Author Govert SchullerPosted on Categories Parapolitics In quite some ways the following is an instructive story. In July 2000 Alex Jones, Mike Hanson and British journalist Jon Ronson infiltrated the yearly Bohemian Grove gathering of very wealthy and well-connected people just north of San Francisco. They dressed up as preppy, casual CEOs and slipped into the estate with hidden cameras without anybody being suspicious. On the first evening they witnessed and recorded a ritual named the Cremation of Care which symbolized the start of the two week gathering. Men were dressed in robes with hoods and sacrificially burned something they called Dull Care in front of a big stone owl accompanied by music.
In Ronson’s telling of the story, when they returned to their motel room that evening and watched the tape, Jones made the case that it was an occultic sacrifice of a human effigy, some sort of “bizarre Luciferian garbage”, and made other remarks to interpret the ritual in the most dark manner possible. Ronson was less alarmed and thought they were merely burning “a symbol of their troubles so they can enjoy their bloody summer holiday”. When Jones insisted, Ronson called him out, actually yelled at him, for projecting onto this gathering acute dangers in the same way the government projects danger on other people with sometimes lethal consequences.
“YOU’RE DOING TO THEM EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID TO RANDY WEAVER AND DAVID KORESH.. … YOU’RE PUTTING TWO AND TWO TOGETHER AND MAKING FIVE!”
The moral of the story is that Jones just wants to see dangers and makes intentionally skewered, conspiricist interpretations of things which by themselves might be quite innocent. Then his threat perception is so overblown, it triggers very emotional conspiranoid and aggressive reaction patterns, even leading him now in the arms of Trump.
Though he does direct attention to some under-reported issues and employs the Watson brothers, whose reporting seem to be factual, the way Jones goes about it is not very helpful to make real reform and changes possible. Trump and Jones deserve each other, but the US deserves something far better.
Meanwhile reptilian-detector David Icke thinks that real human sacrifices happen at the Bohemian Grove and that the stone owl stands for Moloch.
On the opposite side of the spectrum lies the statement the Bohemian Grove provided to Jonson about what they think they do: “The cremation of care is a musical and verse pageant heralding a two week midsummer escape from business cares and celebrating nature and good fellowship. As grand scale stage drama it may be a bit overdrawn, but it’s about as innocent as anything could be”.
In between one can find a more sociological assessment of this gathering by G. William Domhoff, a student of C. Wright Mills and long-time researcher of the US upper class and its executive branch, the power elite. Domhoff used his study of the Bohemian Grove to further make his case that a distinct upper class of about 1% of the population really exists and that its summer gatherings serve the social cohesiveness of their class.
At a political level the Bohemian Grove is one of the many organizations in the US where consensus-seeking and policy-planning occurs by the leaders of corporations and banks on class-related issues. But this “high-status summer resort” is not the primary organization for policy planning. That is done at the more specialized organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Committee for Economic Development.
In short, the Bohemian Grove is not a satanic cult of the puppet masters of the world sacrificing babies, and it is neither an innocent midsummer escape for the rich. Its function is for members of the upper class to bond with each other and smooth over policy differences.
Because many of these policies exploit and hurt untold other people these gatherings have to be researched, exposed and countered. Alex Jones both contributed and hindered that process. Through him many people now know about the Bilderberg Group and the Bohemian Grove, but his hot-headed, conspiricist interpretations of what goes on there darken the minds of his audience, many of whom might have even drifted off further and fell for the utterly bizarre fantasies of QAnon.
Only a good dose of careful social science might counter that trend and the work by Domhoff is crucial to arrive at a nuanced insight of the power elite.
At the same time, and very unfortunately so, a large part of the US electorate might already be in a dangerous phase of ramped-up emotions and in serious denial of facts, reasoning and science. This hysteria, coupled with a tendency towards authoritarianism, became amplified by a psychopathic politician, or pathocrat, now sitting in the White House.
To what level of intensity and destructiveness this might lead is unknown, but the signs are not good. Mix in the pandemic and the fight for racial justice and you might end up with something explosive. For the sake of the health of the US body politique this pathocrat has to be impeached or voted out and made harmless. Some experts expect that, once he is out, many people will come back to their senses and America can assess and repair the extensive damages.
Sources
Domhoff, G. William. 1974. The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A Study in Ruling Class Cohesiveness. New York: Harper & Row. Abbreviated text.
Ronson, Jon. 2001. “The Satanic Shadowy Elite?” Part 4 of “Secret Rulers of the World”. Documentary. World of Wonder Productions, 20 May 2001.
Ronson, Jon. 2001. “The Bilderberg Group“. Part 5 of “Secret Rulers of the World”. Documentary. World of Wonder Productions, 27 May 2001.
Ronson, Jon. 2002. Them: Adventures with Extremists. Book. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.
Frontline. 2020. “Alex Jones and Donald Trump: How the Candidate Echoed the Conspiracy Theorist on the Campaign Trail“. Frontline, 28 July 2020.
Willimon, Beau, et al. 2013. House of Cards. The Complete Fifth Season.
The Bohemian Grove is the inspiration for the “Elysian Fields” in season 5.