 Bilderberg's head Viscount Davignon plays down the group's role in setting the international agenda
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Posted on 10/03/2005 10:46:20 PM PDT by Coleus
How much influence do private networks of the rich and powerful have on government policies and international relations? One group, the Bilderberg, has often attracted speculation that it forms a shadowy global government. As part of the BBC's Who Runs Your World? series, Bill Hayton tries to find out more.
Bilderberg's head Viscount Davignon plays down the group's role in setting the international agenda
The chairman of the secretive - he prefers the word private - Bilderberg Group is 73-year-old Viscount Etienne Davignon, corporate director and former European Commissioner.
In his office, on a private floor above the Brussels office of the Suez conglomerate lined with political cartoons of himself, he told me what he thought of allegations that Bilderberg is a global conspiracy secretly ruling the world.
"It is unavoidable and it doesn't matter," he says. "There will always be people who believe in conspiracies but things happen in a much more incoherent fashion."
Lack of publicity
In an extremely rare interview, he played down the importance of Bilderberg in setting the international agenda. "What can come out of our meetings is that it is wrong not to try to deal with a problem. But a real consensus, an action plan containing points 1, 2 and 3? The answer is no. People are much too sensible to believe they can do that."
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 There need to be places where these people can think about the main challenges ahead, co-ordinate where policies should be going, and find out where there could be a consensus  Professor Kees van der Pijl
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Every year since 1954, a small network of rich and powerful people have held a discussion meeting about the state of the trans-Atlantic alliance and the problems facing Europe and the US.
Organised by a steering committee of two people from each of about 18 countries, the Bilderberg Group (named after the Dutch hotel in which it held its first meeting) brings together about 120 leading business people and politicians.
At this year's meeting in Germany, the audience included the heads of the World Bank and European Central Bank, Chairmen or Chief Executives from Nokia, BP, Unilever, DaimlerChrysler and Pepsi - among other multi-national corporations, editors from five major newspapers, members of parliament, ministers, European commissioners, the crown prince of Belgium and the queen of the Netherlands.
"I don't think (we are) a global ruling class because I don't think a global ruling class exists. I simply think it's people who have influence interested to speak to other people who have influence," Viscount Davignon says.
 Bill Clinton was featured at a Bilderberg meeting while he was governor of Arkansas
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"Business influences society and politics influences society - that's purely common sense. It's not that business contests the right of democratically-elected leaders to lead".
For Bilderberg's critics the fact that there is almost no publicity about the annual meetings is proof that they are up to no good. Jim Tucker, editor of a right-wing newspaper, the American Free Press for example, alleges they organise wars and elect and depose political leaders. He describes the group as simply 'evil'. So where does the truth lie?
Professor Kees van der Pijl of Sussex University in Britain says such private networks of corporate and political leaders play an informal but crucial role in the modern world.
"There need to be places where these people can think about the main challenges ahead, co-ordinate where policies should be going, and find out where there could be a consensus."
'Common sense'
Will Hutton, an economic analyst and former newspaper editor who attended a Bilderberg meeting in 1997, says people take part in these networks in order to influence the way the world works, to create what he calls "the international common sense" about policy.
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Business influences society and politics influences society - that's purely common sense |
And that "common sense" is one which supports the interests of Bilderberg's main participants - in particular free trade. Viscount Davignon says that at the annual meetings, "automatically around the table you have internationalists" - people who support the work of the World Trade Organisation, trans-Atlantic co-operation and European integration.
Bilderberg meetings often feature future political leaders shortly before they become household names. Bill Clinton went in 1991 while still governor of Arkansas, Tony Blair was there two years later while still an opposition MP. All the recent presidents of the European Commission attended Bilderberg meetings before they were appointed.
'Secret Government'
This has led to accusations that the group pushes its favoured politicians into high office. But Viscount Davignon says his steering committee are simply excellent talent spotters. The steering committee "does its best assessment of who are the bright new boys or girls in the beginning phase of their career who would like to get known."
"It's not a total accident, but it's not a forecast and if they go places it's not because of Bilderberg, it's because of themselves," Viscount Davignon says.
