INWO Concordance
Basic Set Groups M-Z
The INWO Concordance
was originally created by Colin Roald, expanded by Alan de Smet,
and is currently
maintained and edited by Steve Brinich.
Illuminati, Illuminati: New World Order,
INWO, and Assassins are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games for its trading card game of conspiracy
theory. SubGenius is a registered
trademark of the SubGenius Foundation, Inc. This Concordance quotes a very
limited amount of material from INWO (card titles, mostly) in order to stay
within the limits of fair use.
Madison Avenue
Home to the advertising industry in New York City.
"Canada Bill Jones", whoever he is, is also credited with
the maxim "A Smith and Wesson beats four aces". [AdS,CR,SMB]
The Mafia
Organised crime, particularly groups in or originally from Sicily.
The extent of the interrelationships between Sicilian and American operations
is murky. [JD]
Manuel Noriega
Ex-dictator of Panama; accused of harboring cocaine smugglers. [AdS,CR]
Margaret Thatcher
Ex-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a.k.a. the "Iron Lady". Known
particularly for waging the Falklands war with Argentina. [AdS,CR]
Media Sensation
The Media Sensation special ability recalls Andy Warhol's famous adage
that everyone is entitled to 15 minutes of fame (fading back into obscurity
afterwards). [AY]
The Men in Black
Mysterious group often associated with UFO sightings. According to the stories,
those who see UFOs are often contacted by the ominous Men in Black shortly
thereafter. The MIB seize all available evidence of the event on some pretext,
caution the witnesses not to tell their story to anyone else, and leave.
The original Men In Black story was told by Albert K. Bender, founder
of the International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB), which published a quarterly
UFO journal called Space Review. In the April 1953 issue, Bender promised
a "startling revelation" about UFOs in the next issue; however, the July
1953 issue contained nothing out of the ordinary (by UFO-journal standards).
In September, Bender told friends that he had been visited by "three strange
men in black suits", who confirmed that he was on the right track, but insisted
that he keep quiet...or else. The October 1953 issue of Space Review
announced the closing of the IFSB.
Bender's UFOlogical rivals suggested a more prosaic explanation: the
IFSB was going broke, and Bender didn't want to admit it.
The Men in Black were depicted in episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space"
episode of The X-Files ,
portrayed by former wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura and Jeopardy
host Alex Trebek. There's also a Men in Black movie
released in July 1997, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, based on
the comic book
of that name.
According to Illuminatus!, Thomas Jefferson was handed the
eye-in-the-pyramid Great Seal of the United States by a mysterious hooded
man in black.
The Men In Black volunteer arm
of Steve Jackson Games supports SJG's products by running demos, maintaining
contacts with game stores, etc. [OS,SMB]
MI-5
British domestic counterintelligence organisation. The initials stand
for "military intelligence"; MI-6 is the foreign intelligence service. (MI-1
through MI-13 were created in World War II. Afterwards, most departments were
closed; only MI-5, MI-6, and possibly one other still exist.) [FM,DC,JD,WL]
Moonbase
Some UFO conspiracy
theorists claim that there is a moonbase in current operation, as part
of a long-standing secret
space program. Others claim that there are alien bases on the moon,
presumably to support their UFO operations on Earth. [SMB]
Moonies
Nickname for Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, a religious
group known for handing out flowers at airports and staging mass weddings.
They are not quite so innocent as all that, though, as the Church is known
to own major media outlets including the Washington Times, and rumours persist
that they own everything from Japanese restaurants in Oregon to Proctor and
Gamble Corporation (the latter on account of P&G's moon-and-stars logo,
which dates back to long before Moon was born). As with virtually every non-mainstream
religion (that being the usual definition of a "cult"), the Moonies have
been accused of brain-washing. Moon has also spent time in jail for tax evasion.
[FM,DR]
Moral Minority
Reference to Moral Majority, Rev. Jerry Falwell's defunct fundamentalist
Christian organisation. The Moral Majority has been succeeded by Falwell's
"Liberty Alliance", based out of Liberty University (also founded by Falwell)
in Virginia.
