The profound revolution: libertarians, New World Orders and “banking families”

My article on the Evans paper has generated some interest, so I feel it is important to clarify some points. Is Evans anti-Semitic?  Evans has made no direct statement about Jews or the ethnicity of the people he sees attempting to control the world: that is a point worth noting.

However, I think we can see close parallels to a range of  conspiracy theories that often contribute to an “environment in which prejudice can flourish”. I would stress the following;

• the paper claims that a small group of “banking families” are controlling the world behind the scenes
• the paper claims the banking families killed at least two US presidents
• some of the language and code-words mimic NWO/cabal theories
• the allusions to  “international bankers” are highly problematical – if Andrew Bolt has rejected them for this reason, lets be honest – you’ve crossed a line
• there is a strong streak of extreme libertarian and conspiracy thinking in the work of Evans

Copenhagen: the failed coup

Evans is a conspiracy theorist: there no doubt of this, as other works by Evans clearly indicate. In another paper “Climate coup – politics” Evans states the COP15 conference was a failed coup:

All of that national sovereignty would have been ceded to an unelected group of global bureaucrats: Never in the field of human administration would so much power have been transferred by so many to so few. This was a narrowly averted global coup, an attempt to seize a great deal of power by stealth without the knowledge or explicit consent of the world’s people. It can only have been kept silent with the active support of the world’s media. But because of that silence, the coup has never been acknowledged, so the people of the world are unaware of it and further attempts could be made. Climate “science” is clearly flawed, but it is an excuse for a massive power play. 

In many of his works Evans claims the science is not merely flawed, but an excuse for a “massive power play” that would see the established of a global bureaucracy:

The real issue here is a grab for absolute power by those who already govern. They have grown tired of democracy and would like to do away with it, without ever giving the game away by actually saying so. This is the age-old divide between the totalitarians and libertarians. Coalitions like the current regulating class have always been instinctively totalitarian, desirous of interfering in every tiny detail of our lives— for our own good of course, and prodigiously at our expense. They are now even telling us what kind of light-bulbs we can use. With the rise of democracy, it looked like the regulating class would be subject to the will of the people. The US Constitution explicitly defines the obligations of government to the people, and not of people to the government. However, liberty, democracy, and the free market are now again at grave risk, and “global warming” is the Trojan Horse the regulating class are hoping to ride to victory over the people.

Evans is a conspiracy theorist, positing the existence of a vast conspiracy trying to destroy democracy and install a global ruling elite. There is no debate here.

International bankers: the libertarian-New World Order conspiracy theory

Evan’s views are very similar to the view of the John Birch society of the 1950s and 1960s that posited the existence of a shadowy cabal of “international bankers” working for centuries to take over the globe. Evans writes extensively on the establishment of the Federal Reserve and the history of “bankers” which are all hall marks of this strain of conspiracy thinking.

It also mimics the work of American writer and conservative Mary M. Davidson who published a book in 1966 titled “The Profound Revolution“. Davidson argued a cabal of bankers had been working to create a world government.

One of the steps the “bankers” took was urge the creation of the US Federal Reserve. Evans does not cite Davidson – he provides no references in his paper – however her work was very popular and has strongly influenced conspiracy culture.

The full text of Davidson’s work is here, but there are quotes from Davidson that mimic Evans. Here is Davidson using the term “international bankers”:

Revolutions are not organized over night, nor do they form without strong central planning and direction. The facts of the New Deal Revolution are now coming to light and the forces which put the revolution in motion are fully revealed. Astute men had long sensed the formation of a movement calculated to control the Government of the United States. The same men who instigated the revolution in 1933 were referred to by New York City’s Mayor John F. Hylan as long ago as March 22nd, 1922. 

“The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government which, like a giant octopus, sprawl its, slimy length over our city, state and nation. At the head is a small group of banking houses, generally referred to as ‘International Bankers.’ This little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run our government for their own selfish ends. 