But its critics say Bilderberg's selection process gives an extra boost to aspiring politicians whose views are friendly to big business. None of this, however, is easy to prove - or disprove.
Observers like Will Hutton argue that such private networks have both good and bad sides. They are unaccountable to voters but, at the same time, they do keep the international system functioning. And there are limits to their power - a point which Bilderberg chairman was keen to stress, "When people say this is a secret government of the world I say that if we were a secret government of the world we should be bloody ashamed of ourselves."
Informal and private networks like Bilderberg have helped to oil the wheels of global politics and globalisation for the past half a century. In the eyes of critics they have undermined democracy, but their supporters believe they are crucial to modern democracy's success. And so long as business and politics remain mutually dependent, they will continue to thrive.
The hands on pillars look like Beetlejuice is coming out of the ground.
That's the headquarters of the Lonnaberger basket Co. just a few miles from where I now sit and type.
I actually interviewed there this year.
I thought they were out of business. People can't still be buying handmade high-priced wicker baskets!
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Ephesians 6:12
Don't forget Jimmy Carter. Who says lightning doesn't strike twice?
Your attempt at levity (sarcasm?) was really pretty good, though I still favor the one just before yours, by Ted Kennedy's Neck Brace.
A theory is nothing more than a construct, in which observations seem to fit. Over the course of last several decades their have been very many significant events, that to some, make absolutely no kind of sense whatsoever. Clinton being at that particular meeting is just one of those, and a long ways from being the most significant.
One who somehow managed to get out of the draft, get asked to leave Oxford but not have it on his record,take part in anti-war protests, travel to Russia in the middle of the cold war and get a super secret airport put in his state when he was governor. hmmm...now I wonder who/what would have the power to accomplish that?
I am glad it humored you. It is not a coincidence concerning Clinton when you realize he has always tried to shake himself of the Arkansas heritage and wanted to be accepted by Europe. When you couple that with his incredible ability to BS his way into the hearts of most he meets, I am not surprised he attended.
He won the presidency because it was perceived that GHWB renegged on his tax promise. Clinton also had the willing accomplisses of the MSM...Even the sex allegaions did nothing but give him time in front of the TV camera, where he was shown to be a loving husband to Hillary.
LOL!
"Mygawd, Viscount, just LOOK at him. He's disgusting. And the way he speaks. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard."
...."hmmmmm...It's so insane it may just work..."
"O.K. everyone is in agreement then? Sober him up and clean up his wife. White-trash dupes have always fascinated me. We have a world to control here, people. MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
Good point. And all his henchmen should wear brightly colored jumpsuits.
48 posted on 10/04/2005 10:34:14 AM EDT by ladyjane
The same masked hooded weasles who rigged his scholarships to Georgetown and Oxford.
"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton
read later
I still do not believe Clinton would have ever emerged from the ooze without patrons, or backers, and very, very heavy ones. I do not know if those patrons were purely American or had an international flavor.
He was not an overly bright man, but an egotistical juvenile delinquent in adult clothing. He could neither have neither risen nor survived without some very powerful "friends".
LOL.
Where do I go to find a complete transcript of their meetings? Oh? They don't allow that? I see. 
The conspiracy theory behind the Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton eerily similar presidencies claims that the corporate/billionaire totalitarian cliques prefer dysfunctional, psychologically maladjusted, semi-illiterate, and uninspiring mediocre presidents because that way they will never pose any threat to the shadow control by the secret society cliques themselves who are the real puppet masters behind the throne. Bizarre coincidence or conspiracy? You decide...
The Illuminati are powerless without their alien backers, the grays.
There was a difficult period when the founder retired and appointed his daughter to run the place. She was not at all cut from the same cloth and alienated many of the workers and the local folk with her profound arrogance and extravagant personal spending. Then he died and things worsened---the daughter built a huge, opulant mansion and laid off a large chunk of the workers. It was almost the end. Lately, I've been hearing of a slow comeback, with re-hiring, etc. I know a lot of people who make baskets for them, but I never met anyone who actually bought one.
Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do! We do!
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
We do! We do!
Who robs cavefish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do! We do!
Is that handbasket in Helena?
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