Got about seven hours you want to spend wrapped up reading stuff on the internet? If so, google search some of the following: “Bilderberg Group,” “WTC Building 7,” “911+ truth” and then top it all off by going to Alex Jones’s conspiracy wonderland, Info Wars. In that seven hours (or more) you spend reading about vast conspiracies, mostly centered on the impending “New World Order,” one of two things will likely happen. You’ll either shake your head in amazement at how some people can be so insane, paranoid and obsessed or, you’ll see that there are some pretty damned convincing arguments to be found about where our country is headed as well as the events surrounding the 9-11 attacks. Documentary filmmakers Luke Myer and Andrew Neel’s “New World Order” take us into the world of the “conspiracy theorists” in their outstanding new film, “New World Order.”
Myer and Neel hit big on the doc scene in 2006 with the criminally underrated “Darkon,” a film about a group of folks who stage medieval battles on soccer fields in suburbia. And much like “Darkon,” Myer and Neel back way, way off in terms of telling you what to think about the characters and truth-is-stranger-than-fiction worlds they’re showing us. While watching “New World Order,” I really found myself trying to grasp what it was these conspiracy theorists were saying and couldn’t bring myself to dismiss them as just plain crazy. Sure, there are some really weird and random theories they cling to and they all seem really into Ron Paul (I’m sure he’s thrilled), but damn it, there’s also some things about 9-11 that just don’t make sense.
The film mainly focuses on the Godfather of the 9-11 conspiracy school, Alex Jones. The Austin, TX shock jock has truly made a career out of trying to expose “the truth” behind 9-11. Or, maybe he’s made a career-and a very lucrative one at that-trying to convince people there’s a conspiracy behind 9-11. In “New World Order” we follow Jones and some other like-minded individuals as they live their life consumed by an effort to prove that 9-11 was an inside job. They show up at ground zero in New York City on the 9-11 anniversary to hand out flyers. They travel to where the Bilderberg Group meets and try to get access. They make their own videos for you-tube explaining why everyone who ever had any kind of money and power is in on this mass conspiracy to enslave the world. While many of their acts seem equivalent to children poking around a graveyeard looking for ghosts, there’s also an excitement and a hope that they might find “something” out that’s real, and tangible, and will make people stop thinking they’re crazed.
In the film we meet young college student Luke Rudowski who spends all of his free time prosthelitizing about the New World Order and the Bilderberg group. He’s a nice kid, energetic and passionate about his beliefs and again, he makes some valid points. For instance, I didn’t know who or what the Bilderberg Group is or who it consisted of and when you find out, it’s more than a little disconcerting. Apparently once a year the wealthiest and most influential people in the world get together for a top-secret meeting in a secret location. Why is this o.k.? What are they talking about? To quote Tom Waits, “what are they building in there?” We don’t know and we never find out in “New World Order.” However, Rudowski makes a great point when he says (and I’m paraphrasing here) “if 100 of America’s top celebrities got together in a hotel for a secret meeting, the media would be all over it. Why don’t they ever cover this meeting?” A good point. We also meet a good ole country boy named Seth who was so moved by the lack of concern or help from our government during Hurricane Katrina, he changed careers and became a Salvation Army worker in Louisiana and Biloxi, MI. In his spare time, he spreads “the truth,” or what he believes to be true. Another group we meet has moved to very rural Idaho in order to be safe from the impending police state that will soon encompass America.
While I can’t say I’m fully convinced the people profiled in “New World Order” are onto anything resembling “the truth,” I will say again, there are some compelling truths to be found in the film and by the Alex Jones acolytes. But it does seem that every time a reasoned, well thought out point springs forth from these conspiracy nuts, Myer and Neel manage to capture an equally disturbing moment of wackness that completely derails any point that may have been proven. As such “New World Order” is an intriguing, evenhanded peek into a world all around us that we never really see.
