Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starslight on the hidden hands of history
December 22, 2013
First off, I must note that Mr. Marrs is writing as a journalist, and not a historian or scientist. As such, his primary method of research is based largely on a survey of works of other authors, often centuries removed from the present. Thus, his work may be colored by attempts at disinformation and propaganda that these other authors advanced with their own agenda. Bearing this in mind, I still find the book quite useful and informative, indicating at least what may have happened to bring about our current states of affairs.
The book takes a retrospective-chronological path, starting with today's secret and semisecret societies, such as the Bilderbergs, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Trilateral Commission (to name a few) and works their way back to the Egyptians, the Sumerians, and beyond. Interesting to note how many members of secret societies today occupy positions of power and influence which greatly affect national policies and world situations. Marrs shows how true this is especially in government, industry and finance, where the CFR, the Trilateralists, the Bilderbergs and Bonesmen constitute at least a skeletal shadow government in the United States - unelected, and unaccountable to the general public or the laws of the land.
The historical sweep of Rule By Secrecy details how today's Bilderbergs, Trilateralists and Bonesmen derived from European Freemasons, Rosicrucians and Bavarian Illuminati. Centuries ago, at the height of the Church's power, these, collectives of "enlightened free thinkers" went underground to evade the tyrannical crush of the Roman Catholic Iron Fist which brutally dominated European life for nearly two thousand years. Ultimately, the spread and development of secret societies is traced back through the Templar Knights, to ancient Egypt, and then from Mesopotamia, to the Sumerians. The final chapter deals with the assertion that we were created by the Annunaki - an extraterrestrial civilization living on a semi-rogue planet, Nibiru, that has many new-agers and E.T. worshipers in such a heated twitter. But I digress . . .
Some long standing puzzles are adequately explained in the light of secret societies. In particular, the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, and infamous forgery, attributed to the Czar's secret police, may have been plagiarized from an even earlier Illuminati or Masonic plan for subverting the Catholic Church and corrupting Christian society. Marrs offers satisfactory evidence that this is so, rendering the Protocols as sort of a template for slandering and demonizing any target group by merely changing the names to those intended.
Ultimately, I can have little faith in the completeness or accuracy of what is disclosed here. How can an outsider possibly discern all that lies hidden and deliberately obfuscated or misrepresented? In particular, I have trouble accepting the scientific implications of a large planetary body swinging through the solar system every few millennia without seriously disturbing the stable orbits of at least a few planets.
But, as a reference providing insight into the network of secret societies, their agendas, their motives, and modes of operation; this book is well worth the price, and the read. One cannot attain a reasonably complete or accurate assessment of the world stage without a proper apprehension of the major players manipulating affairs behind the scenes.
