Professor Quigley: Tragedy and Hope 101 primer inquiry

[Chalan]

I was raised in a family who firmly believed that Communism was the largest evil in the world, and it would ruin humanity if we didn’t dedicate our lives to eradicating it from our world like some cancer. Nothing else seemed to matter quite as much. My parents became John Birchers. We went to rallies and meetings. I joined the Young Americans for Freedom. I CONSUMED years of the Foundation for Economic Education (a Think tank for libertarian monetary and governmental policy positions) pamphlets we got in the mail each month. I was molded into a Staunch Republican - even though my friends and those I cared about, didn’t behave like the templates I studied from F.E.E. - ruthlessness was not really a component of their daily lives. At first I thought they were just under informed and I attempted to educate them on the ways of economy and government - set them straight! However this rarely swayed, and I wound up in pretzels trying to justify my noble, lofty, purely reason driven laissez faire perspective. People all around me said it ‘lacked humanity’.

It took me over 40 years to untangle some of those knots, and I may still be secretly working on others I’ve managed to ensnare myself in during my slow climb to ‘enlightenment/reality’. I would like to thank George W. Bush, and particularly Dick Cheney for finally convincing me that Conservatives/Republicans were completely full of fecal material and must be opposed along with all of their ilk as loudly and consistently as I possibly can, pulling other aware individuals into the fray as best I am able to, on any given day.

"Hello, My name is Mark, and I’m a recovering Republican.
It’s been over twenty years since I’ve imagined that supply side, trickle down economics were a viable method of viewing the distribution of wealth in an equitable manner."

That being said - I have been exposed to SO many conspiracy ideas (several contradictory yet simultaneously presented) that I became, at an early age, a conspiracy investigator. I am NOT a ‘conspiracy theorist’, in that I rarely find sufficient purchase in most of the drama-laden conspiracy circles. This does not mean that I have concluded that there are no conspiracies anywhere, after all ‘to conspire’ is from the Latin ‘to breath together’ and that sort of meeting happens all over the place, the more successful ones in secret. I have simply ‘written off’ 95% of the hype surrounding most of those theories.

This post is about that 5% that I haven’t been able to shake.

Specifically - a book I stumbled across last week - “Tragedy and Hope 101” - and the details it lays out regarding how our world has been shaped/guided/directed/forced into various positions by a hand full of people who regard their mission to be important enough to eschew pesky things like morality, humanity, decency, sanctity of life, etc. “The spice must flow” sort of mentality.

Now, I have to say that this book is a primer of a giant tome over 1300 pages long that was written by a Professor who researched these folks and was given access to much of their papers for a few years (ostensibly to write a history of the group, not to be shared with the public). But it plucks out the significant details that Professor Quigley wrote about (and then caused to be published, because he became concerned that this group might be causing most of the problems in the world) detailing a few key people, how they forged their designs into the crucible that is now our world.

I’ve not finished it yet, but it ‘feels’ very accurate and succinctly portrays this group - a few ultra wealthy good old boys that saw the failures of other ‘world groups’ to be able to successfully ‘unite’ the world (under THEIR rule) and carved a path with their wealth that they saw as the best mechanisms to bring their desires to fruition - create a central bank, use that leverage to slowly control businesses and eventually governments (no, you can not have X million to go to war with them…), as well as pouring the wealth into the purchase and ‘guidance’ of all media and universities - control the money flow, direct it to government, media and education - and indoctrinate the people with ‘wholesome ideas about deities and national pride’ to the point where they will be willing to do all sorts of things for God and Country that a human, left alone, might shirk (well, no thank you, I’d rather not point weapons at that neighbor, they might retaliate and injure some of US!).

Thing is - my parents had mentioned Professor Quigley - that “Tragedy and Hope” was ‘taken out of circulation’ after print by some cabal (true) - that ‘Colonel’ House penned a book called “Philip Dru: Administrator” detailing how to ‘bring America’ into the world arena - including setting up income taxes and a ‘central bank’ - the FED, and then he ‘led’ Woodrow Wilson to those exact events. I took it all with giant grains of salt - but this one nugget seems to have withstood the test of time.

So - gentlepeople - my ask, my wonderment - in the midst of my attempts to grasp just what the HELL is going on, and what caused it, and what might still be done to reduce stupidity and death and allow us to behave more humanely - is - what are your thoughts about “Tragedy and Hope”, Professor Quigley, the subtle details of the creation of income taxation (there are some questionable things I can’t ‘wack away’ - like that our country spends WAY more than they tax - so … exactly ‘where does the rest of the money come from, and why tax us at all’ sort of reasoning), the ‘necessity’ of the Federal Reserve, et all.