In Nomine
is a Steve Jackson Games role playing
game (released in February 1997, but in planning when INWO came out), where "the players
take the roles of angels or demons, fighting a War that has gone on for ages,
shaping the world of today." (SJG Catalog) [FM,JA,DS]
Mossad
Israeli foreign spy organisation. It has a reputation for assassination
(somewhat damaged by a botched attempt on a leader of the Hamas terrorist
group in September 1997). [DV,SMB]
Multinational Oil Companies
The image is reminiscent of an old Sherwin-Williams paint logo, which
used the slogan "We Cover the Earth." [DL,JS]
Nancy Reagan
Wife ex-President Ronald Reagan.
The halo of astrological symbols in the card art refers to her consultations
with San Francisco astrologer Joan Quigley about President Reagan's schedule.
Mrs. Reagan hoped to determine the best dates for planned events, believing
that this would help protect her husband (who had been the target of an assassination
attempt shortly after taking office in 1981). There had been Washington rumors
about this for years, and it was definitively revealed in White House chief
of staff Donald Regan's 1988 memoir, For the Record (Regan did not
identify Quigley, but she came forward shortly after the book's publication).
Reportedly, the Soviets knew about this and monitored the calls out
of their San Francisco consulate. [SMB]
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The moon-landing people.
Because it has become so mired in bureaucratic red tape, many scientists
do not believe that NASA will be able to continue to compete in the outer
space arena; for example, while NASA has proposed a Mars mission, at least
one other group proposed a plan that is cheaper and more effective.
The card artwork is based on the conspiracy theory that NASA faked the moon landings.
This theory inspired the movie Capricorn One (in which a Mars landing
is faked), and is sometimes invoked by flat earthers to explain away the
obvious discrepancies between their beliefs and the astronauts' eyewitness
accounts. [FM,OS]
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation -- the Western military alliance
against the Warsaw Pact (the Soviet Union and its satellites). Now that the
Soviet Union has collapsed, some of the former Soviet satellites wish to
join NATO for security against Russia. [AdS,CR,SMB]
Nephews of God
Possible reference to cult called "Children of God" which is/was accused
of brainwashing recruits. The picture and caption, on the other hand, seem
to be references to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (aka
the "Hare Krishnas"), a red-robed Hindu religious cult also known for hanging
about airports (see also Moonies). [TNG,DC,WL]
New York
American state in the northeastern part of the country. A reference
to "New York" without further explanation is often interpreted to mean New
York City, the great metropolis on the Atlantic coast of New York state. (The
offical ruling is that the card is the state, even though the art and color
quote suggests New York City (which is known as "The Big Apple"). It matters
in the game if the Libertarians
take it over.) [AdS,CR,SMB]
Ninjas
Ancient Japanese sect of assassins, and stars of an endless line of
bad movies.
According to GURPS Martial Arts, the famous "ninja" costume
isn't actually supposed to have been worn by ninjas. Rather, it is the attire
worn by olden-day Japanese theatre hands for manipulating scenery, in a fashion
similar to "black magic" tricks (where the person so suited is nearly invisible
against the black curtained stage). When ninja appeared in a theatrical story,
their actions were depicted by the stage hands, since ninja were "invisible".
A modern equivalent to these ninja would thus not Chuck Norris but Claude
Rains. [AdS,BB,CR]
N.S.A.
National Security Agency, the code-breakers. Even its existence was
classified when the agency was created, hence the nicknames "No Such Agency"
and "Never Say Anything".
The N.S.A. has become more visible as a result of the controversy over U.S. cryptography policy.
The Agency has been one of the few sources of support for the government's
pro-surveillance position; in particular, N.S.A. cryptographers designed
the algorithm used in the Clipper
Chip. [SH]
Nuclear Power Companies
The nuclear power industry has become rather moribund in the U.S.
due to the efforts of antinuclear
activists; however, nuclear power provides a large percentage of the
electricity generated in Western Europe and Japan.
The hyperboloid structures are cooling towers. They are not specific
to nuclear plants; anything that needs to dump a lot of heat will have something
similar. Leakage from the cooling towers would thus not be a particularly
significant nuclear accident.
