"Ebbie's post was designed to start a battle" ake

No, you still don't get it. It may be a foolishly naive hope but I truly would like a debate - not a battle - to clarify everyone's thinking. Mine too. Obviously, I don't believe in the proposition that there are all-seeing beings above us who see so clearly and so far ahead that they have not only the means but the vision to lead/push us all in the direction they espouse.

But there are facets to that argument that are interesting to me - and those are the facets I would like to explore.

I think of this entity as being the Illuminati or alternatively, the Bilderburg Group. As sDon Firth said above, many names have been given to these all-powerful groups but to me, bankers/Wall Street/corporations are not what is being discussed. Bankers and corporations and Wall Street itself are demonstrably not all-knowing- they are strictly profit oriented. The Illuminati and - I guess - the Bilderburg people have a religious/spiritual aspect to the concept that is not present in bankers, et al. If it were not so, we would not bring in the element of 'evil'.

So:

* Who are these people?
* Where are these people?
* How did they get started?
* How do they maintain their status?
* How do they fill/re-fill their ranks?
* Are there defectors and nay-sayers in their ranks?
* Do these people have families and home towns and do they care    about their community?
* Are they somewhat like the Mafioso, caring ONLY about their families and not concerned about the methods used in implementing their aims?


That's a start. If none of us can answer these simple questions, I suggest that there is precious little we know about them, perhaps not even enough to know whether they exist.