Nothing seems to entice those in positions of power as much as secret societies. Nothing seems to reek of corruption more than secret societies. And nothing seems to capture public attention like secret societies. That is why Peter Thiel’s “secret society” leak is a confirmation that there’s a new class in the upper echelons of the system. Not because the “secret society” exists, but because it has been “leaked” that it does.
There is a tradition in Western elite circles—though I am less familiar with other political cultures, such as China or India—to create secretive societies. They are not necessarily hidden, as in trying to be completely unknown to the public, but they maintain strict confidentiality. Attendees and subjects are off the record, but they aim to influence public decision-making.
The authoritative study of these societies was first laid out by Carroll Quigley in his often-quoted book Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Times. In it, the author—a historian and professor at Georgetown University—documented the existence and evolution of an elite and highly influential network.
In 1891, the magnate Cecil Rhodes, alongside journalist William T. Stead, Lord Esher, and Alfred Milner, founded the “Circle of the Initiates”. There is a discrepancy about the existence of this particular group, as they aimed to function as a strictly secret society. The Circle of the Initiates was the inner group, and around it was built the Association of Helpers.
The primary function was to build a secret pressure group capable of federating the English-speaking world and bringing all habitable parts of the globe under British elite influence. It sought to leverage British culture, law, and economic dominance to project global stability, viewing the British Empire as the ultimate vehicle for global civilization.
However, when Alfred Milner took charge of the group, the society took a more public approach through the Round Table movement in 1909. Through what became known as “Milner’s Kindergarten”—a group of young men enlisted from Oxford graduates—they took influential positions in the media, academia, and government. The group acted as a coordinated cartel and set up Round Table groups in British Dominions.
Their function was to serve as elite discussion and lobbying networks to foster closer political and economic integration between the United States and the British Empire, gradually prepping nations for a post-national world order.
There are two key elements that are often missed in this otherwise generally known history. The first, is that it was modelled on the way the Jesuits had been operating for centuries, indicating a continuity of the system albeit with different actors. The second, is that “Milner’s Kindergarten” was assembled to help rebuild South Africa after the Boer War.
The Boer War could be read as a turning point in political history which closed the 19th century and heralded the wars to come in the 20th. The British Empire’s war against the Boers was driven by the interests of a new, emerging elite: an oligarchy of private international bankers and the masters of raw commodity wealth—specifically those controlling South African gold and diamonds. Through the war, an international power structure divorced from elected governments or traditional monarchies asserted its rule. The purpose of “Milner’s Kindergarten” was to rebuild South Africa according to their interests.
In 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, these British and American intellectual elites decided to form permanent, institutionalized bodies for continuous collaboration. In the UK, this became the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House); in the US, it became the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which in its early decades operated heavily in tandem with the interests of J.P. Morgan and Company.
Later organizations, such as the Bilderberg Group, the Club of Rome, or the Trilateral Commission, were modelled after this very successful pattern. Whereas Milner’s Group sought to integrate the English-speaking world under the British Empire, they sought to bind Western Europe to the Anglo-American empire to counter the Soviet Union. As is documented, the European Union was born, or at least conceived, within these groups.
The World Economic Forum could be read as a more public-facing, less secretive, but similar organization with the purpose of financially and digitally integrating other areas under Western influence. All the private meetings held at Davos or by the above-mentioned organizations, especially the Bilderberg Group, function under the Chatham House Rule. Participants are free and encouraged to use the information and ideas they hear, but they are strictly prohibited from revealing the identity or affiliation of the speakers or any other participant.
The Bilderberg Group, which was founded in 1954, remained outside of public scrutiny for decades. It was only in the early years of this century—due to the work of reporter Jim Tucker, who had been following the yearly meetings for years, and Daniel Estulin, who claims to have worked for the KGB in its final years and who published the book The True Story of the Bilderberg Group in 2005—that more details about them came to be known.
It could be argued that it took the public about 50 years to begin piercing into the inner workings of the Bilderberg Group. Yet, it has taken only about 20 years, since its founding in 2006 by Peter Thiel and Auren Hoffman, for the public to pierce into Dialog, their secret society.
I am very skeptical of the supposed leak. According to Wired, which has verified it and published it, “the directory was embedded in the code of dialog.org, a near-empty page, and was served to any visitor who viewed the page’s source.” Thiel, who famously co-founded PayPal and Palantir and who has at his fingertips some of the best data encryptors in the world, left the directory of his “secret society” basically unguarded for almost anyone to find.
I find it much more plausible that this, like many leaks, was a perfectly orchestrated event in order to let the public know about this “secret society.” Because such societies are a mark of power, they signal that those who are behind them have their own agenda. It could also be that the data was left open due to incompetence or disdain. However, even if that’s the case, it does not change the basic premise that they did not care enough to hide it. And the result is the same.
Wired states that “the website directory names sitting Trump administration officials, two US senators, six members of the PayPal Mafia, a former Middle East chief of intelligence, and a sitting ambassador to the United States, along with the founders and directors of many of the country’s largest surveillance, data-broker, and advertising-data companies.”
The publication mentions some of the off-the-record sessions, which function under the Chatham House Rule, and which range from “How’s Your Sex Life” (noteworthy that the organization also hosts a matchmaking app for participants) to “Bring Back Nuclear,” “Navigating WWIII,” “Battlefield Technologies,” or “How to Build a Cult”. It also states that “what ties the roster together more than any title or office is a shared preoccupation with artificial intelligence, longevity, and the near future”.
The purpose of these organizations is to build consensus amongst a group of influential individuals in different spheres, from the media to business, academia, and government. This consensus is then reflected in legislation, academic articles that give it grounding, the media that promote it, and the businesses that benefit. The model is not new.
And that is the telling sign. I have argued that many of the events that we are seeing happen, from geopolitical moves to financial decisions, are being directed to protect and promote the interests of a new class that has arrived at the upper echelons of systemic power. They are reshaping finance, war, surveillance, industry, entertainment, academia, and the State. The combined valuation of the US stock market sits at between 75 and 80 trillion dollars. The ten largest US companies are all tech companies and represent around a third of the total US market valuation, or 28 trillion dollars. For reference, that is more than the GDP of China, EU or Russia.
And I have argued that this tightly-knit oligarchy knows each other, talks to each other, and fights or helps each other. The fact that Dialog has been made public is an indication that they are already comfortably occupying their seats and that, far from fearing public scrutiny, they crave it.