[RR,SMB]
Offshore Banks
A number of tiny island nations offer extremely weak banking laws
as an inducement for investment. The most notorious example is the Cayman
Islands in the Caribbean, which has as many registered companies as inhabitants,
and 560 banks with combined assets of US$470 billion. Other notable examples
include the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean (which is currently in international
hot water for selling diplomatic passports -- offering protection from police
-- for an "investment subscription" of a mere $10m), and the Bahamas, Montserrat
and Aruba in the Caribbean.
On the other hand, by no means do you have to get your feet wet to
launder your cash. Thailand has no laws against money-laundering; Thai banks
reportedly wash as much as $24 billion a year. Austria will give you an anonymous
("numbered") bank account (which even the Swiss will no longer do);
some Bulgarian banks are known to use secrecy laws to shield the proceeds
of arms and drug deals; but perhaps the worst offender is Turkey, which offers
anonymous banking and which doesn't even define money-laundering as a crime.
-- The Economist, 17 February 1996, p 72
[AdS,CR]
Ollie North
Ex-military attache who managed the Iran-Contra dealings whereby Iran
was traded arms for hostages and off-the-books money was raised to fund the
Contra counter-revolution in Nicaragua.
How far the scheme extended above North in the chain of command (in particular,
how much President Reagan knew about the matter)
remains in dispute.
North lost a bid for the US Senate in 1994. He's both photogenic and
silver-tongued. He currently hosts a radio talk show. [AdS,CR,SMB]
O.P.E.C.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the oil cartel. [AdS,CR]
Orbit One
The station in the illustration resembles the classic "wheel" shape
often pictured in science fiction (most famously in 2001: A Space Odyssey).
[OS]
Paranoids
People suffering from delusions of persecution. Of course, delusions
and reality are not mutually exclusive.... [SMB]
Pentagon
The building in Arlington, Virginia that houses the Department of
Defense headquarters -- frequently used as shorthand for the entire US military.
The cloud billowing out of the hole could be the spirit bound under it (Pentagon
/ Pentagram) in the Illuminatus! trilogy; alternately, it could refer
to the central park's nickname -- "Ground Zero" (a term used for the detonation
point of a nuclear warhead).
The hacker folk character "Shub-Internet" (a parody of Lovecraftian
creations like Cthulhu and Shub-Niggurath)
is purported to dwell beneath the Pentagon, only being unleashed when his
name is spoken or typed, to dispense horrible punishments of lag upon the
fool in question. (Sadly, Shub-Internet seems to have been replaced in the
MU* community by a generic "lag monster". How dull.) [ANH,CC,BB,AR]
Phone Company
The Bell System was broken up in an antitrust action, leaving
a series of local phone companies and competing long-distance companies.
[OS]
Phone Phreaks
"Phreaks" are people who spoof or break into the phone system, mostly
in order to make long distance calls without paying for them. [AdS,CR]
Pollsters
Polling is sometimes used to create a "bandwagon effect" (attract
more people to a given position by creating the impression that it's already
popular). The way questions are asked has a lot to do with this.
Various techniques of "push polling" (e.g. "Does the fact that Joe
Blow voted against the Children, Puppies, and Kittens Protection Act make
you more likely or less likely to support him?") are used in polls intended
to shape, not merely measure, public opinion. [SMB,Th]
Post Office
Often referred to as "snail mail." The original illustration in the
classic Illuminati game was a snail carrying a mailbag.
American post offices are notorious for disgruntled ex-employees shooting
up the workplace. [OS]
Prince Charles
Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne. Married Princess Di in 1981; the marriage went steadily downhill
leading to a separation in 1992 and an agreement to divorce
in 1996. [SMB]
Princess Di
Princess of Wales (a title she was allowed to keep in the divorce
agreement). She was known, among other things, for her advocacy for AIDS
research and a proposal to ban land mines (hence the Liberal alignment).
