Om avsnittet
Crooke unpacks the concept he calls “the grand design”—a historical project he traces back to the 18th century and the Enlightenment, carried forward by organized networks including Freemasonry, the Illuminati, the Hellfire Clubs, and powerful European banking families. Citing Benjamin Disraeli’s 1850s warning about hidden movements shaping revolutions, and Churchill’s later reference to a “high cabal,” Crooke argues that a microscopic but immensely powerful minority has long shaped Western policy through financial leverage and covert operations—what some today call the “deep state.” The aim, he contends, is a secular, materialist, utilitarian world order in which human beings are severed from religion, family, and civilizational identity. Joe Biden’s speech “The Battle for the Soul of the Nation” was given on September 1, 2022 in the Independence Hall in Philadelphia He also talks about how the West shifted from a redemptive self-image to a rigid Manichaeanism—visible, he says, in Biden’s “good versus evil” rhetoric—which makes political settlement with Russia and Iran all but impossible. Against this, Crooke contrasts the “other consciousness” of civilizational states such as Iran, Russia, and China, rooted in spiritual and esoteric traditions (Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, Taoism, shamanism) that understand time and reality differently. He also addresses Europe’s role, warning that a declining West may delegate its last lever of power—nuclear threat—to a Europe he describes as increasingly “mad.” But a painful catharsis may give birth to something new, and individuals should cultivate inner quiet, truth, and integrity rather than seek to control history. He recommends Henri Corbin for those wishing to understand Shia thought, and suggests that the Western mind’s inability to hold paradoxes is itself a barrier to deeper understanding. You can find Crooke’s article “The War of Grand Design” here in Consortium News Get full access to Dissidentpodden at dissidentpodden.substack.com/subscribe
