How would you conspire to control the world?

I'd take over the media. Most people actually believe what they read in the newspapers. Bizarre, but true.

And IMO the Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" was very, very, very close to the truth .......

Assuming that I had the wealth, and was inclined to pure evilness, here's how I would roll over the world:

1. Start giving away items for free to the poor. By them food, clothes, whatever you think will get them to listen to you; show them that one person cares for them, when their own government does not (Essentially, I'd make them depend on me for support).

2. (In the USA) - I'd start by bribing some of the newer politicians (not the older ones, but the ones that may run for futures to come). Having a foothold in Congress is the start.

3. Take control of the media - For those of us ATS, this would have little to no effect. But to the other 95% of the world, they rely on TV, the internet, and sometimes the radio more than they should. The only news that would come out would be news that I wanted the public to hear. It wouldn't be too hard to slip a little sum of money to a reporter, or an editor to run a certain story and remove another.

(Below is in the later stages, assuming I still had plenty of money to spare).

4. Hire certain people to go onto websites (such as ATS), and spread the disinfo around (In other words - the less people that are willing to believe in something not mainstream, the better off I am for having them comply with new changes or policies). Also, if this fails to accomplish the goal, then hackers are the way to go. I'm not talking the "script kiddies" either - there are people both in the USA, and outside of it, that are quite capable of taking out a website. Also, I'd blame it on a random hacker, to avoid guilt on me.

5. Create my own religion (or several, each consisting of different elements). Look what happened with the Church of Scientology - it used to be a Sci-Fi book (I kid you not), and now it's falling into place as a major religion. My religion would consist of things that are generally prohibited in other ones, to attract more people. Also, I would hire some of the better salesmen & women to promote this religion, as I lack the sales skills needed.

6. Buy some sharks with laser beams on their heads, a pool (filled with the sharks and angry sea-bass), and the Game of Thrones throne (as well as the large tower in Dubai - If I'm to be ruler of the world, I'll need a nice place to retire to, seeing as Mordor is not available at this time).

In all seriousness, if I had the wealth, I'd help those truly in need, or put the money towards developing tech that would help us in the future (such as space travel).

-fossilera

PS: I just now realized that #6 is more comical than evil, so kindly exclude this item from the list. Thanks!

I wouldn't conspire to take over the world.

I'd buy cheese for Pinky and the Brain.

I'd study the ways that people regulate themselves, and encourage that in the general population through education and media.

Self-regulation reduces the need for externally imposed control structures.

reply to post by The Vagabond


A well thought out post and argument but surely the answer to your friend is that there is no singular enemy in a Global system.

Although no shadowy organization is in charge, there are a number that would like to be and between them; they get up to some oppressive and very anti-human stuff.

These entities, driven by their understanding of humanities naive need for happiness derived from wealth, simply exploit our weaknesses.

Just about every human based conspiracy I've ever heard does have at least one real historical precedent so although your friend is right about no overarching conspiracy;

False Flags
Psy Ops
Govt Sponsored Assassinations
Bugging, Tapping and Electric Interception
Weapons Testing

Have all been carried out on global citizens by various secret groups.

In answer to your question, To control the world you need to beat every other group who also intends to control the world.
( This may get a little bit messy for humanity as a whole -which is where we seem to be now) ..

reply to post by Jukiodone


I agree with a lot of what you say there. There certainly are conspiracies, plural, and "them" probably exists- not just one "them" but several of them, each with their own agenda. And there's bound to be some discord within a conspiracy- find me any organization anywhere that doesn't have a guy who isn't in charge but wants to be.

What I have concluded is that for the vast majority if not all of the likely players, invasions of Russian or NATO troops, massive weapons confiscations, concentration camps, and all the james bond villain sounding stuff would be against their interests. Having a fractured 1% vs the 99% is like having 3 sharks and a whale at a card table- if everyone goes all out to get all of his money for themselves, they're gonna scare him away. The sharks have got to agree that the guy is gonna give his money away and each should play it cool and take what he can get.

I have yet to finish hammering out the details of my scenario to post, but in the broad strokes what I have concluded is that if I had 20 billion dollars which would put me pretty far up the list, I'm still nowhere near dominance but i've got too much to lose to make that long leap to absolute ruler of the world, so my first priority is just to keep my dollars/property valuable, my second is to increase my standing relative to the next guy on the billionaire list, and my third is to figure out a way to buy whatever i lack in life that isn't actually for sale (popularity, respect, self esteem, a sense of meaning, etc).

I've concluded that the way to accomplish all of this is manipulating society. I've gotta maintain consumer confidence, maintain a popular desire for the things i have, advertise my products, overshadow my competitors, increase my overall control and have it all mean something in the end.

How can I do that with 20 billion dollars (20 billion that i can't even spend all of if I want to stay rich)?

Well there's government- its lasting, esteemed, meaningful, and can require people to do what I say- but I don't have enough money to dominate it to the exclusion of my competitors, and the people overthrow governments sometimes- its just not the best way.

