resembles the power-seeking behavior, including collusive behavior, of a socio-political elite. This elite has succeeded in acquiring privileges that permit it to exercise authority vastly in excess of its competence and to promulgate self-serving views that have enjoyed public sanction even though they violate the most elementary requirements of common sense. In our view, the latter circumstance constitutes a far greater threat to the commonweal than the possible operation of any conspiracy, however grand. Indeed, the task of defeating even an international cabal, if such were the primary threat, would seem incalculably simpler than promoting a useful understanding of human problems and sensible approaches to their solutions. It is our hope, however, that by providing a critical view of some of the currents of thought that appear to propel most notions of the "better world" promised by global planners, we may contribute to such an understanding. During the past several years, we have commented elsewhere on a variety of ideas and events that would seem to relate in one way or another to the formation of the type of views that are reflected in talk of a "New World Order." They have embraced many academic fields — development economics, political science, history, foreign policy studies, anthropology, and environmental science, to name a few. And they have covered a wide range of topics, from "Earth Day" celebrations in the 1 United States to the behavior of village peasants in Pahlevi Iran. In this edition of America's Unknown Enemy, we have reprinted a number of these commentaries as Chapters IX through XVIII. In addition, we have included two pertinent Appendixes: "The Counterrevolution," by AIER'S founder E. C. Harwood; and "Global Warming and Other Environmental Myths," by Dr. Dixy Lee Ray. The difficulties that are posed by the flawed prescriptions for human progress that currently are being written by America's power elite thus extend far beyond narrow notions of conspiracy. In a broad sense, they embrace many of the same obstacles to the pursuit of knowledge that have confronted humans since the dawn of history, and that have been a principal concern of AIER'S research efforts throughout the years. In our view, the intellectual pursuit of some nebulous conspiracy (other than for the information it might yield about the behavior of those who subscribe to conspiracy theory, which is not the subject of this study) would be an enormous waste of time. The pursuit of an understanding of human affairs grounded in useful procedures of inquiry that promise to yield solutions to genuine human problems, on the other hand, deserves all the time and resources at our command. I. CAPITALIZING ON CONSPIRACY ONSPIRACY theory asserts