Princess Di was killed in an automobile accident in Paris on 31 August
1997. It appears that the driver (also killed) was intoxicated and driving
recklessly in order to get away from paparazzi (photographers who dog the
heels of celebrities). [SMB]
Professional Sports
Baseball is granted an antitrust exemption, because
it's just a sport -- not really a business at all.... [OS]
Psychiatrists
For a fee, they will listen to your problems and give you advice on
how to solve them.
The picture depicts why Freud really used that kind of couch. [Th]
Punk Rockers
Musicians who try to keep the tradition of outraging the older generation
alive in an world where Rolling Stones songs have been arranged as
Muzak and used as advertising
jingles. [SMB]
Pyramid Marketing Schemes
Marketing groups dependent upon each seller getting more people to
sell for them, who then get more people to sell for them, and so on ad infinitum.
Each scheme collapses as soon as the market is saturated, though it is possible
to make money by "getting in on the ground floor".
Pyramid marketing schemes should not be confused with pyramid scams.
The former are legal if run honestly (ultimately, you're buying a product
and take your chances on being able to recoup your investment by selling it);
the latter are illegal and inherently dishonest (ultimately, anybody who
makes money does so through ripping off somebody else). Perpetrators of the
latter often try to disguise them as the former by claiming to offer some
nebulous "mailing-list service," "money-making reports," etc. This does not
legalize the scam or soften the flames and
ridicule you will get if you post your offer on the Net.
See also Chain Letter.
[SMB]
Recording Industry
The magazine page in the background is a parody of Billboard Magazine,
an industry periodical whose Top 40 list is used for music countdown radio
shows and as the definitive "Number X song" validation. [AY]
Red Cross
Humanitarian organization founded at the Battle of Solferino (in the
Crimean War) in 1859 by the Swiss Jean-Henri Dunant; its headquarters remain
in Geneva. This is the same war that made Florence Nightingale famous. The
organization goes by the name "Red Crescent" in Muslim areas, where for obvious
reasons the Christian symbolism of the cross is less popular. [GG]
Reformed Church
of Satan
There is a real "Church of Satan" founded in Los Angeles in the late
1960s by Anton Salvador LaVey, who has also authored The Satanic Bible,
orderable at most bookstores. The "Reformed" part may allude to the "Reformed
Druids of North America", a neo-pagan group started in the 1960s in Berkeley,
who (tongue-in-cheek) said they were "reformed" from the ancient druids in
that they "usually" didn't practice human sacrifice. The "official" CoS is
still exists in San Francisco, but the RDNA dissolved years ago.
While the open Church of Satan is little more than a small-scale scam
for the jaded, barely approaching the status of a cult, conspiracy-minded
types (including a number of police officials) claim that there is a large-scale
secret Satanic cult currently active in the US, and practicing animal and
human sacrifice, especially of babies. There is little evidence, however,
for more than independent groups of nihilistic adolescents mucking about with
the occult.
Bingo is a common fundraiser at many American churches. [FM,DZ]
Religious
Reich
Reference to the "Religious Right", an umbrella term for an American
political faction advocating that the government support social conservatism.
Also alludes to Hitler's description of Nazi Germany as the "Third Reich".
("Reich" is a German word meaning roughly "empire". The First Reich was held
to have been founded by Charlemagne in 800 AD, and traces through the Holy
Roman Empire to 1806 AD. The Second Reich was ruled by the Prussian Hohenzollerns
from 1871 to 1918, ending with defeat in WWI).
In truly INWO-ish fashion, the Religious Reich has effectively taken
over the Republican Party, despite representing
only a small minority of its members. [DS,JK,OS]
Republicans
American political party. The elephant is their traditional symbol.
The card art reflects the perception that well-established white males are
a Republican constituency. The parallel between this card art and that of
the Democrats may also reflect
the perception that there is little fundamental difference between these two
major American political parties. [AdS,CR,AY,BB]
Rifkinites
Jeremy
Rifkin is a crusader against genetic engineering. This group is presumably
named in analogy to the Luddites, an anti-industrial protest movement from
19th-century Britain. [AdS,CR]
Robot Sea Monsters
Attack robots and sea monsters are old B-movie sci-fi staples, so
why not combine them? The first and most famous Robot Sea Monster is probably
Jules Verne's Nautilus, which appears in both 20,000 Leagues Beneath
The Sea and Mysterious Island. The submarine is constantly mistaken
for a whale. [BB,SMB].
