SKULL AND
BONES
Power likes to play its games in the dark (2004)
By
Geoff Olson
A few weeks back, the CBS news show 60 Minutes devoted a
segment to Skull and Bones, the Yale University secret
society. Over many decades, S & B has seen its members
go on to become captains of industry and leaders in
government. George Bush senior was a member, as was his
father, Prescott Bush. George W. Bush, class of '68,
carried on the family tradition. Senator John Kerry is also
a Bonesman, class of '66. So now we have the interesting
scenario of two wealthy Bonesmen "battling" for the
presidency (which may partly explain why the battle so far
has resembled two little old ladies trying to put out a
fire on each other).
The 60 Minutes investigation was a rare moment when a
"fringe" topic was addressed by a major news outlet. S
& B itself doesn't interest me that much. For all I
care, the young Dubya may have ritually sacrificed a goat
while singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic with Eleanor
Roosevelt's panties over his head. I'm more interested in
how a culture decides when something is no longer just a
topic for fringe culture, but worthy of "serious"
enquiry-and why this happens so rarely.
In his book, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only
Superpower, William Blum warns of how the media will make
anything that smacks of "conspiracy theory" an immediate
object of ridicule. Use of this term rationalizes editorial
lack of interest in connecting high-level dots. In the
U.S., the cozy connections between the energy,
telecommunications, banking, defense industries and media
giants go unremarked.
Noting these links is usually treated with what Blum calls
"the media's most effective tool-silence." All you have to
do is say, "conspiracy theory," and "any allegation
instantly becomes too frivolous to merit serious
attention."
Having some experience with media-makers, it never fails to
surprise how often I hear a discussion about power prefaced
with "I don't believe in conspiracy theories," or "I'm not
a conspiracy theorist," as if it's a spell to ward off
devils. This hocus-pocus accompanies the professed belief
that plots hatched behind closed doors never get off the
ground, usually because the laser-like attention of the
free press sees through them first. I like to call this
belief "transparency theory."
Transparency theorists take great pride in their handling
of facts, and shun anyone who strings them together in a
disturbing or novel manner. Of course, every fact is
relevant only in so far as it relates to other facts. And
any clutch of facts is embedded in a web of interpretation
and value judgements. That's true whether it's
neighbourhood gossip, headline news, or historical
analysis.
For example, consider an entry in the diary of FDR's
Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, on how to "maneuver them
(the Japanese) into the position of firing the first shot
without too much danger to ourselves... so that there
should remain no doubt in anyone's mind as to who were the
aggressors." When this quote is interpreted in light of
that other pertinent fact, the later attack on Pearl
Harbour, Stimson's diary entry takes on greater relevance.
The term "conspiracy theory" is a flashing yellow sign, a
warning to venture no further for fear of social stigma.
Ironically, the Ivy League axis, along with the
"respectable" U.S. media that hires from this pool of elite
consensus, comprises one of the most thoroughly
propagandized sectors of American society. B.S. is also an
acronym for belief system, and the irony is that those
nursed on the authorized histories by the approved sources
imagine belief systems are for others, not themselves.
Isn't it odd how the officially sanctioned
conspiracies-Saddam's vapourous WMD's, for example-are so
often the ones pitched by leaders and accepted uncritically
by "serious" news outlets? In any case, I suspect Skull and
Bones is just one of the more peculiar mechanisms for the
elite to sustain itself into the next generation. In this
case it uses frat-boy antics and juvenile occultism for
those who are "tapped." Comraderie through ritual,
history's same-old, same-old.
It's not what you know, it's who you know. The same names
crop up on the boards of major multinationals, and in the
Council on Foreign Relations and other policy-making
groups.
The rubes on the receiving end of the information
spigot-Mencken's "boobosie"-get homilies about being
"competitive," while the elite meet and greet and do deals
among themselves. Whether you call that a conspiracy or
networking, it's all the same in the end. Power likes to
play in the dark, and for the most part the rest of us
tacitly agree not to poke around with flashlights.
Geoff Olson
