Zubin said:
It's sort of why I made this thread. I'm someone who thinks the Bilderberg group isn't even worth giving notice to but I don't actually know much about it so I can't really formulate a legitimate explanation for why I think my friend(the conspiracy theorist) is completely wrong.
It depends what his claims are.
In general, the body of theories associated with the bilderberg group (new world order) are based on something real, which gets warped into this giant monolith its not.
Financial interests do have a great deal of influence on government, which is of a more subtle form then the obvious political parties, and to some extent, a bit more divorced from partisan politics.
It is also true that there are some influential people who have a very specific agenda regarding centralization of power and the creation of international government superstructures, such as David Rockefeller (or had, in his case he's pretty old, just the most obvious example.) These people work towards their goals, and often exert influence through various ways.
To illustrate what I'm talking about, let's take a group that is associated with these theories, the council on foreign relations. Was it originally established as a think tank to push the international policies favorable to the bankers? Yes, probably. Are they influential? Definetly. Do they tend to have a specific vision for the world? Yes.
But to say they rule the world is to say that the Project for a New American Century runs the world. (The CFR is a bit different as they invite most major political figures to be members so as to establish a networking thing for foreign policy.) While people with specific agendas can have a major impact, the fundamental nature of the thing is different then conspiracy theorists imagine.
If you oppose global government and the fabian socialist ideology, it's natural you would find such people as Rockefeller and their success at getting their goals accomplished as insidious. Just as if you oppossed US military intervention in the middle east, you would find PNAC and it's success insidious.
So, the whole new world order thing isn't based on pure fantasy, it's real political phenomenon that is vilified to an extent where any claim is taken by conspiracy theorists at face value.
“For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as "internationalists" and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."
-David Rockefeller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_foreign_relations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rockefeller
