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=**What was the contribution of Leo Strauss and Think Tanks to US policy making in the 20th Century?**=

Video Version
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**Introduction**
Think-tanks have existed for hundreds of years, but it is now that we live in a free and modern world that they have reached almost the ultimate level of power. Over the twentieth century, groups of wise-men have taken control of the political, economical and social aspects of the world, the way it is run, by who and how.

The objectives of Think-Tanks are simple; they want to eliminate the power from the people and decide by themselves what is best, to fill their purse and to affirm their supremacy in the ruling class. David Rockefeller Sr., the founder of the Trilateral Commission, a Think-Tank that unites the 300 most powerful and rich figures of America, Europe and Japan once said, “My objective is to replace the rule of the people and to appoint a group of technicians and financiers to govern in the shadow.” media type="youtube" key="ZwJqAKIG_c8" width="425" height="350" //David Rockfeller// [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rockefeller]

**//Philosophy//**
Leo Strauss is seen by many as the father of neo-conservatism and the person who developed the idea of the modern Think-Tanks. In the University of Chicago this man of German ascendancy taught young minds his principles, these young minds turned out to be prominent leaders who later became for example the Director of the World Bank, in the case of Paul Wolfowitz. His philosophy was that there were three groups of people in which every person would fit in. // Leo Strauss Paul Wolfowitz//

The 3 groups
The first group is the “vulgar masses”: “These are the most numerous. They aspire for richness and pleasure; however they are lazy, indolent, selfish and clumsy. They do not have any intelligence thus they must be governed as a mass from above.”

The second group is the “gentiles”: “These people are the most visible part of society. Their objective is to seek glory. They are people in which the masses have deposited their trust. They believe they are the guardians of morality and order. They are faithful, honorable and noble individuals who think they are accomplishing a mission, they tend to feel like heroes and they believe they seat on a throne in which they are above Good and Evil.

However in the highest pinnacle lay those who like the naked truth, the “wise-men”: The third group is the “wise-men. They are pure and they are not afraid by the abysm. They do not fear because philosophers are in power of the highest form of truth and they behold the intellectual supremacy due to what they have learned from other wise-men, it is these people that must decide what lies must be fed onto the “masses” through the “gentiles” in order to protect the unconscious masses and their instruments the “gentiles”.”

The Perfect System
The perfect system that Strauss saw would work in today’s society was the system in which the secret governments of the “wise-men” use their intelligence as weapons to reach their goals of world supremacy. In order to do this the plan would be to put in charge of the visible government people who would be easily managed and with simple minds to the point were they would become tools of the Think-Tanks, ideal to reach the proposed goal which is basically to stop progress to avoid the masses to desire contact with the truth and to lower their significance. It would also be thanks to the “gentiles” that the Think-Tanks would manage to convey a state of fear and maximum alert among the “masses”, a sense that there is always a war, such as George Orwell predicted in order to accelerate the process of reaching the goals of the Think-Tanks, without any moral barriers to stop them. When the masses feel intimidated and insecure they will obey the government in order to safe themselves, even if they must lose certain rights and liberties. Among the most suitable people to be able to dominate in this way are those that live in states were there is a heightened sense of nationalism or religious extremism, in which the government seem to be the undisputable leaders. In order to reach this level of submission the recommended and most effective and efficient tool is to lie. Only the “wise-men” have access to absolute truth, as George Orwell also predicted, the Think-Tanks follow the slogan “Ignorance is Strength” very sharply. // George Orwell//

**Different types of think-tanks today**
Although different Think-tanks approach the public in different ways, there is a general trend in which they may appear.

Institutions
These types of groups are those which are normally under an abbreviation. They are basically a factory of ideas. Their task is to write reports on current and present affairs and to predict the future. These tend to concentrate on specific fields such as the military or the energetic etc. In the USA, the CSIS, which advocates to “conduct research and analysis and develop policy initiatives that are organized around more than 25 programs grouped under: Defense and Security Policy, Global Challenges and Regional Transformation”, they are in charge of investigating on the way in which the USA can keep control of the most important energetic resources in the planet. [|http://www.csis.org/about/researchfocus]

Foundations
These groups are normally under the flag of a foundation merely for financial and fiscal reasons. They are normally part of a greater structure and they represent the kind façade which appear to look for the best for the people but their objectives are usually very hypocritical. For example the Ford Foundation take ahead financial help to opposition groups within the USA, not to make them stronger but to neutralize them, as is advocated by James Petras, a retired Bartle Professur (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, SUNY, New York, US and adjunct activist at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, having earned a BA from Boston University and an MA and later a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Petras http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/FordFandCIA.html

Academic Groups
These are groups that are part of a University for example, but that as time goes by, separates from the University such as the Hoover Institution which started off with the goal of creating an extensive library on the Second World War, but that turned its goals on expanding the Anti-Communists believes and that now has yet again redirected its goals to fight Islamic terrorism. http://www.jerrypournelle.com/images/2006/Stanford%20AI/picture-1.jpg

International Thinking Societies
These are composed by relevant figures of the so called factory of ideas, politicians and great fortunes. They are not a Think-Tank, but more of a “secret society,” examples of these are the Bilderberg Club which meet annually in a luxurious hotel to speak “freely” with no record or public report. These “secret societies” plan the future and their various Think-Tanks then are able to predict changes. These changes do occur, however not by luck but for the fact that more than predictions what they write up are recipes for the future, plans to be accomplished and followed precisely.

Agencies
In principle these are publicity agencies which are hired by the government to take ahead big propaganda campaigns. An example of this is the Rendom Group which was hired in 2003 by the US government to make the masses believe that there was a necessity to attack Iraq. In which the key tool used was the art of lying. This agency helped by the CIA managed to convince the American masses that a member of Al Qaeda had been seen meeting with a member of Saddam Hussein’s government planning to settle a training camp for terrorists in Iraq, and also made the CIA report of the imminent existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which later on the UN proved to be wrong. [|https://www.cia.gov]

Clandestine Groups
These groups unite “wise-men” from different Think-Tanks for a particular purpose in a limited time to plan actions and elaborate ideas and plans for the immediate future. For example The Vulcans made up by neoconservatives from “Strauss’s school” organized in the summer of 1998 to make sure that George Bush Jr. was fully indoctrinated and then catapulted to the presidency of the USA. Another pseudo Clandestine group is the PNAC (Pact of the New American Century) a Think-Tank which has been designed to assure US supremacy through warfare and violent means.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the philosophy of Think-Tanks attempt to destroy the principles of the rule by the people in their desire for money and power they do this by fooling the masses, putting puppets in charge of governments and lying to the masses through their false information that the intelligence agencies give them but also by feeding the masses false media such as the FOX News channel who before Bush had been elected, they already propagated the fact that he had already won. What we as citizens must do is to fight these forms of imperialism, develop a critical spirit in order to acquire a deeper knowledge of politics, governments and history so that we can learn from what has happened and stop making the same mistakes by letting these groups of “wise-men” taking control.