by NewKid » Sun Jul 16, 2006 11:29 pm
<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>However, it is not a place of power. It's a place where the powerful relax, enjoy each other's company, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>and get to know some of the artists, entertainers, and professors who are included to give the occasion a thin veneer of cultural and intellectual pretension</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. Despite the suspicions of many on the Right, and a few on the Left, it is not a secret meeting place to plot, plan, or discuss -- everyone there is too drunk for that kind of thing anyhow. The most important decisions typically happen just where we might expect: in the boardrooms of corporations and foundations, at the White House, and in the backrooms of Congress. Yes, as I show later, some wanna-be and has-been Republican politicians sometimes visit the Bohemian Grove, including future and former presidents of the United States, but they are there to demonstrate what wonderful human beings they are, to cultivate potential financial backers, or to brag about their past exploits.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Moreover, there is a literature in social psychology, called small-group research, or small-group dynamics, which shows that people who meet in relaxed settings, and see their group as exclusive, become even tighter with each other than people in ordinary groups.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> Even better, people in exclusive groups are more likely to listen to each other and come to a compromise if they have the task of figuring out what to do about some policy issue.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/bohemian_grove.html#cremation" target="top">sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/bohemian_grove.html#cremation</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><br>I actually pretty much agree with this part of the Domhoff piece. I think they have people like Clooney and Stewart out there because it makes them feel cool. And maybe so Stewart and Clooney actually get to know and like some of these guys too. Or maybe Stewart's going so he can make fun of them when he comes back. <br><br>Sure Clooney and Stewart hate Bush, but so does probably a third to a half of the Grove members. And I wouldn't really call Stewart and Clooney critics of the powers that be in any sort of broad systemic sense, so I'm not really sure what it says that they go out there. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=newkid@rigorousintuition>NewKid</A> at: 7/16/06 9:37 pm<br></i>