In the Shadows of the Secret Summit

*Written by Rob Rimes.

“Someone asked me the other day if I believe in conspiracies. Well, sure. Here’s one. It is called the political system. It is nothing if not a giant conspiracy to rob, trick and subjugate the population.” – Jeffrey Tucker

This past weekend saw the 2012 edition of the annual Bilderberg conference. For the first time in history, major news sites were set ablaze with reports and coverage of the infamous secret meeting that has captivated conspiracy theorists for years. Now I do take everything I hear from conspiracy theorists with a large grain of salt, as I need to validate their claims myself and search for the actual truth without jumping to conclusions and taking their findings and dot-connecting at face value. However, Bilderberg has always intrigued me and regardless of what anyone thinks about the group and their secret meetings, it is pretty widespread knowledge that they do indeed exist and meet yearly. What do they discuss behind closed doors? Well, that is up for debate but when world leaders, CEOs of massive banks and businesses as well as other major players with political ties meet in secret, one can’t help but be concerned and wonder what it’s all about. I personally try not to speculate but it is often times hard to stop the mind from running wild.

The large consensus of conspiracy theorists believe that they are meeting to shape and mold the global landscape towards a “new world order”. Hell, Bush The First spoke about a “new world order” back in 1991 and since then the term has been associated with world leaders suspected of having some sort of sinister globalist agenda. Worst-case scenario, the group meets to decide the fate of the common folk and to make sure that the ball keeps rolling in a way that favors the elite and keeps the non-elite, you and I, down towards the bottom where we can be controlled and manipulated into believing that our voices and thus elections actually matter and can change things in a positive way. Again, that’s the worst-case scenario. The best-case scenario is that these people get together to hang out, eat steak dinners and golf a couple rounds in their secret exclusive boys’ club. Honestly, I think it falls somewhere in the middle.

Sure, world business affairs and politics is most likely discussed but I am highly skeptical that there is indeed a sinister global agenda. I mean lets look at the evidence here regarding the people we’re talking about. We have world leaders who unanimously suck at their jobs, as well as bankers who can’t manage themselves out of financial crisis without needing bailouts and government meddling to keep them from drowning in their own mismanagement and corruption. These people, whether anyone chooses to believe this or not, are not the smartest people in the world. The perception is that they are the movers and shakers and in many sense they are but they’re mostly idiots and only able to survive through the collusion of the other idiots in the room. You have to see that eventually, this formula is doomed to fail (and it is – look around). So even if they are meeting in the spirit of the previously mentioned worst-case scenario, it is only a matter of time before this blows up in their faces. Hell, these people can’t manage their own political campaigns or their own finances effectively, so what makes you think that this is all a part of some great diabolical scheme that has a stranglehold on worldwide liberty? Even if it is, should we be threatened by it?

It is easy to point the finger and scream “Aha!” when it is apparent that world leaders and other major schemers are meeting annually for a long weekend in conference rooms blocked from public view but I don’t think that Bilderberg is why we have a huge loss of liberty today. The real reason for our misfortune is people’s apathy and acceptance of the tyranny that we have been experiencing gradually: in small doses. We’ve allowed ourselves to succumb to distractions and shiny new things in a way that we’ve completely taken our eyes off of the ball and thus, allowed Big Brother’s grip around our throats to tighten. It’s our fault, not the fault of some sinister cabal meeting in secret over bacon-wrapped shrimp and mint juleps. Even if these elite ruling class dickbags were able to manufacture these distractions in order to keep our minds busy and our eyes off of the ball, we have chosen to accept them and have thus walked right into their trap. Even if this is the case, this machine isn’t self-sustaining and it will break down. People can be duped and then controlled to a degree but eventually the survival instinct will take over and on a large scale, it has always been catastrophic for those committing the crime. Then again, those committing the crime have always been dumb enough to believe that they would get away with it. The truth is, they don’t – ever.

So whatever you believe, the big thing to takeaway from the 2012 conference is that many conspiracy theorists believe that this conference was going to be the place where the elite would hand-select Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s running mate. Well, it was reported that Mitt Romney himself was actually spotted at the conference by four eyewitnesses. He wasn’t on any guest lists and if he was there, it was a well-guarded secret that is still shrouded in mystery, as the eyewitness accounts have no evidence to back them up other than the words of a few anonymous people.

For months many people have been speculating that Mitt Romney was going to pick Mitch Daniels as his running mate to take on Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Well, Mitch Daniels also went to this year’s Bilderberg conference, which raises a red flag for conspiracy theorists and those paying attention to all the details leading up to this conference. It is easy to connect the dots and say that the Bilderbergers are making power moves and shaping the election. Sure, their handiwork might be at play but all we can do is speculate and assume that’s the case. I guess we won’t really know until Romney announces who his running mate is and even then, we still have no real evidence that any sort of illuminati-esque back-room collusion occurred. Of course, if Romney does indeed pick Governor Daniels, the conspiracy theorists will take credit and use this as more ammunition to show how smart they are and how their dot-connecting and speculation is somehow an iron clad formula. If Romney chooses someone else, they will just say that that person was Bilderberg’s second choice.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to argue that Bilderberg isn’t potentially an elite group with an evil agenda but people’s arrival at this conclusion is all too convenient and even though there is some evidence out there to suggest that they are making power moves behind closed doors, how is this any different than what they do on a daily basis? These actions aren’t simply relegated to an annual long weekend at a resort, they happen on a daily basis between these people. Bilderberg is most likely their annual get-together to blow off steam – kind of like a corporate outing for team building. It is also probably used to bring new people into the fold, such as Mitch Daniels, in order to introduce them to those who they can mutually benefit from, similar to a business networking group.

Do I wish this group’s meetings had some transparency? Hells yes! However, I also wish that there was more transparency in all of the actions of our leaders and publicly-traded corporations. Point is, even if Bilderberg ceased to exist, it wouldn’t change a damn thing. Secret collusion and new world tyranny can be committed over a phone line or a secret flight on Air Force One. Hell, what the fuck’s going on behind closed doors at the UN and they meet all the time?! Schemers will always scheme but it is up to us to keep our eyes on them and hold them accountable for their actions. That’s hard to do however when most of the people “don’t care” about politics and the state of the world while putting faith in the government always being their to wipe their asses and clean their faces off.

At the end of the day, pointing the finger is easy but just like the old adage says, “When you point your finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you.”