AHC: Plausible Secret Societ Ruled World

A mainstay of conspiracy theories is grand secret societies either ruling the world or preparing to take over. I don't believe that in the slightest, but I do think it would be an interesting bit of world building to actually make such an organisation. Historically there's been a few orders and such with quite a lot of power, but few were all that secret. Is there any way to actually have set up happen? Both the secret rulers or the plotting society are available, though obviously the latter needs them strong enough to actually have a chance with their plot.
 
Project MKUltra is wanked to ASB levels. CIA agents find a way to mind control billions of people at once. A few of them team up to actually mind control first their colleagues, then high-ranking government members, then through them, the rest of the administration, then the rest of the US citizens, and so on...

Yeah, I don't have any better ideas. Seems kinda ASB, considering that political power lies in the hands of those with the economic power, in general, and I can't really see how a "secret society" of a handful of (however rich) individuals can take over the economy of the whole world. Besides, perhaps the biggest problem is keeping their rule actually secret. It just sounds way too impossible. (And if it were possible, it would probably have happened by now...)
 
The quintessential problem is that if you have influence it's hard to be secret. A secret society without much power is easy to imagine (setting aside the question of whether any such thing actually exists), but it's hard to have too much influence without people knowing you have influence. Particularly when operating across international borders. An influential secret society in one country is vaguely possible - if very difficult - but an international one?
 
The quintessential problem is that if you have influence it's hard to be secret. A secret society without much power is easy to imagine (setting aside the question of whether any such thing actually exists), but it's hard to have too much influence without people knowing you have influence. Particularly when operating across international borders. An influential secret society in one country is vaguely possible - if very difficult - but an international one?
I knew it was a very difficult challenge.
 
Yes. You need an economic system that allows for increased concentration of wealth in small group. Best if group doesn't consists of more than 1% of population. Have this group use the wealth they've amassed to gain political influece, in time subverting the political elites to their goals. Use that political power (avoiding direct participation in political process, best to just bribe and finance politicians that are favourable to this group) to supress or marginalise any opposition, paint this opposition as groups professing some odious ideology, preferably something that is claimed to want to take everybody's property. Media is best, use police and security apparatus if that doesn't work.

With that this group controls the state, it controls the media, it controls the police and can pretty much shut down any opposition.

ASB territory though......
 
It SEEMS to me that this is more of a 'Shared Worlds' or 'ASB' kind of challenge, than something that really belongs in pre1900.

The problems with keeping your hypothetical secret society secret are immense. "Two men can keep a secret - if one of them is dead."
 
WHO said that THEY aren't already?!? :cool::cool::cool:

They don't teach about the Illuminati in school, therefore it must be a coverup!

Seriously though, secret societies don't exist. The two things that come close are the Freemasons, who have good intentions, and the Catholic Church, so that already happened OTL with the Pope and Europe.
 

SinghKing

Banned
BTW, exactly how secret does this society have to be to meet this challenge? If they're as much of an open secret as, say, the Illuminati or the Zaibatsu are IOTL, would they still count as secret societies?
 
It SEEMS to me that this is more of a 'Shared Worlds' or 'ASB' kind of challenge, than something that really belongs in pre1900.

The problems with keeping your hypothetical secret society secret are immense. "Two men can keep a secret - if one of them is dead."
I kept it out of there because I was trying to maximise plausibility. ASB would just open up aliens and other things.

BTW, exactly how secret does this society have to be to meet this challenge? If they're as much of an open secret as, say, the Illuminati or the Zaibatsu are IOTL, would they still count as secret societies?
As secret as possible.
 
i'd say it would need to be a relatively small secret society, namely the leaders and other most influential people of the most powerful countries in the world--let's say G7 at least, G20 at most--who operate in tandem with each other. the best fictional example i can think of is the four major WW2 leaders in the expanded universe of Assassin's Creed (i know i use that series in example alot, but i'd say it's a credible comparison). in that series' lore, FDR, Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin are all Templars, and World War 2 was actually just a front for them to move a Piece of Eden from Point A to Point B, all the way up to Hitler faking his death and leaving a body double in the Fuhrerbunker to be found and destroyed by Soviet soldiers (don't worry, though--the Assassins intercepted him shortly thereafter and killed him anyway)

getting to the point, a realistic global conspiracy would be one that has de jure control over the world if not de facto. for the most part they would be unstoppable, but wouldn't really have absolute control over the entire world--just enough that they would still be the unquestioned masters of the world.
 
Start with a society of alumni from an early university (Oxford, Bologna, Vallencia) that the descendants of any recorded gradate may join. Have them play nice with "legacies" (Oxford to Cambridge, Cambridge to Harvard, etc.) and coordinate leadership from their alumni. It works as a very loose confederation more than a secret society at first but over time the bonds become stronger and actual policies can be implemented this way by the latter half of the 19th century.
 
OTL the Freemasons had lots of lodges, but this lodges were not unified. Like the ideas of one would differ from another, but still adhere to Freemasonry. If you can unite the lodges and have most of the western world's leaders be lodge members then that's the closest to a secret society ruling the world that you'll get.
 

Orsino

Banned
WHO said that THEY aren't already?!? :cool::cool::cool:

They don't teach about the Illuminati in school, therefore it must be a coverup!

Seriously though, secret societies don't exist. The two things that come close are the Freemasons, who have good intentions, and the Catholic Church, so that already happened OTL with the Pope and Europe.
There are many more secret societies other than the freemasons: Cicada 3301, all the various secret and quasi-secret collegiate societies such as Skull and Bones, and depending upon how broad a definition you use then terrorist/paramilitary organisations like the IRA or ETA can all be considered secret societies.

And there is some evidence to suggest secret societies have sometimes tried to clandestinely wield political influence, as with Propaganda Due in Italy.

So it is entirely plausible for a secret society to bring together various influential people within a nation with the aim of directing that nation's course. I think a global secret society is a bit more difficult to achieve because there will be less unity of purpose; the interests of a secret society member in the US won't be the same as the interests of a member in France, or Saudi Arabia, or Israel or Fiji.
 
As crazy as conspiracy hypothesists (I don't call them theorists because to do so would give them too much credit) are that they do tend to center their conspiracies around the one group of people who would have any chance of secretly taking over/controlling the world. Bankers. They would be the only ones who have access to anywhere remotely near the minimum amount of resources to pull it off. The problem with getting any kind of "secret" society to control the world is that something that big and elaborate couldn't possibly stay secret.
 
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