The International Bankers, referred to here by Mayor Hylan, had organized three years before this and formed a power structure dedicated to control of the world. Within this group was complete control of the money of the world and they intended to use it to the fullest advantage. They called themselves The Council on Foreign Relations. They have worked steadily on their project of world control by building world empire. Nothing has been permitted to stand in their way.

Davidson “names” the families:

Among the International Bankers who had formed the Council on Foreign Relations and whose descendents make up the Council today were: 

• The House of Rockefeller
• Kuhn Loeb & Company
• The House of Morgan
• Lehman Brothers
• Goldman Sachs
• Brown Brothers Harriman

The phrase “international bankers” has a long history in conspiracy culture, especially among the more extreme libertarian branch:

American writer Mary M. Davison, in her 1966 booklet The Profound Revolution, traced the alleged New World Order conspiracy to the creation of the U.S. Federal Reserve System in 1913 by international bankers, who she claimed later formed the Council on Foreign Relations in 1921 as the shadow government. At the time the booklet was published, “international bankers” would have been interpreted by many readers as a reference to a postulated “international Jewish banking conspiracy” masterminded by the Rothschilds.

It is for these reasons that I regard the references to “international bankers” highly problematical.

Davidson writes the following;

The fact is that the top echelon of The Establishment is occupied by the bankers of the Federal Reserve System and a group of associated cartelists who intend to rule the World through the United Nations.

Evans writings posit a remarkably similar theory of banking families and shares many touch points with the writings of Davidson and other conspiracy writers:

• the creation of the Federal Reserve
• a super-conspiracy involving a number of “banking families”
• the Rothschild’s as key players in this conspiracy

Evans claims this “cabal” almost succeeded in conducting a “global coup” at COP15 – can we doubt the fact that he is a conspiracy theorist?

Dances with the devils: scapegoating and conspiracy theories

In order to better understand popular right-wing conspiracy theories I would refer readers to the following paper, Dances with Devils: How Apocalyptic and Millennialist Themes Influence Right Wing Scapegoating and Conspiracism (1999) by Chip Berlet.

Berlot makes the following points in his paper which are vital, in particular how conspiracy theories seek scapegoats to shift blame:

Scapegoating on a societal level can be seen as a process whereby the hostility and aggression of an angry and frustrated group are directed away from a rational explanation of a conflict, and projected onto targets demonized by irrational claims of wrongdoing. As a result, the scapegoated group bears the blame for causing the conflict, while the scapegoaters feel a sense of innocence and increased unity.

We can see in the work of Evans the “scapegoating” of international bankers as authors of a massive conspiracy. These theories can prove effective, and are resistant to evidence and criticism because they are so detailed and fantastic:

It is very effective to mobilize mass support against a scapegoated enemy by claiming that the enemy is part of a vast insidious conspiracy against the common good. In conspiracist discourse, the supposed conspirators serve as scapegoats for the actual conflict within the society. The conspiracist worldview sees secret plots by tiny cabals of evildoers as the major motor powering important historical events; makes irrational leaps of logic in analyzing factual evidence in order to “prove” connections; blames social conflicts on demonized scapegoats; and constructs a closed metaphysical worldview that is highly resistant to criticism.

But it is the following points that sum up what is highly problematical with aspects of Evans writings:

• All conspiracist theories start with a grain of truth, which is then transmogrified through hyperbole and filtered through pre-existing myth and prejudice, 
• People who believe conspiracist allegations sometimes act on those irrational beliefs, which has concrete consequences in the real world,
• Conspiracist thinking and scapegoating are symptoms, not causes, of underlying societal frictions, and as such should not be ignored, 
• Scapegoating and conspiracist allegations are tools that can be used by cynical leaders to mobilize a mass following,
• Supremacist and fascist organizers use conspiracist theories as a relatively unthreatening entry point in making contact with potential recruits, 
• Even when conspiracist theories do not center on Jews, people of color, or other scapegoated groups, they create an environment where racism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of prejudice and oppression can flourish.

I am in the process of reaching out to experts on conspiracy culture to shed further light on the style of conspiracy culture.