Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Turning Point

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Turning Point – Full Film

Click here to access 52:27m video from Press for Truth (Canada). (Note: actually the first 40 minutes is the best part.)

The filmmakers have just uploaded their excellent film on You-Tube so that everyone can access it online. (It is also available as a DVD from their website.) It uses the 60th Bilderberg conference held in Chantilly, Virginia from May 31 – June 3, 2012, as a starting point to investigate the Bilderberg Group as political phenomenon. Because this group is made up of so many powerful people and are highly secretive about their meetings, many activists and others have long wondered what they are really up to.

One important source the narrator in the film referred to was a transcript of a 1965 speech given by David Rockefeller, lifetime chairman of Bilderberg, to the International Industrial Conference in San Francisco. It really sets the tone of this elite group. Of course, it provides a glowing, self-serving justification for the organization, but his concluding statement really sums up their sense of megalomania:

What we are is God's gift to man;
What we become is man's gift to God.

Although I have no special knowledge about this organization, I have followed reports on it over the past 40 years. My impression is that they function more as a method to create a sense of capitalist elite identity and socialization than they do as deliberative body over any specific policies or strategies. This assertion is not to downplay their significance, for socialization is a primary way that global One Percents use to create solidarity and identification with Empire interests.

This socialization method is often seen in junkets sponsored by Empire sources to fund social events in which foreign military and political leaders are brought to the US to mingle with their counterparts in the US. This creates bonds of trust, affiliation, and promotes loyalties with Empire figures. It fosters the informal integration of powerful figures in other countries with Empire's ruling figures, and, thus, encourages them to align their interests to those of the Empire. (See this for its use with Egyptian generals; see this for its use on US Congressional members by Israel; see this for its use on US state legislators by ALEC, a right-wing political organization; and see this for its general use throughout the world.)