Ronald Reagan
Ex-President of the US (1981-89) and one-time Hollywood actor. The
moneky in the artwork is presumably a reference to the movie Bedtime for
Bonzo, in which Reagan co-starred with a chimpanzee. Note that Bonzo
is playing with the "Red Phone" (the secure phone between the White House
and Kremlin). [AdS,CR]
Rosicrucians
Order of the Rosy (i.e., Bloody) Cross. The earliest confirmed reference,
the Fama Fraternitatis, dates from 1614, but thought by some to have
been founded by Paracelsus, a Swiss alchemist who died in 1541. A worldwide
brotherhood claiming to possess esoteric and secret wisdom. Their name is
taken from the Rosy Cross of alchemy, a sex-magick/divine grace symbol typical
of the ambiguity of Paracelsus' philosophy. In their day, the Rosicrucians
were an organization of the same caliber (and roughly the same orientation)
as the Freemasons. Rumoured to have ties to the Ancient Illuminated Seers
(cf Bavaria) and the Templars, though the latter would be particularly Illuminated
as the Templars were disbanded in 1312.
Nowadays, the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (who advertise
regularly in Omni), the Rosicrucian Fellowship, the Societas Rosicruciana
in Americae, and possibly others all claim to be the real Rosicrucians,
accept no substitutes. [MD,JR,CPL,ANH,WL]
Ross Perot
American billionaire who made an independent run for President in
1992 (and again, with much less success, in 1996). He spent enormous sums
on a sequence of half-hour TV infomercials, in which he made his arguments
with long sequences of cardboard graphs, obviously relishing his role as a
spoiler. His political influence was badly dented in 1994 after losing a
televised debate on the then-proposed North American Free Trade Agreement
to VP Al Gore.
Prior to his political flirtation, Perot was probably most notable
for hiring his own mercenary group to rescue American hostages from Iran
following that country's 1979 revolution. [DF]
Russia
Russia was reestablished as an independent nation with the collapse
of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Since then, it has been undergoing
painful economic and political transitions as its old communist political
and economic systems give way to pluralism and privatization. As a result, some
Russians yearn for a strong leader to solve their problems, and politicians
such as Vladimir Zhirinovsky
appeal to that desire. [SMB]
Saddam Hussein
Dictator of Iraq. Found himself at the losing end of the 1991 Gulf
War after his invasion of Kuwait.
The card's special ability reflects the fact that Hussein has been
a recurring thorn in the side of the civilized world in general and the United
States in particular. He has been in the news for his ongoing efforts to
develop and deploy weapons of mass destruction; in 1997 he expelled the American
members of a United Nations inspection team looking for
signs of chemical/biological weapons creation. After some saber rattling,
Hussein backed down and let the inspectors return (having had plenty of time
to hide the evidence and force them to start from square one...). [AdS,CR,SMB]
Saturday Morning Cartoons
An American cultural institution. Often criticized for their violence
by people who claim that children are likely to imitate the mayhem they see
in the cartoons (though, somehow, the critics seem to have resisted the temptation
to imitate the mayhem of the Saturday morning cartoons shown during their
youth.....
The cartoons are often characterized by shameless commercialism; instead
of just selling toys during the commercials, most American cartoons these
days are either actually based on toys or produced in conjunction with toy
makers. [OS,SMB]
Savings and Loans
A type of American small bank specializing in personal loans and mortgages.
Many S&Ls required an enormous bail-out package at taxpayer expense after
perhaps criminal mismanagement. [AdS,CR]
Science Fiction Fans
The astronaut is reading Footfall, a novel of alien invasion
by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. [AdS,CR]
Secret Service
The Secret Service is a division of the Treasury Department (as is
the B.A.T.F.). The best-known function
of the Secret Service is to bodyguard the President and other high-level Federal
officeholders and candidates, but it retains its original function of investigating
counterfeiting and has expanded into the arena of computer crime. Secret
Service agents are most readily identified by their dark sunglasses and earphones
-- no matter how casual they try to look, these two accessories are always
present.
