The Illuminati (Order of Perfectibilists)

The Illuminati (a.k.a. the Order of Perfectibilists) is the secret society to which everyone refers when talking conspiracy theory, a shadowy group of powerful individuals purportedly pulling strings behind the scenes, influencing world events, controlling governments and dedicated to the establishment of a New World Order.

The Illuminati was founded in 1776 Bavaria (coincidently the same year as the American Declaration of Independence) by Adam Weishaupt a university professor. The Order had branches in a great many European countries with a membership that included intellectuals, enlightened politicians, European nobility, Freemasons and former Freemasons (Weishaupt himself joined the Freemasons in 1777).

The Illuminati and their ideas concerning humanism and a single world government were to prove too radical for the established European governments and religions of the time and in 1784 they were banned in Bavaria along with the Freemasons by a new head of state Karl Theodor.

While this act may have legally put an end to the Society, it may equally as well have driven them underground and in the eyes of their detractors this is exactly what happened. Claims that they have been involved in wars and revolutions for over two hundred years are widespread, they have been blamed for both the French and Russian revolutions and implicated rightly or wrongly in breakdowns of authority everywhere.

If the Illuminati have had their share of critics they also have had those that view them in a kinder light. Thomas Jefferson claimed that they represented the best in humanity, intellectually and morally and that they had been forced to act in secrecy due to what he called "the tyranny of a despot" (Karl Theodor) "and priests" (the Roman Catholic Church). This is a position that conspiracy theorists, with their allegations that the founding fathers of the United States (some of which were Masons) had been infiltrated by the Illuminati and that the unfinished pyramid and All-Seeing Eye incorporated in the Great Seal was intended to be a reminder of the Illuminati’s ever watchful presence, might take issue with.

Is the original Bavarian Illumminati, its heirs or like minded organizations (still) active, influencing todays modern world its peoples and their governments?

Harold Wilson, British Prime Minister in the 1960s and arguably one of the most powerful politicians of his time, seems to have thought so. His nemesis were a small number of European bankers and financiers, obscure figures of immense power operating behind the scenes, secretly making decisions and pulling strings, an evolving Europe a marionette that danced to their tune. Wilson called these modern Illuminati the “Gnomes of Zurich.”

Today the fate of contemporary Europe seems already sealed, the eventual demise of individual nation states and national identities a forgone conclusion, the European Union a reality.

Perhaps these modern Illuminati have now turned their attention to North America, where recently developing events seem to threaten the American way of life, an increasingly embattled American middle class involved in a process for which their seems to be no favourable outcome, their elected federal government seemingly paralyzed, ineffective or unwilling to help.

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