this guy enters the enigma that is history with his mind already made up,

and then has the arrogance to tells us, ‘move on, nothing to see here.’

don’t bother, this is a TOTAL waste of paper and ink!
Rating: 1 / 5

Who is Arthur Goldwag? He’s the author of “The Belief Guide to the Kabbalah” and “‘Isms and ‘Ologies.” Why, do you think, is he qualified to write about Cults, Conspiracies and Secret Societies? Because he’s the author of the two aforementioned books. What more do you need? Oh, okay. He’s from New York. He says so in the Preface. Are you satisfied now? He tells you he was around when the September 11th Twin Towers went down. That’s his pitch for your sympathetic reading of his book. Now, if his being a true blue New Yorker doesn’t qualify him to write about conspiracies, cults and secret societies, what does, eh?

Mr. Goldwag knows for a fact — September 11th was caused by Al Queda. He will show you he is really big on facts when you read his book. He’s a regular almanac yakker when it comes them. Did you know, for instance, the first American Freemason society was formed in Philadelphia? See? You would have missed out if you hadn’t been interested in his book. Am I right or what?

Mr. Goldwag wrote this book to explain in plain, unadorned (uninteresting) English to everybody who wants to know — why scary things happen and why there are so many “conspiracies” and “cults” around, most of which are really just fantasies and obsessions gone amuck, understandably, of course, due to so many scary things happening out there. You follow me? You don’t have to worry about these “funny” groups and circumstances, not at all. Mr. Goldwag wrote this book to comfort you and tell you that most of the stuff you hear about — the noise about the Bilderberg Group, the Freemasons, B’Nai B’rith, the Trilateral Commission — they’re all — a “harmless enigma” to quote Umberto Eco from “Foucault’s Pendulum.” Mr. Goldway quotes Umberto Eco directly on the blank page before the opening chapter. (“Foucault’s Pendulum”, however, is work of fiction, however, if you catch my drift.) Am I sure Mr. Goldwag is saying all these groups and secrets and conspiracies are nothing more than a harmless enigma? Yes, sure I’m sure. Mr. Goldwag tells you so in his book. He’s a book-writer, right? He’s an author, an “author”-ity. Go watch your tv. Enjoy the New York Times. Don’t look up in the sky for any chem trails. Arthur Goldwag knows all’s well with the world and he tells you so. Oh, you have to bring up mention of the Rothschilds, eh? You want to know what’s up with the Rothschilds? Did you know, as Mr. Goldwag states, the father grew up in a Jewish ghetto! Now aren’t you ashamed you asked so suspiciously? Don’t you feel bad for having doubted such a (supposed) Jew? Never mind, fuggedaboudit!

In a phrase, the first 104 pages of the book are totally useless. This is Mr. Golgwag’s chapter on “Cults.” Not only is the subject poorly defined by the author, but when he wags his tongue around various selected groups (he does wag but the guy missed out acquiring the writer’s golden tongue), he does loop de loops around just why this particular group is regarded as a cult and why it’s even being included in the chapter. For instance, it’s small, but it’s typical of the entire chapter — there’s a brief reference to the Gurdjieff Foundation as a cult. The cult leader he names is/was a Russian mystic by the name of G. I. Gurdjieff. Some people, the author correctly asserts, suffered physical violence at the hands of this man. (Actually, in truth, some say yes, some say no. (Mostly, all the “historical evidence” is hearsay.) There are few if any real facts to the entire dispute about him.) Yes, if only for argument’s sake, let’s just agree with the author. Gurdjieff was a terrible, violent man and a cult leader. But the Gurdjieff Foundation, even though it bears the Russian mystic’s name, isn’t now nor was it ever an organization that was led or even started by this nefarious “cult leader,” not at all. So, why is this organization called a cult now? Hello? Guilt by association?

