Since a 2018 meeting in Rome, the international
think-tank, the Club of Rome, has been pushing
for the creation of a new planetary civilization.
The Emerging New Civilizations Initiative
(ENCI) calls for a global paradigm shift “in
our fundamental belief matrix, and the complex
economic, financial, social systems underpinning
our daily interactions.” Essentially, the
New Civilization(s) Initiative can be seen
as a new way of living on a planetary scale,
where new ways of living on a local level
add up to form a new global civilization.
In advocating this idea, the Club of Rome
employs a typical collectivist argument that
emphasizes the collective over the individual,
or to put it another way, the “we” over
“me.” Although this may all sound wonderful
to the untrained eye, history has shown us
that this collectivist idea can be very dangerous.
Perhaps coincidentally, many authoritarian
regimes down through history have promoted
this argument. The Nazi regime for instance
constantly emphasized the community over the
individual, pushing the idea of oneness (Welch
1993: 4). The problem, however, is that collective
rights do not exist - there are only individual
rights. That is why it was so revolutionary
for the Founding Fathers in America to create
a Bill of Rights, which enshrined the rights
of individuals in law.
Justifying a New Planetary Civilization?
The Club of Rome argues that we need a new
planetary civilization because our current
ways of living are unsustainable. As Paul
Shrivastava, the Chief Sustainability Officer
at Pennsylvania State University, told a Club
of Rome event last year, a new civilization
is needed because our previous ways of living
and working are destroying the planet (17:00
into the video). He then goes on to argue,
when discussing the merits of the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals, that because
these socio-economic and environmental problems
“are planetary scale problems… we need
a governance system, or at least a way of
thinking, that allows us to address them on
systemic level” (19:00 to 20:39 in the video).
What is interesting about the logic of this
second argument - that a global problem requires
a global solution - is that it echoes the
words of a report published by the Club of
Rome all the way back in 1991. The report,
titled: The First Global Revolution, was written
by two high-level members of the Club, Alexander
King and Bertrand Schneider. In a chapter
called ‘The Vacuum,’ the authors begin
by discussing ways in which “world cohesion”
could be achieved (King and Schneider, 1991:
p.68). They note that traditionally, societal
cohesion was achieved by the forces of nationalism
and religion. As the world changed however,
this cohesion weakened, as religion declined
in many countries and national politics was
usurped by the forces of globalization in
many instances.
To achieve world cohesion, the report argues
that global threats should be used to unify
the planet. This idea has been well understood
on the national level for centuries, and it
is often referred to as the ‘rally round
the flag effect.’ It states that when a
country is attacked or at war, the approval
rate of that countries leader usually jumps
dramatically, as the country tends to unify
against this common enemy. For example, George
W. Bush’s approval rating jumped dramatically
after the 9/11 attacks. King and Schneider
simply apply the ‘rally round the flag effect’
on a global level, and call for humanity to
be turned against itself:
“In searching for a new enemy to unite us,
we came up with the idea that pollution, the
threat of global warming, water shortages,
famine and the like would fit the bill. In
their totality and interactions these phenomena
do constitute a common threat which must be
confronted by everyone together... All these
dangers are caused by human intervention,
and it is only through changed attitudes and
behaviour that they can be overcome. The real
enemy then, is humanity itself" (King and
Schneider, 1991: p.75).
For those special interests who may want to
bring about a global government, amplifying
or creating global threats is one of the most
effective ways to justify the creation of
a global system to solve these real, over-hyped,
or invented threats.
The History of the Club of Rome
By this point in the story, you may be wondering
more about the history of the Club of Rome,
which was described by the President of Germany,
Richard von Weizsäcker, in 1993 as being
the “conscience of the world”. Two key
individuals were instrumental in the think-tanks
founding in the late 1960s: Aurelio Peccei,
an Italian industrialist who was involved
with Fiat; and Alexander King, a British chemist,
who was the Scottish Head of Science at the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD). In fact, the Club of Rome
largely grew out of the OECD, an intergovernmental
economic organization that was founded in
1948 (Schmelzer 2017: 27). In its early years
in particularly, the Club had strong connections
to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). During the 1970s, the Club received
support from the Volkswagen Foundation, which,
at that time, was a counterpart of the Ford
Foundation.
An important meeting that helped the Club
grow in membership was held in Bellagio, Italy,
in October 1968. It was organised by the OECD
in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation,
and was called the ‘Working Symposium on
Long-Range Forecasting and Planning’ (Schmelzer
2017: 34-35). The participants of the meeting
signed a statement called ‘The Bellagio
Declaration on Planning,’ which in part
expressed concern over unlimited growth and
advocated technocratic management techniques
to combat it (Schmelzer 2017: 36). The Club
of Rome’s most influential report came a
few years later in 1972, called the Limits
of Growth. A major part of the report focused
on the supposed detrimental impacts of economic
activity on the planet. Given its importance,
I plan on making a video in the future that
focuses exclusively on the Limits of Growth.
Today, the Club of Rome positions itself as
an international think-tank that focuses on
global issues facing humanity and future plans
to supposedly solve these issues. It has around
100 members, comprised of economists, former
politicians, distinguished scientists and
business heads. Honorary members of the Club
include: Mikhail Gorbachev, Queen Beatrix
of the Netherlands, Queen Doña Sophia of
Spain, and the former King of Spain, Juan
Carlos I. There are also National Associations
or Chapters that are supporters of the Club
of Rome, although separate legal entities.
There is a Belgium-EU Chapter, in addition
to there being Chapters in Germany, India,
Japan, Russia and America.
It is clear from all this that the Club of
Rome has played an important role in history
over the past five decades, and still holds
considerable
power today.
