Everybody loves a good conspiracy. So Daniel Estulin’s book was a big disappointment. He fails in presenting the kind of tightly knit argument necessary to evoke our curiosity and cynicism, the neuro-physical response which identifies a good conspiracy theory.
In the first place the work suffers from amateurish (to be kind) editing. A quality editor could have salvaged this book and perhaps rattled the cages of the people Estulin fears are seizing control of the world and our lives. Certainly these people (The Bilderberg Group) do value their privacy and try to keep their image out of public view. As someone from the Left living in a Right-Wing world (for now, evil chuckle 
) I accept that more and deeper brow lines on those wealthy and powerful heads is about all I can accomplish. And this book could have contributed to this meager but satisfying end. Instead we get a jumble of chapters, page after page listing people and their membership in overlapping groups (something that could have been accomplished better with a table but that would have shortened an already short book by at least 30 pages), and non sequiturs instead of sentences. Nowhere does Estulin take us step by step, detail by detail of what the group has accomplished and where it is going with it.
The Bilderberg group, which Estulin correctly states is unknown to most, is an annual meeting of some of the richest and most powerful people in the world. No press is allowed to report on the proceeding, any documents produced by the group are for internal distribution only (and then not necessarily to the entire group) and regular members and those invited are all sworn to secrecy. The 1996 meeting outside Toronto caused a stir when it was reported in the press. Many Canadians and others object to their elected officials attending meetings that are not public. After all don’t they work for us? Politicians from primarily the Western countries and leading representatives of business and academia have all attended, some as regulars others as their importance waxed or waned. Jean Chretien, Bill Clinton, and Tony Blair are among the well-known political attendees. People like Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller are regular members. Also the CEOs, CFOs, Chairs etc. of the major multinationals are bedrock members of the group. I will end my examples there so as not to be accused of what I criticized above. You get the point anyway. The group is made up of people who have money and power.
What is their secret? What conspiracy is Estulin crying in the wilderness to expose? Simply, the rich and powerful are self-serving bastards who make decisions that benefit themselves and couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the rest of us. Well, Duh! Anyone who was unaware of that little gem has either been living under a rock or with Uncle Dad and Aunt Mom. The particular goal according to Estulin is a one world government with the Bilderbergers in charge. The political labels that he throws around for some of the members are confused and irrelevant. The point is that a one world government would be a bad thing. He even paints this global state in Utopian terms. He states at one point that everyone’s needs will be met and society will be de-industrialized. Apparently Estulin has never had to work in a factory because having done so I can tell you that I would be happy to see that hell become extinct. Maybe my knees would be able to support me better now and my typing would be faster because my arms, shoulders and fingers wouldn’t have been so badly damaged. Especially since all my needs would be met, that truly would be Utopia, a place where each of us could apply our potentials to the benefit of all society. But the author sees such a society as mindlessly enslaving all of us. And Estulin may well be correct and a one world government could be a bad thing but not necessarily. Would the wealthy and powerful still make the decisions to service their own agendas? Likely, yes. But in the end that is our own fault. To quote one of my favourite characters ‘Joss’, “Bosses are bosses because we put them there, left to grub down with the rest of us they wouldn’t survive.” Based on Hegel’s master-slave relationship, this is just saying that once we realize that the wealthy and seemingly powerful of this world are dependent on us for that wealth and power we can deploy the most powerful weapon known to humankind. We can say NO!
The Bilderberg Group by Daniel Estulin serves a positive purpose in making the public aware of this particular group and making us face the consequences of our apathy. It also has some value as an historical record. Especially if you like photographs of famous but camera-shy people. I just wish it had been better written or at least edited better.
Estulin, Daniel. The Bilderberg Group. Walterville, Oregon: TrineDay. 2009.
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