Secret Service agents raided SJG
in a spectacularly incompetent and unjustified fashion in 1990, claiming
that the GURPS
Cyberpunk RPG supplement then in preparation was a "handbook for computer
crime". Presumably, the double-thunderbolt lapel pins in the artwork, similar
to those worn by the Nazi SS, are a bit of payback for this incident....
[AdS,CR,SMB]
Secular Humanists
An Enlightenment creed developed in the time of Voltaire (1694-1778)
and Hume (1711-1776) to challenge the dogmas of orthodox Christianity. "Secular"
refers to things of this world (as opposed to things of the spiritual realm);
"humanism" in general refers to any theory or doctrine that takes human experience
rather than revealed scripture as its starting point. Naturally, "secular
humanism" is occasionally raised as a bogeyman by fundamentalist believers.
[JY]
Semiconscious Liberation Army
Reference to the Symbionese Liberation Army, a 1970s terrorist group
famous for kidnapping Patty Hearst. [FM]
Silicon Valley
Near San Francisco; home of many major computer companies. [AdS,CR]
S.M.O.F.
Secret Masters of Fandom -- tongue-in-cheek allusion to the people
who organise SF conventions and other
fannish activities. [AdS,CR]
Society for Creative Anarchism
Reference to "Society for Creative Anachronism",
which stages romantic reconstructions of the "good bits" of mediaeval life.
Legend has it that they have been investigated by the post office (or possibly
the FBI) who couldn't tell it from "Anarchism". [CS,WL,DZ]
South American Nazis
A number of real Nazis fled to South America after WWII -- Eichmann
and Mengele were both caught in Brazil by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Though
many were found and brought to Nuremberg or prosecuted later in Israel, others
vanished completely. [GG,DR]
Stonehenge
Ring of standing stones, some linked by stone caps, in England; dates
from the Neolithic age. It was once believed that the stone circles were
used by the the ancient Druids as
ceremonial sites; however, the circles predate the Druids by at least a thousand
years. However, the people who did build them may well have used them for
religious ceremonies, as well as for astronomical observations to set the
calendar (many of the circles have astronomical alignments related to dates
such as the summer solstice).
One interesting thing about Stonehenge is that some of its stones
come from Wales, about two hundred miles away. Perhaps the builders of Stonehenge
had moved to the area from there, bringing the stones with them, or perhaps
they took another group's standing stones as trophies after defeating them
in war.
Similar but less famous stone rings -- most missing the horizontal
capstones -- are found throughout Britain, and long winding rows of standing
stones are found in France. [MB,ANH,SMB]
Subliminals
A big fad topic in the 1960s. Author Wilson Bryan Key produced several
books claiming advertisers were smuggling the word "sex" into ads to induce
us to buy their product. The ice cubes and ice-cream sauce are classic examples,
used on the cover of at least one of the books. Interestingly, subliminal
advertising itself was just a hoax of the late 1950s, set up by a desperate
advertising executive who needed to convince clients he had a new and exciting
technique for selling goods to reluctant consumers. According to a Skeptical Inquirer investigative
article, he obtained his "evidence" by setting up a demonstration of Subliminal
Advertising in a drive-in, then fixing the cola and popcorn sales figures.
Note the "subliminal message" in the borders of the card artwork....
[MB,SMB]
Supreme Court
The highest court in the United States, which often resolves basic
questions as to whether laws are consistent with the U.S. Constitution (a
power the court granted itself in the Marbury
v. Madison case).
The Supreme Court has often been criticized for propounding doctrines
that are not supported by the Constitution. On the one hand, it has been
known to discover Constitutional doctrines that nobody else can find in the Constitution.