On the other hand, in this section on cults, there’s no reference to the cult known as the Fellowship of Friends, an off-shoot branch of Gurdjieff’s teachings, and a group that does have a genuine cult leader behind it and a group that has had followers bringing to the U.S. court system harassment lawsuits against it. Not even a mention from Arthur Goldwag about it. The author claims he’s not trying to be “encyclopedic.” Well, neither encyclopedic nor accurate is more like it.

The second section, “Conspiracies,” is pretty much devoted to a Reader’s Digest-like summary of this very complicated and highly political subject, the main thrust of which section is to dispel any belief or understanding that, whatever these alternative views are and whatever they are whispering about, they’re all much ado about nuttiness, according to Mr. Goldwag. But just to keep you on your toes, remember this (he says): the Jews didn’t do it, whatever it was, and the main culprit is (and always has been (since 9/11)) Al Queda. Now THAT group is a definitely a conspiracy and a secret society, says the author-ity. You got to look really sharp whenever Al Queda comes to town. Do you see how enlightening Arthur Goldwag is now?

The last section of the book is about “secret societies.” I’d like to know why B’Nai B’rith is even mentioned in this chapter because all that happened with it, as the author explains, is that it started out as a Masonic organization at its inception, but it isn’t one now. Honest (he says)! Whatever you’ve heard, it’s all just a “conspiracy.” Relax! Four early founders were Masons after all, but that wasn’t the majority of the founders! (So why mention it?)

Whatever these 332 pages contain, nothing in them differs from anything you will find in a Wikipedia or a simple Google search, and the chapter topics themselves are not in any way connected to one another so as to form a unified perspective, except on a very shallow level. There is nothing to be found in the “conspiracies” or in the “secret societies” sections of this book, nor anything political or insightful about the current U.S. social scene. This thick paperback is just a selected newsprint compendium of miscellany.

Actually, even as I was at the bookstore counter purchasing this book, I knew it was bound to have very little value. Who reasonably expects a mainstream publisher like Vintage to do anything more than provide mass entertainment or comfort when it comes to uncovering conspiratorial truths? I bought it nonetheless because I thought I could enjoy a few laughs over the outrageous examples I expected I’d find inside. I didn’t expect I’d get highly irritated by book’s end. I thought I could remain detached and just enjoy the occasional good laugh over the author’s foibles, but I’m afraid I discovered the author really believed his own propaganda, his own pitch, heart-feltedly shallow though I thought it was. And I did become angry over the fact that the author so bald-facedly was lying to his readers through his highly personal, subjective, half-assed assessments as to what was true and what was speculation.

When I got near book’s end and I could see the overall pattern, I was glad. It was one consistent and entire flat and tasteless pudding or — unpalatable poo; that much was true.

A very hurtful thing, however, was that, after all the frustration in reading the damn book, there was no index at the back so the reader could look up the hundreds of opinions and speculations the author offered as fact as though they were not mere conjecture and opinion — if only to have that very-much-wanted good laugh I had hoped to achieve when I first took the book out of the bookstore. Shame on you, Mr. Goldwag. You’re no Jackie Mason! Mason. Mason? Did you hear that? (I’m kidding. Really.) Actually, I do think Jackie Mason’s book “Schmuck” offers more insights into the contemporary social and political scene than the book that is the subject of this review. Mason’s book is not for ewes.

In the end, the really hurtful and harmful thing about this book is the realization that while Goldwag makes banal and makes harmless, perhaps even makes safe, the now clear and emerging results of the long-range plans of the major foundations whose officials are totally unelected by any citizen of any country in the world, he helps the Bilderberg group, helps the Rockefeller Foundation, helps the Trilateral Commission, and all the other non-governmental organizations supposedly doing “charitable” work in the U.S. and around the world – he helps them, every one of them, keep their New World Order designs going strong and as a consequence is complicit with them and these openly conspiratorial members — so long as the gullible “schm-eeple” (to quote Alan Watt) believe what they read inside his pages.
Rating: 1 / 5