Then there are the poor. They're motivated, there are tons of them, its a humanitarian cause- I can help the poor and then they'll have money and be my friends, even idolize me, and spend their money with me... but the poor are neither trusting nor trustworthy where the rich are concerned. I can't undermine big money without hurting myself in some ways, and if it goes too far they might revolt and take my stuff along with everyone elses.

There's religion, but it's day seems to be nearing dusk.

Then it hit me- families. Families have everything I need. There are a lot of them, they have resources, they have their own grass roots infrastructure, they have easy to relate to priorities that unite them, you can rally people in their name, but the people you get that way are less likely to form a People's Army, and it's a nice feel-good cause to be working with.

What would I do with whatever demographic I had chosen? I'd market to them of course. The idea is to dominate a consumer demographic, then move that demographic to increase its own power in the market in a way that no individual could have achieved, thereby creating a rising tide that lifts your boat more than the boats of your competitors. There's also an aspect of predicting the future by creating it there.

Simple analogy: I own hot topic, my competitor owns the gap. Everytime some goth freshman gets thrown in a trashcan, I lose a customer. I can protect my bottom line, get free advertising, increase my social relevance, and take spending money away from my competitor's customers if I can get a thousand dollar fine placed on bullying. To accomplish this goal, do I buy Fox News, do i buy a congressman, or do I buy a website for some angry mothers who are already pushing in the direction I want to go?

It seems to me that politically/economically the conspiracies speak for themselves- putting myself in the shoes of a conspirator makes our political/media climate a little easier to digest. But it doesn't seem to add much weight to a grander scale of conspiracy.

I don't know, but one of the first things you would HAVE to do is gain control of communications. There's an entire 'array' starting with real time information ... and carry that all the way down to how your 'subjects' would be indoctrinated to your will.

Old story ... played out in every scenario that's ever been successfully pulled off IRL.

Great topic ... and one I'm going to follow. S&F

reply to post by Snarl


No doubt that for a few people to control many they have to understand what is happening and then project some subtle influence over it, and this is a process of communication, but it does not necessarily require control of communications, and I would argue that attempting to exercise dramatic control over communication is usually counter-productive. I also think it would be impossible to ever completely control communications, even if you had the entire world population in prison under heavy guard by robots.

For one thing, there's the connection of control to ownership and of ownership to cost. Ideally, my competitor would pay the consumers to build the communications infrastructure i need and to maintain it, and then without paying my competitor for the service I would get to use it to send a message to the consumers which causes them to come give me my competitors money AFTER it has already been spent for my benefit once (on the infrastructure).

I don't need to hear everybody's phone calls and track their location on GPS, and I sure as hell don't need to be on TV talking to congress about doing it- leave that to the guys who are trying to race me to the top. I'll buy the data mining reports and reap all the benefits and pay a fraction of the cost of ownership at first. Let Verizon build the network and do all the dirty work and expend resources struggling for direct control, then when they're in trouble for something I'll go to war with them financially and politically and take the infrastructure away from them.

I'll get parents all upset that their kids are looking at dirty pictures in the bathroom on their phones, then I'll buy a corvette for an evangelist and pray with him for a hero to stop the evil and turn him loose. I'll hire a paparatzo to find out about their CEOs drug problem, and then send a 17 year old hooker to "bump into" their CEO on his way out of his coke buy, and call the cops. My evangelist will turn the threat of dirty pictures provided by a company whose CEO is now a registered sex offender into a crisis of Vaticanesque proportions and when the dust settles I'll buy verizon for a lot less than it's worth and get credit for saving it in the wake of a scandal.

Point being the more I think about this, the more I am convinced that there is little if any reason to seek complete dominance over all people- it is better to have a harmless position in relation to the people but a good view of them and to communicate well with them. Pick on someone your own size and it's all good- even if you get all your ghetto friends to ratpack him first.

Remember, Robin Hood, as popularly enjoyed in America, is the story of a rich man who lost all of his money and property and business to his rich enemy, so he stole from his rich enemy and used the money to get the unemployed to help him steal back the rest.

I'd definitely go with distribution of some addicting substance in western nations. Chocolate is an awesome idea!!! Then I'd create a false flag attack. A blight on the coco bean causing shortages everywhere. Not a complete drought though. People would be desperate and of course prices would sky rocket.

That's when I'd ally myself with a weak government in a coco producing country. My company would, unsuspiciously, have the cure for the blight. I'd declare that I needed my own company to set up it's chocolate factory in the country, and furthermore I needed to provide all my own private security. The impoverished choco-banana republic would have no choice but to agree to my demands. I'd continue selling the product in the west at extortionate prices, while laundering as much money as I could through my sweet connections in the third world.

Western governments would become interested in me after a while, but since I basically have my own country at this point, to bring my goodies to their country they would have to offer me massive incentives. Otherwise the population would become agitated with them. Then I'd coerce them to use their diplomats or military to install governments in the countries around mine that would allow me to expand my monopoly.
There'd be an incredibly complicated distribution process that allowed consumers no connection between the growing in the poor countries and the shiny foil covered bitesized happiness they devour.

I'd never let my name become public.

Alright enough of this I'm off to eat some ferrero rocher!

Guns and vaginas, sir, guns and vaginas.

reply to post by Bundy


Old school.

2nd.