(For instance, the Griswold v. State of Connecticut decision rooted
the right to privacy
in "emanations" from the "penumbra" of the 14th Amendment.) On the other
hand, the Supreme Court has also been criticized for failing to recognize
rights which are quite clearly spelled out in the Constitution (For instance,
the court upheld the imprisonment of anti-draft leafleters in Schenck v. United States.
This case gave us the phrase "yelling fire in a crowded theater" to represent
the public-safety rationale for limiting free speech, though the analogy
to the actual situation in Schenck was strained to the point of absurdity.)
People who believe in New World Order conspiracy theories (see Back to the Salt Mines, Black Helicopters,
and United Nations) naturally interpret all this
as evidence that the Supreme Court is part of the plot to undermine the U.S.
Constitution. A more prosaic explanation can be found in the fact that the
Supreme Court is made up of human beings who are naturally tempted to expand
their own power and prerogatives. [SMB]
Survivalists
Fringe movement that believes in preparing to survive the end of civilization.
And in guns. Lots of 'em. [AdS,CR]
Switzerland
Just what is hidden in those mountain passes?
Switzerland has been in the news lately (early 1997) in response to
accusations that the behavior of the Swiss government and Swiss bankers vis-a-vis
Nazi Germany was not as pure as previously believed. In particular, Swiss
bankers are said to have aided loot-laundering by Nazi officials and obstructed
efforts by Holocaust victims and their heirs to recover money deposited in
Switzerland in an effort to protect it from Nazi confiscation. More on this
as evidence surfaces.... [AdS,CR,SMB]
Tabloids
Gossip newspapers specialising in outrageous headlines. [AdS,CR]
Telephone Psychics
Late-night American television is filled with ads for "Psychic Hotlines",
$3.99 a minute. The concept does beg the question of why they don't
call you when desired, rather than vice versa.... [AdS,CR,SMB]
Templars
The Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, a mediaeval
Crusading order of knights, disbanded by the pope in 1312 after accusations
of witchcraft, sexual perversion, and heresy. These accusations are generally
believed to have been mostly baseless -- very likely the order had simply
become too powerful for Pope Innocent to let continue. The Templars are common
characters in conspiracy theory, believed to be the keepers of the Holy Grail and the assassins of
the last French King, after having infiltrated the French Freemasons and
Jacobites. It is interesting to note that the Templars' traditional regalia
was a red cross on a white surcoat; we are not sure who the character on
the Limited Edition card is.
It is believed by some that the Freemasons are the Templars
(and the Templars/Masons are reputedly responsible for quite a few shenanigans,
including a major peasant uprising in late medieval England). Incidentally, this means
that the exclusion of the Freemasons as a separate group is probably simply
an example of extreme Illumination.
The book Holy Blood, Holy Grail traces the "history" of the
Templars, throwing in some truly wild theories
(about Christ's children and the true nature of the Holy Grail), for spice. [DR,LM,SDO]
Texas
Large U.S. state in the south-central part of the country. The traditional
image of Texas is a place where things are very big and the people don't take any guff.
Site of the infamous assassination of John F. Kennedy. Also home of
the town of Mad Dog, featured prominently in Illuminatus! [OS]
Tobacco Companies
Credibly accused of doctoring nicotine content in cigarettes to ensure
addiction; currently desperately fighting to avoid having nicotine classified
(and regulated) as a drug.
Recently (early 1997), several tobacco companies are working on a
settlement with a number of U.S. state governments, in which the companies
will pay a large (many billions) sum of money over time to pay medical costs
associated with smoking. Whether this will permanently settle the current
legal battles, or whether it will prove to be a case of paying the Danegeld
(with the usual long-term consequences), remains to be seen. [OS,SMB]
Trading Card Games
This card shows the dealer with his wares attatched to the inside
of his coat, ready for a quick getaway if the police show up. This is a tactic
often used by street sellers of stolen or illegal goods, and is used in the
card art to jokingly suggest that dealing in trading cards is a sleazy activity.
