Re: hoax

At 01:48 PM 7/31/00 -0700, you wrote:

>I checked out the GTWA site, and it is obviously a hoax.
>
>No real powerful group would have an easily accessible website that
>introduces itself by saying "GTWA is a secret society, a significant
>subsection of the Bilderbergers and the Trilaterals."
>
>This "GTWA" even offers you a password to access their inner secrets!
>
>Take a look at the Trilateral Commission site for an example of what it
>really looks like.
>
>(I forget the URL -- I posted it recently.)
>
>RH
>
>
>


I am inclined to agree with Richard Hutchinson.  Sounds like our poster has
stumbled across an example of far-right-wing conspiracy theory.  I think if
Mr. Beavis would check out some sources on Illuminism, the so-called
"Illuminati Myth," etc., he would find that arguments about alleged "secret
societies" plotting the overthrow of all governments and dominating the
international economy have a long history--at least two hundred years.  It
has been claimed by some that Pat Robertson relies on a version of the
Illuminati Myth in his book _The New World Order_.  See the following sources:

Heilbrunn, Jacob. "His Anti-Semitic Sources." _New York Review of Books_,
April 20, 1995, 68.

Lind, Michael. "On Pat Robertson: His Defenders." _New York Review of
Books_, April 20, 1995, 67-68.

Lind, Michael. "Rev. Robertson Grand International Conspiracy Theory. The
New World Order by Pat Robertson." _New York Review of Books_, Feb. 2,
1995, 21-25.

Robertson, Pat. _The New World Order_. Dallas : Word Pub., 1991.

As should be obvious from my citations, these theories are frequently
associated with anti-Semitic arguments.  The importance of these theories,
therefore, has less to do with their intellectual cogency (there is none!)
and more to do with their capacity to inspire dangerous political enterprises.




--
Jeffrey L. Beatty
Doctoral Student
Department of Political Science
The Ohio State University
2140 Derby Hall
154 North Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210

(o) 614/292-2880
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Email:  Beatty.4@osu.edu
______________________________________________________   
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