(click map to enlarge)

Published in Philadelphia in early 1942, this ‘Outline of (the) Post-War New World Map’, created by Maurice Gomberg, shows a proposal to re-arrange the world after an Allied victory against the Axis forces. Its title refers to a ‘New World Order’, a vague concept, its many definitions often contradicting each other. At the core of the NWO, however, is always the notion that a small group of powerful individuals, institutions, industries and/or nations must lead the world in the right direction (i.e. towards ‘unification’). This may be against the world’s own will (and therefore done covertly, at least in some versions of the NWO-story), but ultimately it is for its own good.

One of the most recent references to the NWO by a major political figure was made by US president George Bush (Sr), who explicitly used the NWO to refer to US objectives in a Post-Cold War world. The term has a pedigree much older than the Cold War, or even both World Wars. Some might even say – and now we’re straying somewhat prematurely into the field of conspiracy theory – that it goes all the way back to Roman times, as is attested by the (modified) quote of the Roman poet Virgil on the revers of the US Great Seal and (significantly or not, since 1935) on the back of the dollar bill: Novus Ordo Seclorum – literally: ‘A New Order for the Ages’.

In a modern context, it was the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes (who gave his name to Rhodesia) who first proposed a federal world government to be imposed by the US and the British Empire. US President Woodrow Wilson was inspired by a similar concept to draw up his plans for a League of Nations in the aftermath of World War I. Most fascist regimes in the 20s, 30s and 40s of the twentieth century also proposed some sort of NWO – in fact, most styled themselves to be a ‘New Order’. H.G. Wells – he of ‘War of the Worlds’ – wrote ‘The Open Conspiracy’ (1928) in which he describes his efforts to get intellectuals to back the idea of a World Social Democracy and ‘The New World Order’ (1940), in which he details how a generation of struggle will be necessary to overcome the opponents of such a global government.

From this sketchy overview, it might be equally sketchily concluded that One World Government was the mostly benevolent projected outcome of an optimist, positivist, socialist and/or imperialist (or in some cases, national-socialist) world view, a kind of secular New Jerusalem, the best of all possible worlds. The death of communism, which as an ideal expired much earlier than its empire, can be seen as the ultimate argument against this philosophy. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it share that resource equally with the other horses. The philosophy of man is not: work as much as you can, consume as much as you need, but: work as little as you need to, consume as much as you can. Karl Marx defeated by Gordon Gekko.

And yet, optimism persists – for what else can it do? In the face of continuing efforts to better the world, to ‘unify’ it, opposition to NWO-like groups, institutions and intentions have coalesced into a myriad of theories, most of which are of a conspirational nature (I would say that, being in the pay of the Bilderberg Group), all of which fly the flag of freedom (for the secular-minded) or religion (for those who see the End Times brought nearer by the likes of UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon). This is where an overview has to limit itself to naming some of the many conspirational configurations suspected to be secretly running the New World Order. Pick and mix, and create your own conspiracy: the Illuminati, the freemasons, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Jews, the Bilderberg Group, the G-8, the Nazis, the Bretton-Woods agreement, black helicopters, US-alien collusion, the Zionist lobby in cahoots with American Neo-Cons, those out to ‘miscegenate’ and dilute the white race, the House of Windsor, the Antichrist, a cabal of multinational corporations, extraterrestrial reptilians, the United Nations…