[SMB,TE]
Trekkies
Fans of "Star Trek: the Franchise". The more serious ones prefer the
name "Trekker", as "Trekkie" has juvenile "fanboy" connotations. [AdS,CR]
Triliberal Commission
Reference to the Trilateral Commission,
which is essentially a chat club for economic and political leaders from
the United States, Europe and Japan (hence, "tri"); membership has included
three American presidents (Jimmy Carter, George Bush, and Bill Clinton) and several cabinet
members. It's a frequent target of conspiracy theorists.
[KB,TNG]
TV Preachers
Believe it or not, there are entire television networks devoted to
exhorting the faithful to send them money. [AdS,CR]
Underground Newspapers
Publications which are either literally "underground" (clandestinely
publishing information and opinions which are routinely censored by the local regime) or
which adopt the trappings of the underground press in order to affect an
anti-Establishment cachet.
This is one type of publication in which articles on the Illuminati
frequently appear.... [OS,SMB]
United Nations
The United Nations, headquartered in New York City, was created after
the Second World War (as a successor to the WWI-era League of Nations) on
American initiative to provide a forum for global diplomacy, negotiation
and cooperation. Since then, it has worked tolerably when the Great Powers
agreed, and not at all when they didn't. Just past its 50th year, it's suffering
from bloated bureaucracy, inflated expectations and member nations (notably
the US) that fail to pay their bills, and manages mostly to consistently
embarrass itself.
That said, it's odd to discover that many American conspiracy theorists
paint the UN as the sinister nucleus of World Government responsible for black helicopters in the
American Midwest and possessing secret
shock troops waiting to descend from the skies. [AdS,CR]
Urban Gangs
The circled 'A' seen in this card and many others is an anarchists'
symbol. [AdS,CR]
Vampires
Based on legend, these nocturnal undeads live on human blood, can
change their form, and reproduce through feeding. (See also Count Dracula). [Th]
Vatican City
The sovereign papal state and "capital" of the Catholic Church, located
within Rome and including the papal palace (the Vatican proper) and St. Peter's
Church, established June 10, 1929; 108.7 acres; pop. about 1000.
The Vatican is reputed to contain the most extensive library of Forbidden
Tomes in existence.
Conspiracy theories (of varying degrees of credibility) have associated
the Vatican with various conspiratorial organizations, including the Knights
of Malta, P2, Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion.
The movie The Godfather Part III parallels several real-life
allegations (for example, that P2 "turned the Vatican Bank into a laundromat
for Mafia heroin money"; that Opus Dei bribed John Paul
II by making a huge donation to the Vatican Bank to save it from bankruptcy,
thereby earning the recognition and blessing of the pontiff; that the Knights
of Malta act as liaison between the Vatican and the C.I.A.). Of course, the movie was strictly
fiction....
Vatican conspiracy theoies also figure in Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic
Trigger series. [DV,OS]
Video Games
Electronic arcade games, later translated for home computer use. A
significant segment of the computer industry these days. [SMB]
Voudonistas
Combination of Voodoo (aka "Voudon") practitioners reputed to thrive
in Haiti, and the standard "-istas" ending to major rebel bands in Central
America. (Sandinistas, Zapatistas, etc.) [DV,OS]
Wall Street
Home of the stock market in New York City. Famous for corporate raiders
and white-collar crime, among other things.
Wargamers
Sometimes the anti-thesis of trading card
game players and role-players, this group delights in recreating famous
battles using miniature armies (or cardboard counters). [Th]
W.I.T.C.H.
This group (or perhaps groups) really exists, but it seems to be rather
loosely-knit and has purposes that change with the tide.
"WITCH -- the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell
-- borrows a great deal from Wicca and Discordianism. It is probably
not a church, even by American standards, and chiefly engages in street theatre,
satirizing monotheism, male dominance and the Establishment generally." -- Robert Anton Wilson, Coincidance [KB]
CREDITS
The bulk of the entries were originally written by Alan
de Smet and/or Colin Roald (Basic Set) or Steve Brinich (Assassins). Others
have provided feedback, additional facts, and occasional entire entries; these
entries are marked with the initials of the contributor(s). The full names
corresponding to these initials are listed on the credits page.
I would like to thank everyone who provided entries and
feedback.
Last Updated October 1998
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