Them: Adventures with Extremists

Secret rulers of the world?

THEM: Adventures with Extremists
By Jon Ronson
Picador. 337 pages. £16.00
ISBN 0 330 37545 8

Grand conspiracy theories (GCTs), ideas of some malign group seeking to take over or even having already taken over the running of the world, are attractive to people for a number of reasons.

First, there is a kind of aesthetic fascination in the idea, similar to that of mystery fiction. Second, there are those who are prompted by a sense of powerlessness and victimhood in society for whom GCTs provide a comfort - explaining why the bad situation is not their fault. Thirdly, of course, there are those who are attracted to GCTs simply because they believe they are true and need to be exposed.

It is difficult to know which of these categories the author fits into. Jon Ronson is a young writer of Jewish background and his book, much promoted by Waterstones earlier in the summer, is a kind of existentialist travelogue of the times he has spent with various people who believe in a current GCT. Some of the material from the book has also featured in his short Channel 4 series, 'The Secret Rulers of the World'.

Different things to different people

The so-called Bilderberg group, a gathering of very high-level business people and politicians who meet in secret expensive locations from time to time, is the main focus for the theories. For Omar Bakri, a militant Muslim fundamentalist in Britain, plotting to overthrow the Western way of life, the GCT is Western and Zionist. For the white supremacists on their armed compounds in the backwoods of the USA the conspiracy is about the liberal New World Order (here there are many speculations about the Oklahoma bombing). For David Icke, the global elite who dominate every aspect of our lives, are genetically descended from an extraterrestrial race of reptiles who are capable of taking on the shape of human beings (but many read Icke's word 'lizard' as a code-word for Jews). For Dr. Ian Paisley, 'the occupants of the secret room are not Bilderbergers, nor Jews, but Machiavellian papists . . . conspiring to establish a European super-state and ultimately world government.'

Spending time with Dr. Paisley in Africa, Ronson has to commend the man's integrity, though he disagrees with what he stands for. 'The only kind of expose that could really destroy the Reverend Ian Paisley would be revelations about drinking, or adultery, or pilfering from the funds and there is nothing like that to be found. He is what he preaches.' Other evangelicals surface in the book too, when Ronson is seeking to locate a secret meeting in Spain. As they saw the motorcade of guests arriving at the five star hotel, 'Fred and Brendan stared in horrified awe . . . These two men were taking an evangelical stance on Bilderberg, presuming its existence confirmed the prophecies laid out in the Book of Revelation. They looked as if they were witnessing the Devil himself ride by.'

Dennis Healey and world government

Ronson got to talk with the ancient Labour politician Dennis Healey, evidently one of the creators of Bilderberg back in 1954. This is something of how the conversation went.

'To say that we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn't go on forever fighting one another for nothing, and killing people and rendering millions of people homeless. So we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing.

'...We make a point of getting along younger politicians who are obviously rising, to bring them together with financiers and industrialists who offer them wise words. It increases the chance of having a sensible global policy.'

'Does going help your career?'

'Oh yes. Your new understanding of the world will certainly help your career.'

'Which sounds like a conspiracy to me.'

'...I've never heard such **! That isn't a conspiracy! That is the world. It is the way things are done. And quite rightly so. But I will tell you this. If extremists and leaders of militant groups believe that Bilderberg is out to do them down, then they're right. We are. We are against Islamic fundamentalism, for instance, because it's against democracy.'

'Isn't Bilderberg's secrecy against democracy too?'

'We aren't secret. We are private. Nobody is going to speak freely if they're going to be quoted by ambitious and prurient journalists like you who think it will help your career to attack something that you have no knowledge of.'

Post-modern journalism?

It is all very fascinating but the great weakness of Ronson's book is its post-modern outlook. The style of the book is very Generation X in the way it records things. Don't look for research notes or references, there are none. But more fundamentally, Ronson seems to have no worldview or moral framework that enables him to give a reliable assessment of things. He is a man pursuing a story but when it comes to it deeply unsure about himself and how to judge his data. The final chapters of the book find Ronson and some associates penetrating a secret meeting of many high-profile people (though I can't remember anyone being named) at Bohemian Grove in some remote spot in northern California, where they witnessed a bizarre owl-burning ceremony. But the book ends devoid of conclusions with the words: 'I got tired. I turned off my computer.' With this kind of attitude to investigation, it is impossible to know how seriously to take what Ronson says.

Providence and dangers

Christians can be fascinated by conspiracy theories. However there are some points to bear in mind before we get too sucked in.

First, some people think that GCTs have historically arisen since the Enlightenment and especially the French Revolution, and that this correlates with the time where the West began to turn away from a belief in the doctrine of the providence of God. Was it G. K. Chesterton who said that when people stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing they start believing in everything?

Second, GCTs can be enormously dangerous things. Hitler was someone who believed in a conspiracy theory and it led to the Jewish holocaust.

Thirdly, whatever is or is not the truth about various GCTs, the task given by the Lord Jesus Christ to Christians is to preach the gospel to the world. We must beware of getting distracted. This is God's grand 'conspiracy' which will prevail.