Contrasting initiatives and concerns

Club of Rome Reports and Bifurcations: a 50-year overview (Part #5)

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In addition to the above bifurcations, the Club of Rome initiative -- together with those bifurcations in some sympathy with it -- has evoked several movements in opposition to what it represents, especially as a consequence of perceived elitism, exacerbated by any secretiveness and western bias:

• concern articulated by alternative, grassroots social movements inherently opposed to the elitism of any such initiative. The Club, and its membership, is readily associated with the World Economic Forum, and its much criticized promotion of economic globalization at all costs (held to be intimately related to the disastrous global financial collapse of 2008-2009), in contrast to views articulated through the World Social Forum. Other associations are recognized with even more secretive contexts (Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, etc). This pattern recalls that revealed in the corporate world between interlocking directorates (John Scott (ed), The Sociology of Elites. Interlocking Directorships and Corporate Networks, 1990).
  
  
• concern with any "New World Order" agenda that it, and those remotely associated with it, represent. This concern includes conventional national political opposition to any unrepresentative "global" initiative. It is currently exemplified by perceptions of the role of the Club of Rome in relation to climate change debate (Club of Rome is the Elite Think Tank behind ideas such as "Sustainable Development" and "Global Warming"; The Club of Rome and The Global Warming Scam; The criticism of the 'Club of Rome' models by Resources For the Future clearly applies to the Global Climate Models' predictions of doom; Global warming hysteria serves as excuse for world government). However this overlaps with more or less extreme forms of conspiracy theory regarding the nature of any secretive agenda
  
  
• concern with a secretive "New World Order" agenda, notably in the light of conspiracy theories regarding Freemasonry, Illuminati, and New Age movements. Many web documents regarding the Club of Rome are framed in terms of such associations.

Whatever the flavour of such opposition, to the extent that the individuals and groups associated with the Club of Rome are considered (if only by themselves) to be at the centre of global leadership, the widespread sense that this leadership is manifestly defective needs to be taken into account as a reality (Emergence of a Global Misleadership Council misleading as vital to governance of the future? 2007).

With respect to the earlier comment of achieving "engagement" and strategic "traction" with "hearts and minds", it would be naive to reject any of these views as simply misinformed, if not delusional -- even deliberately elicited through other secret agendas. Again, in a world where "spin" is of considerable political importance, it may be irrelevant whether such views are perceived to be "misinformed" in any way. The issue is whether they engage attention and acquire credibility. Any posture assuming the credibility of declarations by eminent authorities (purporting to formulate a "correct" understanding) is now increasingly mistaken beyond the immediate sway of those authorities (Abuse of Faith in Governance, 2009). The credibility of science, as so visibly represented by climate change scientists, is now suspect (George Monbiot, The trouble with trusting complex science, The Guardian, 8 March 2010). Many have noted the erosion in the credibility of the Vatican as a result of the cover-up of cases of sexual abuse by clergy.

Each of these modalities is, to different degrees, a reflection of the imagination with which it is necessary for any form of governance to engage in order to achieve "traction" -- an imagination typically deprecated by analysis except with respect to theoretical speculation:

• imagination relating to local community engagement, otherwise threatened by an instrumental external mindset
• imagination relating to national identity, otherwise threatened by global initiatives
• imagination triggered by the excitement of unusual speculation, as cultivated by the media and various belief systems (in contrast to increasingly alienating conventional thinking)

Viable governance for the future would seem to need to incorporate such dimensions rather than seeking to marginalize them -- for in seeking to do so it increasingly alienates itself from voters. The challenge may be one of reframing all strategic initiatives through new metaphors that can be readily communicated (In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts -- for comprehension of complex psychosocial dynamics, 2007).

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