Episode 107: Nelson Rockefeller and the US Empire
Added 2023-02-22 17:28:05 +0000 UTCWe are joined by Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, the authors of Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon : Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil.
Gerard Colby is also the author of Du Pont: Behind the Nylon Curtain. Charlotte is also the author of Follow the Pipelines: Uncovering the Mystery of a Lost Spy and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil.
Special thanks to Dana Chavarria for producing the episode!
Music: "Til the Mornin" by Mock Orange
Comments
Yes, you said a lot there and it's all on point. Nelson was a throwback of some kind...like a throw back to feudalism or something...meaning that he was so obviously of the oligarchy--or aristocracy of inherited wealth--that it is insane for him to be a high official in a so-called democracy. And it does show the power of the deep state (oligarchy) over the public and security states. And this power is absolutely related to the influence of wealth over civil society, international orgs, academia, childhood education, and the security state that they created to their specifications.
Aaron Good
2023-03-02 16:23:45 +0000 UTCThis episode was epic! It really raises a lot of questions for me around the entire structure of America and it's ridiculous reliance on billionaire philanthropy instead of public funding for all types of things... Certainly raises so many questions about whether a democracy can actually be functional when you have so many critical elements of a state tied to these outside forces. It's very clear our votes don't have an impact on these things ... But I think it really highlights that whole lack of accountability in a tripartite structure that you talk about in your book. If the state is just serving these oligarchs and what the oligarchs want are oil and resources, but you also have these "charitable foundations" and primary funding for things like education, public radio, reliant on the same forces it seems really hard to even remove corruption from the system at all. It's almost like the structure itself is corrupt? And things like the WHO existing outside of any real international democratic structure but being given massive international powers like it seems they are about to be really makes it feel like we've made America's problem into the world's problem :( obviously our democracy influencing operations were already extremely powerful but this seems like it's even beyond that.
Wiley Michelle B
2023-03-02 02:39:49 +0000 UTCMore on this topic too --- missionaries have long been used as spies and troublemakers, e.g., having the area that became Panama rebel against Colombia and become its own country, so it could be more easily exploited by Uncle Scam.
Anton Furgeson
2023-02-26 23:23:36 +0000 UTC
