The Oc

While I will not be surprised if people consider this commentary to be sheer lunacy, I offer it up at least as another point of view that you might care to consider.


There is a small group of people who “control” the world. Their control is not through political power per se, but through economic power. They are immensely wealthy people, but you will not see their names listed in Fortune 500, they have learned to keep out of the spotlight.

They exercise their method of control through investing is various corporations. They don’t do this directly, but through holding companies and mutual investment groups. But because they are wealthy enough to have a large chunk of investments in so many companies, they are able to influence, indirectly, the course of events in ways that are more favorable to their interests.

For instance, if they want to see a merger between two companies (HP and Compact would be an example) they would have one or more of their holding companies call up the mutual fund managers that they have invested with, and explain that if the managers don’t vote for the merger, then they might be forced to pull their investments out of the fund. Obviously, the managers would vote for the merger rather than lose some very important clients.

You will not see these people as the executives of major corporations, they will be working in the background through “friends” that they might have on the boards of directors, or through policy advisory groups that help determine institutional direction. These people are in it for the long run, they have far ranging plans and are willing to be patient in watching their plans come to fruition. They don’t want to exercise overt power because they know that figureheads eventually become scapegoats. And they don’t want absolute power because they realize that people are much more productive if they have at least the illusion of freedom.

They exercise political control only to the extent that they need to, and only indirectly. Their holding companies fund highly influential think tanks. These think tanks (policy making groups) are called upon by civic leaders to help decide on national agendas. Likewise, the wealthy corporations and groups which help fund the candidate’s elections also have a say in policy decisions. And when the candidate is elected, the people that he or she brings into his administration will naturally include those people from these corporations and groups, or be recommended by them.

These people are not going to call up some leader and tell them that they want such and such done. It is much more indirect than that. The people who work for those in control just make sure that the employees that are hired and eventually promoted up the ranks are the kind of people that think the way that these people would prefer them to think. These employees may not even know who is at the top of the food chain, they are just doing their job; making sure that their business makes the most profit possible for their investors. In other words, the leaders that these people support are going to be the ones that are already leaning their way.

Again, the agenda of these people is to maintain and increase their wealth. And they influence politics when it is convergent with this ideal.

Historically, these are not just some smart business executives that have grabbed a big piece of the pie through some stock deals. Instead these people are from very old families who have had and controlled a great deal of wealth over many centuries. They have always been involved in this kind of influence, but in the past it was more though the “old boy network”. It has been through the advent of the hugely successful system of the stock market that has given them the opportunity for even greater management of world affairs. With so many years of experience, they really know what they are doing: when and how to make their moves and when to stay their hand.

The situation in the Middle East threatens the economic interests of these people. They have substantial investments in the whole oil dependent economy. These investments are not only in the energy companies themselves, but also in automakers and the other vast industries, like shipping, which depend upon oil as the energy source. Lately, their influence in Middle East countries has been growing more tenuous. As Middle East countries swing more to the right in the fundamentalist sense, these people fear a scenario in which fundamentalist (anti-western) forces might gain control of the vast oil reserves of the region. Such control has the potential for the economic destabilization of the western societies, or at the very least severely impacting the profit margins of many of the companies they are invested in.

Their solution to this potential problem is to gain more control over a significant share of the oil resources in the region. That significant resource may be a country called Iraq. Unfortunately it may be really quite simple as far as some are concerned. Remove the current leader’s government and install the appropriate new government, which will be more favorable to western interests. But more importantly, assign the oil leases to western oil producers (out of the hands of the fundamentalist control).

Mind you, it is not that they need the oil in Iraq; there is still plenty of oil around elsewhere. What they need is the guarantee that if the region should shift politically, that the western economies will not be at the mercy of the radicals (and therefore, we would only be able to rely on oil from elsewhere). They will have an assured source of oil in the region as well as a western friendly government that they can count on there. So, all of this is just a strategic chess move on the big game board of the world that these oligarchs are playing. All the speeches about freeing a country from a tyrant and saving westerners from a menace is just window dressing to placate the public.

It is not the case that GW is one of these oligarchs. Nor is not the case that a Mr. Z calls up Geo. Jr. one day and says “I want you to invade a particular country next spring.” This all started years ago when GW was chosen as a political prospect, and coincidentally his views were in league with the overall agenda of these people. The advisors and the Washington think tanks were placed to affirm this strategic move as vital to the nations interests. It’s just been a matter of time till the current military action could be gotten around to.