I first heard about Jon Ronson on a This American Life piece that aired December 7, 2001. He talked about his time hanging out with a Muslim activist named Omar who lived in Great Britain and advocated the overthrow of western governments. Omar walked a fine line between being charming and sinister. His actions were often ineffectual, bordering on buffoonish. But in the end you could tell Jon felt very uncomfortable, wondering if he had put himself at risk. The radio story was based on an excerpt of his (then) coming book "Them", which discussed Jon's time hanging out with various extremist individuals and groups. The book opens with Omar, then moves onto a couple of interviews with Rachel Weaver, daughter of Randy Weaver and describes the incidents at Ruby Ridge in which federal agents killed Weaver's wife Vicky and their son Sammy. Federal agent William Degan also perished in the incident. I remember how the story was originally portrayed in the press: White supremacist with a huge weapons cache in armed standoff. The facts eventually showed severe overreach and abuse of authority on behalf of the government. Ruby Ridge reminds me of how all of us are a short distance from a convenient narrative justifying our executions. Jon spends some limited time with actual Neo Nazis, more time with a Klan leader trying to give the organization a more positive image. But all throughout Mr Ronson encounters a wide variety of people who are obsessed with what they call the Bilderbergs. Allegedly it is a secret group that rules the world from back rooms, trying to establish a New World Order. Everyone seems to have a different angle whether it be Jews, bankers, or even alien Lizard Men. But the common theme is that a small group of individuals are deciding what happens in the world outside of any elected government. I have to admit, this strikes me as more and more believable the more I experience life. By the end of the book Jon determines there really are Bilderberg meetings held around the globe, and that lots of influential people attend them, by invitation only. Guys like Vernon Jordan (Clinton backer) and George W Bush (I think you know him). He even infiltrates a meeting at a park called Bohemian Grove in California were the attendees burn a pagan effigy before a giant stone owl. [The bachanal nature of the event reminds me a lot of the wall street banker party infiltrated in Kevin Roost's recently released "Young Money"]. A right-wing radio host also infiltrates the meeting with Jon and the two come away with very different impressions. The radio guy sees sinister evil in everything he witness, while Jon views it as much more tame. There really are groups of powerful people selecting the next generation of powerful, and influencing policy. Conspiracy is too strong a term and yet not wholly inaccurate. I definitely recommend the book. As an afterward, I looked up Bilderberg on Wikipedia. It didn't seem so secretive, and the details were consistent with Jon's book. In fact it lists meeting locations since 2006. "Them" was in fact first published back in 2002 and is cited as a source for the wiki article.