The New World Order (book)

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[[File:NWO Pat Rob.jpg|165px|thumb|Cover of The New World Order.]]
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:''The New World Order'' (book)}}
{{hatnote|Were you looking for our page on the conspiracy theory itself, [[New World Order]]?}}
{{cquote|Are these the ravings of a lunatic?|||Pat Robertson<ref name=Robertson>''The New World Order'' by Pat Robertson, published by Thomas Nelson, Incorporated, ISBN: 9780849909153</ref>{{rp|266}}}}
'''''The New World Order''''' ({{Isbn|9780849909153}}) is a 1991 book by [[Pat Robertson]] in which he pushed every conspiracy theory he could that was popular at the time. ("A catch all for conspiracy theories," is how one reviewer put it.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100124032720/http://www.livingston.net/wilkyjr/link26.htm New World Order by Pat Robertson]</ref>) Robertson was strongly influenced by the [[John Birch Society]], and like the JBS, included the [[Council on Foreign Relations]], the [[Trilateral Commission]], the [[Illuminati]], and the [[Rothschild family]] as part of the New World Order conspiracy.<ref>''Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right'' by Matthew Dallek (2023) Basic Books. ISBN 1541673565.</ref>{{rp|232-233}}

==A book with no conclusions==
{{main|Just Asking Questions}}
One of the most telling things about this book is how little Robertson, by his own admission, can actually conclude anything. On occasion, he'll just admit that he has no [[evidence]] to back up what he says, such as when he wrote the following on the death of [[Abraham Lincoln]]:
{{quotebox|top=1|There is no hard evidence to prove it, but it is my belief that [[Lincoln assassination conspiracy theories|John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated Lincoln, was in the employ of the European bankers who wanted to nip this American populist experiment in the bud]].<ref name=Robertson/>{{rp|265}}}}

Why was this [[populist]] idea so dangerous that Lincoln was killed for believing it? Robertson explained a page earlier:
{{quotebox|top=1|President Abraham Lincoln arrived at the very simple concept that it was not necessary under our [[government]] to borrow any dollars from any bank. The government, in fact, has the authority to issue money that is in turn backed up by the [[tax]]ing power of the federal government. [[Congress]] could mandate a percentage growth rate of the economy each year, and authorize the treasury to issue enough funds to permit a modest rate of growth in the various indexes of money supply.<ref name=Robertson/>{{rp|264-265}}}}

Of course, Robertson offers no evidence that Lincoln thought this. In fact, the [[American Civil War]] increased the national debt from $63 million to $2.2 billion,<ref>[https://www.treasurydirect.gov/government/historical-debt-outstanding/#:~:text=But%20soon%20after%2C%20it%20quickly,%242.7%20billion%20following%20the%20war. The History of the Debt]</ref> and Lincoln was even forced to default on the nation's debt in 1862.<ref>[https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/575722-the-us-has-never-defaulted-on-its-debt-except-the-four-times-it-did/ The US has never defaulted on its debt — except the four times it did]</ref> If Lincoln really did  know some simple means to keep the nation out of debt, but was also so adamant about it that if those in control of the banks felt the need to end his life, Lincoln sure did have a strange way of showing it.

Other times, Robertson will just [[Leading question|ask the readers a question which, assuming they agree with the book, to which they should already know the answer]]. "Can it be that the phrase the new world order means something entirely different to the inner circle of a [[secret society]] than it does to the ordinary person?"<ref name=Robertson/>{{rp|37}} "[I]s there not a possibility that the Wall Street bankers, who have so enthusiastically financed [[Bolshevism]] in the [[Soviet Union]] since 1917, did not do so for the purpose of promoting world [[communism]] but for the purpose of saddling the potentially rich Soviet Union with a totally wasteful and inefficient system that in turn would force the Soviet government to be dependent on Western bankers for its survival?"<ref name=Robertson/>{{rp|31}} (That one is a hard no because, to put it simply, Western bankers didn't back the Bolshevik revolution.<ref>[https://www.newagebd.net/article/127575/separating-truth-from-myth Separating truth from myth]</ref>) "Is it possible that the [[Gulf War]] was, in fact, a setup?"<ref name=Robertson/>{{rp|9}} (A setup to what exactly?) "Before [[World War I|<nowiki>[World War One]</nowiki>]], [[Monarchy|monarchies]] held sway. After the war, socialism and high finance held sway. Was it planned that way or was it merely an 'accident' or history?"<ref name=Robertson/>{{rp|64}}

Of course, the main flaw with this argument is also its appeal, anything is possible, in the most general sense of the term. It is totally possible that everything Robertson suggests is the case actually happened, but that fails to make it any more true because, to put it simply, so is every other counter explanation that is not fully impossible.

