It Was Always Burning Since the World’s Been Turning

This power elite is not easy to define; but the fact that it exists makes itself known from time to time. Concerning the power elite, R. Buckminster Fuller wrote of the “vastly ambitious individuals who [have] become so effectively powerful because of their ability to remain invisible while operating behind the national scenery.” Fuller noted also, “Always their victories [are] in the name of some powerful sovereign-ruled country.

L. Fletcher Prouty

The real power structures [are] always the invisible ones behind the visible sovereign powers.” The power elite is not a group from one nation or even of one alliance of nations. It operates throughout the world and no doubt has done so for many, many centuries.

L. Fletcher Prouty

These leaders are influenced by the persuasion of [the] greatest propaganda schemes ever put forth by man. ²

L. Fletcher Prouty

The first of these schemes derives from the fact that the generally accepted “flat earth” was, all of a sudden, proved to be a sphere by the voyage of Magellan’s ships around the world.

L. Fletcher Prouty

It is not so much that certain educated men had not already theorized that Earth was round, but that with the return of the first ship Victoria the expedition’s wealthy financial backers had visual evidence that ships could circumnavigate the world and that because they could, Earth had to be a sphere.

L. Fletcher Prouty

Before any celestial distances or sizes could be calculated, the
ancient Greeks first had to establish that the Earth is a sphere. This view gained acceptance in ancient Greece as philosophers became familiar with the notion that ships gradually disappear over the horizon until only the tip of the mast could be seen. This made sense only if the surface of the sea curves and falls away. If the sea has a curved surface, then presumably so too does the Earth, which means it is probably a sphere. ⁴

Simon Singh
Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe

Being a sphere, it therefore had to be a finite object, with a finite—that is, limited—surface area. With this awakening the ideas of world trade and related colonial proprietary rights were born.

L. Fletcher Prouty

We were fated to pretend
To pretend
We’re fated to pretend
To pretend

MGMT
Time to Pretend

It may be postulated that this single bit of physical awareness brought about the greatest change in the mind of man since the dawn of creation.

Before Magellan’s time, mankind had simply accepted as self-evident the fact that there was always more property “out there” over the horizon and that it was not essential that anyone think seriously about the ownership of land, particularly open land. This general idea ended with the return of the good ship Victoria. ⁵

L. Fletcher Prouty

I am waiting for the next big thing
Bring it on quick time to me

Jesus Jones
The Next Big Thing

I saw the decade end, when it seemed
the world could change at the blink of an eye

Jesus Jones
Right Here Right Now

I couldn’t tell you if it’s gonna change the world
But I hope to hell it’s gonna change me

Jesus Jones
The Next Big Thing

The heart of revolutionary faith, like any faith, is fire: ordinary material transformed into extraordinary form, quantities of warmth suddenly changing the quality of substance. If we do not know what fire is, we know what it does. It burns. It destroys life; but it also supports it as a source of heat, light, and—above all—fascination.

James H. Billington
Fire In The Minds Of Men

All my faith is in the next big thing
It’s where I’ll hide what you don’t see

Jesus Jones
The Next Big Thing

Round and round the world we go
Back and forth in time
Always looking for the new sensation
Bigger and better every time

Jesus Jones
The Next Big Thing