> He is also a member of the Bilderberg Group and attended the Swiss 2011 Bilderberg conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos#Recognition
> He is also an invitee of the Bilderberg Group and attended conference meetings in Greece 2009,[4] and Spain 2010 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_E._Graham#Other_roles
At best this is substance-less noise with respect to the article, and at worst, an attempt to troll users into a heated, pointless, debate.
The Guardian constantly make a big fuss over it.
(It's really just a lot of influential people meeting annually(?) in private to have some insightful discussions.)
Which ultimately means that the conspiracy theory is correct, except that reality sounds less flashy.
After all, a democratic society has all sorts of proper channels to have such discussions in. Meeting in such an invite-only club that is not part of the official checks and balances is somewhat problematic, because it leads to decisions being pushed through that did not emerge from democratic processes.
We may not trust the people in this world who tend to gain that level of influence, but I wouldn't describe the general idea of influential people talking, even in a group setting, as problematic.
No, they have the power of many states behind them, both through corruption and plain economic stranglehold.
In any case, who do you think participates in the Bilderberg group?
The 2009 meeting participants in Greece included: Greek prime minister Kostas Karamanlis; Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen; Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt; U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg; U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner; World Bank president Robert Zoellick; President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso; Queen Sofia of Spain; and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
Not that I give much credence to the conspiracy theories.
(From the Bio) Frank Albo is a PhD student under the supervision of David Watkin and James Stevens Curl. His doctoral research focuses on the influence of Freemasonry in the Nineteenth Century British Gothic Revival. His publications explore Masonic interactions and networks in British and French architecture and garden design, including recent work on the architect Charles Robert Cockerell for Le Monde Maçonnique à l'époque des Lumières (2012). He is presently a Wingate and Canada Council Award scholar at Peterhouse.
Ask him about bilderberg sometime, if you have an hour and a half to listen.
If they actually just spend the entire time gossiping and making catty comments to each other it's way less interesting.
I would hypothesize that the mere fact of being invited to a traditionally secret club tends to make people more selfish, arrogant, and prone to abuse their power. I don't know this for a fact, but other results of psychological studies that I have heard of make it seem very plausible.
This is especially important with politicians. Politicians are supposed to be servants of the people. If we take psychological studies that point to a "fake it until you become it"-effect seriously, we should demand of politicians to also behave and carry themselves like servants. The Bilderberger group is a venue (admittedly, one of many) where politicians can become detached from their duties.
So like I said, it's less flashy than a Hollywood-movie conspiracy, but important nonetheless.
Unless they got to him. Run Larry Run!
> Skeptics argue that members can spend their private time hatching plans to control world politics and economics, ensuring the wealthy and powerful maintain their powerful grip on an enslaved population that keeps the machinery running
Sounds bogus. The plans are already hatched as documented in the the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, they obviously rather spend the time drinking the blood of blue-eyed christian children.