[[Al Franken]] in his book ''Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot'' spoofed this style of "[[just asking questions]]" by asking the following:
{{quotebox|Can it be that the leader of America's most powerful [[grassroots]] political movement is a raving lunatic? Is there not a possibility that Robertson himself is [[Satan]] and that the members of the [[Christian Coalition]] are, in fact, his unwitting dupes? Is it possible that the [[Republican Party]] is in the thrall of Lucifer? Was it planned that way or was it merely an "accident" of history?<ref name=Franken>''Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations'' by Al Franken (Delacorte Press, 1996) ISBN 0-385-31474-4</ref>{{rp|255}}}}

His answers to those questions are "yes, no, yes, and accident of history" respectively.<ref name=Franken/>{{rp|255}}

==Getting things wrong==
While Robertson doesn't always use facts to back up his claims, he does occasionally attempt to pull from reality&nbsp;— and fails quite a bit. At one part, in order to promote his views against [[oligarchy]], he attributed the following quote to be Lincoln:
{{quotebox|The money power preys upon the nation in times of [[peace]], and it conspires against it in times of adversity,  more [[despot]]ic than monarchy, more insolent than [[autocracy]]. It’s more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the [[prejudice]]s of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the [[republic]] is destroyed.<ref name=Robertson/>{{rp|266}}}}

There's no evidence that Lincoln actually said this, and Lincoln's official biographer even noted that this quote was nothing more then “a bold, [[Bullshit|unblushing]] [[forgery]].”<ref>[https://origins.osu.edu/history-news/getting-wrong-lincoln?language_content_entity=en Getting Wrong with Lincoln]</ref>

On another occasion, Robertson wrote that "the [[Supreme Court]] of the supposedly Christian United States… forbade [[Classroom prayer|children in public schools to pray]]."<ref name=Robertson/>{{rp|233}} This is an old [[religious right]] claim that has been [[Point refuted a thousand times|debunked thousands of times]], but [[prayer]] is not banned in [[Public education|public schools]], although school staff cannot lead students in prayer, both staff and students are allowed to engage in it if they so choose.<ref>[https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/religionandschools/prayer_guidance.html Guidance on Constitutionally Protected Prayer and Religious Expression in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools]</ref>

==Fun with sources==
In a 1995 article in ''The New York Review of Books'', Jacob Heilbrunn looks at some of the people Robertson cites,<ref name=Jacob>[https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/04/20/his-anti-semitic-sources/ His Anti-Semitic Sources]</ref> and the results were eye opening. You see, Robertson very much relies on ''World Revolution: The Plot Against Civilization''<ref>''World Revolution: The Plot Against Civilization'' by Nesta H. Webster (2000) Read Books, ISBN: 1446501809. Originally published in 1921.</ref> and ''Secret Societies and Subversive Movements''<ref>''Secret Societies and Subversive Movements'' by Nesta H. Webster (1924) A & B Publishers Group, ISBN:1881316882. Originally published in 1924.</ref> by Nesta H. Webster,<ref name=Jacob/> a British [[fascist]].<ref>Thomas Linehan, British Fascism 1918-39: Parties, Ideology and Culture, Manchester University Press, 2000</ref>{{rp|46}}

Robertson was also fond of ''Secrets of the Federal Reserve: The London Connection''<ref>Eustace Mullins, Secrets of the Federal Reserve (Staunton, Virginia: Bankers Research Institute, 1954; second edition, 1984)</ref> by [[Eustace Mullins]],<ref name=Jacob/> who is a [[Holocaust denier]]. 

==Fascist?==
Umberto Eco's famous essay "Ur-Fascism" uses this book as an example for one of its fourteen features of fascism:
{{quotebox|To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of [[nationalism]]. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist [[psychology]] there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to [[xenophobia]]. But the plot must also come from the inside: [[International Jewish conspiracy|Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside]]. In the US, a prominent instance of the plot obsession is to be found in Pat Robertson’s ''The New World Order'', but, as we have recently seen, there are many others.<ref>[https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/ Ur-Fascism] by Umberto Eco (June 22, 1995) ''The New York Review of Books''.</ref>}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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Categories: Books, Antisemitism, Conservative deceit, Conspiracy theories, Propaganda