Is most of our thrashing around trying to work out political/social/economic solutions all shadows on the back of a cave wall that we are attempting to grasp? It is all smoke and mirrors, dooming our efforts to futility? Or are all of these credentialed, well reasoned people who were ‘in the thick of it’ and reported on it all honestly, just totally mistaken about all of the details they’ve provided (much of which was only verified decades later due to some gaff, law suit, or tell-all).

My quagmire seems to be - if this is true, then I’m focusing on the wrong things. I can’t be sure what path TO take yet (premature book-ranting?) but if I decide to lean into the accuracy of what this is detailing, then all the marches, all the vote drives, all of the blood, sweat and tears of our protests are ‘full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing’.

I am still pondering, but wanted to offer my thoughts to you for dissection and further enlightenment.

First Post, totally unaware of any expectations from others,
JustMark

[Foggy]

I approved the post, but the author in question is Carroll Quigly, not Quimby. The book, Tragedy and Hope, was written by a former Georgetown University professor in 1966.

Further affiant sayeth naught.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Thanks for, posting, Chalan/Mark!

[jez]

Welcome to our raucous little playpen, Chalan. I was told to keep an out for you from a mutual acquaintance that got the name of this wonderful site from me.

I'm not versed enough in economics or theory to be able to expound on your questions, nor have I read the book you are referencing. My only job around is here is comic relief and asking dumb questions.

[Phoenix520]

I wish you’d do a lot more of whatever it is you do, jez.

[Slim Cognito]

Welcome! I can’t contribute to your conundrum. I’m more like Jez’s backup.

[Chalan]

I approved the post, but the author in question is Carroll Quigly, not Quimby. The book, Tragedy and Hope, was written by a former Georgetown University professor in 1966.

Further affiant sayeth naught.

A pox on my ephemeral memory banks! You are quite right.

[Slim Cognito]

I approved the post, but the author in question is Carroll Quigly, not Quimby. The book, Tragedy and Hope, was written by a former Georgetown University professor in 1966.

Further affiant sayeth naught.

A pox on my ephemeral memory banks! You are quite right.

No problem. It has happened to all of us here. If you want to change the title, just to back to your original post and hit the edit button. You can change the title there.

[northland10]

Am I missing someting? Was there an initial post I am not seeing (the approved one)?

[AndyinPA]

Am I missing someting? Was there an initial post I am not seeing (the approved one)?

Earlier today, this thread started out with a long post. It's gone now.

[Phoenix520]

Not gone, tangled in moderation when Chalan corrected the author’s name in the title.

It’s back!

[AndyinPA]

Yep.

[Sam the Centipede]

Not sure I understood the post but welcome!

My only contribution to the debate of the above never to assume that most actors and their actions are rational. They might be… but it's unlikely and one would never assume it.

[Frater I*I]

not Quimby.

VOTE QUIMBY!!!!

[Flatpoint High]

for those interested in reading the tome:
http://www.carrollquigley.net/pdf/Tragedy_and_Hope.pdf

[Foggy]

He was an interesting fellow, but he died about the same time I entered Georgetown University, so I never got a chance to meet him or take one of his courses.

Apparently, Bill Clinton did.

[Chalan]

Welcome to our raucous little playpen, Chalan. I was told to keep an out for you from a mutual acquaintance that got the name of this wonderful site from me.

Thanks Jez - blame this acquaintance for my rants, they pointed me here :chuckle:

[Chalan]

not Quimby.

VOTE QUIMBY!!!!

So posited that Quimby may be substituted for FNORD in all unofficial gatherings of The Society

[Chalan]

for those interested in reading the tome:
http://www.carrollquigley.net/pdf/Tragedy_and_Hope.pdf

Thanks for the link - loved “Strangers with Candy” so hard. “Good times!”

[Chalan]

Not sure I understood the post but welcome!

My only contribution to the debate of the above never to assume that most actors and their actions are rational. They might be… but it's unlikely and one would never assume it.

TL;DR: If the conjectures in this aforementioned book are accurate, most of what ‘activists’ are doing will be completely useless and a waste of efforts; but what can be done?

[Chalan]

for those interested in reading the tome:
http://www.carrollquigley.net/pdf/Tragedy_and_Hope.pdf

Thanks for the link - loved “Strangers with Candy” so hard. “Good times!”

[Flatpoint High]

not Quimby.

VOTE QUIMBY!!!!

So posited that Quimby may be substituted for FNORD in all unofficial gatherings of The Society

HAIL ERIS!

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[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Did somebody say something?

[humblescribe]

I wonder if the movers and shakers at the annual Bilderburg Conference are part of this grand scheme?

Their meetings are hush-hush so that members can speak freely and openly without fear of being cited or publicized. (That would be publicised for Suranis.)