Antony Sutton’s book, America’s Secret Establishment, is about a secret society that has been on the campus of Yale University since 1833. Sutton’s contention is that this secret society, Skull and Bones, has been extremely influential in American government, economics, and culture for many generations. Rich and powerful families have direct connections to Skull and Bones. Members support each other as they collectively work to promote a sinister program. The implication is that Skull and Bones is at the center of what is commonly referred to as the Deep State, or, as Sutton prefers, the Secret Elite.
Skull and Bones has a strong foundation in Germany and German philosophy.
Its co-founder, William Russell, had been a student in Germany in 1831-2. He founded Skull and Bones as Chapter 322, a chapter of a German society. Later in the 19th century members of the society, or individuals associated with members, found their way to Germany and were influenced by prevailing attitudes there. Skull and bones is said to deny German origins and influence, but a main theme of Sutton’s book is that such influence is quite demonstrable.
Nineteenth century German intellectual thought, Sutton asserts, was largely taken up with the works and ideas of philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). Sutton argues that it was German Hegelianism that heavily influenced thinking in German institutions of higher education, and that it in turn influenced the intellectual orientation of Skull and Bones.
There are two basic ideas that are said to come from Hegel which are paramount in the context of the Skull and Bones worldview. The first is that the state is sovereign and the individual citizen owes absolute allegiance to it. The individual can only find fulfillment and freedom, of sorts, in conformity and service to the all powerful State. The individual only has rights as they are afforded to him or her by the State. This notion contrasts to that of the American Constitution which says that human beings are created with inalienable rights; that rights aren’t afforded by the State but are endowed by nature or God. It is in this fundamental idea that the agenda of Skull and Bones is at odds with the most central of traditional American values.
The second idea that comes from Hegelian thought is that of the dialectic. The notion is that progress only comes about through conflict. A thesis is confronted by an antithesis and a synthesis of the two results. Dialectics are typically found, according to adherents of this view, in the political realm, both nationally and internationally. One can see this play out in the conflict between Capitalism and Communism, for example. Through conflict, and especially violent conflict, history moves forward and fundamental change comes about.
The charge is that this secret society, armed with the understanding of dialectics, influences the course of events in order to shape a future of their own liking. They fund both sides of a political divide – right and left, Republican and Democrat, Communist and Capitalist – in order to facilitate and influence political conflict. Indeed, they work to make both sides extreme in order to increase the likelihood of conflicts becoming violent. At its worst, the facilitating of these conflicts leads to war.
Skull and Bones - also referred to internally as The Order - works to place members in high places in business, government, education, journalism and other fields. They like to place members onto the boards of big Foundations. By controlling large sums of money and by placing members in high places they can leverage their influence in various institutions.
In some of Sutton’s earlier works, notably Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution and Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, he details how the west supported both fascism and communism. Without Western bankers and industrialists supporting the Bolsheviks and Nazis, their respective rises to power probably never come about. It is a dangerous game they play. And Sutton argues that the ultimate goal is to create a New World Order - one in which the State is supremely and absolutely dominant. This explains their preference for totalitarian regimes and ideologies.
In his Wall Street series, Sutton asserted that the secret elite had no ideology, but that it used ideology merely as a tool to divide populations – and that the only motivations for the actions of the secret elite were power and greed. In America’s Secret Establishment, Sutton comes close to identifying an underlying ideology for this secret elite and its secret club, Skull and Bones. In its promotion of a New World Order it would seem a Hegelian philosophy underpins their ideological goals and methods. In this book Sutton suggests that based on this neo-Hegelian framework a consortium of wealthy and influential families pursue an agenda that would do away with individual rights and promote a tyrannical, global regime that would establish complete dependence of the individual on the State. In the 21st century as human rights and access to the truth continue to erode, this sort of analysis is becoming more and more plausible.
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