The question of whether or not the plan for one world government is a sinister conspiracy to subjugate the population or simply an attempt to facilitate a natural evolutionary step is a matter still to be decided, apparently with little or no help from the mass media.
–Jim Marrs, “Rule By Secrecy”
Researcher Jim Marrs passed away earlier this year, leaving behind a catalogue of books on what would be considered “fringe” topics. The best-known of these, outside the 1989 book Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (which became the basis of the Oliver Stone movie JFK), is 2001’s Rule By Secrecy.
Unlike a number of the book reviews I’ve curated here, Rule By Secrecy definitely skirts the edges of Chapel Perilous as defined by Robert Anton Wilson. It is a style of “conspiracy” book that I call the “Meta-Narrative Hybrid,” which is culled from many sources both “reputable” (mainstream news, well-reviewed history books) and “sketchy” (“I found this from David Icke”).
But I would say that Marrs, in my opinion, is one of the best authors of this genre, presenting something thorough, well-written, and with a unique style. Basically, Rule By Secrecy‘s narrative structure is in an “onion” format—starting with the most recent history as of that writing (the 1990s) and moving, in a very point-by-point, deliberate way, backwards to literally the very dawn of humanity.
It’s a tall order, and the fact that Marrs achieved it—sticking to his thesis throughout that the world has been “run” by the same basic secret societies since recorded history—is impressive to read.
But this is also a book that requires a degree of discernment from the reader in terms of what the author’s sources are for what material, and how that checks out **for them** in terms of other available data. In that sense, Rule By Secrecy reminds me a lot of 1989’s The Gods Of Eden by William Bramley—a tome quoted by Marrs in his book. You can use The Gods Of Eden as a very insightful study on the history on the world…but the alien stuff 2/3rds into it might (or might not) alienate you. It’s like that.
And so for example, take the the fact that the brother of would-be President Reagan assassin John Hinckley was scheduled to have dinner with Vice-President George Bush senior’s son Neil the night of that assassination attempt. When I first read that in the Marrs book, I thought that was *nuts*. I did research on my own to verify that actually happened. And while any “official” documentation of that event was absent in online (including Wikipedia) encyclopedias and etc.—outside of a Jonathan Vankin book (which to me is like at least “semi-official,” because Vankin enjoys that sort of “legit” status, albeit in a somewhat edgy hipster way, among mainstream publishers) I found on Google—I *did* find copies of actual newspapers from the time that confirmed this weird occurrence took place.
And then let’s take Marrs’ examination of the events leading up to World War II, and what American companies secretly supported the other side of that war. That Henry Ford was an antiSemite has been documented way beyond of Rule By Secrecy. Ford literally wrote a publication called The International Jew, the World’s Foremost Problem. I don’t put these failings of Ford on the backs of the Ford Motor Company now—and for full disclosure, I also received a Ford-backed scholarship when I was in college—but this is stuff you need to understand just as a well-rounded education of history.
And you just don’t run into a lot of this stuff in regular history courses in school (unless your teacher is a real shit-kicking firebrand, and I’ve had a couple of those) or in the mainstream media. Because if you did, there probably wouldn’t be a need for a book like Rule By Secrecy.
I would also advise that if very detailed “genealogies” of secret societies of the Masonic/Knights Templar variety bore you, there is going to be a bit to slog through here, especially about 2/3rds in. Again: very much like the Bramley book (which I will definitely review here one day). Some people really thrive on this stuff, but I will admit, my eyes start to glaze over after a while.
I’ll leave this review with something Marrs wrote toward the end of Rule By Secrecy, which I think really defines his body of work:
Don’t wait for the corporate controlled media to inform and explain. Read and listen to everything within reach and search for sources of alternative information—on the Internet, in documentaries, in old library books and unconventional bookstores. Read and watch things you normally wouldn’t. Then quietly contemplate. Use that God-given supercomputer called your “brain.” Perhaps more important, feel what’s right within your heart, your soul, your innermost being.
Rule By Secrecy is currently in print from William Morrow, and you can get it at your local bookstore maybe (my copy was purchased from Barnes and Noble) or from Amazon (clicking a link through his official website may give his estate at least an affiliate cut).
More to read about on Butterfly Language:
“Desert Island Books” Time
Review: “Email To The Universe” By Robert Anton Wilson
Book Review: The Secret History Of The World
