Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward

The final candidate for a useful global threat was pollution of the environment. This was viewed as the most likely to s u c c e e d because it could be related to observable conditions such as smog and water pollution—in other words, it would be based partly on fact and, therefore, be credible. Predictions could be made showing 1. Ibid., p. 66.

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end-of-earth scenarios just as horrible as atomic warfare. Accuracy in these predictions would not be important. Their purpose would be to frighten, not to inform. It might even be necessary to deliberately poison the environment to make the predictions more convincing and to focus the public mind on fighting a new enemy, more fearful than any invader from another nation—or even from outer space. The masses would more willingly accept a falling standard of living, tax increases, and bureaucratic intervention in their lives as simply "the price we must pay to save Mother Earth."

If a vision of death and destruction from pollution could be implanted into the public subconscious mind, then the global battle against it could, indeed, replace war as the mechanism for control.

Did the Report from Iron Mountain really say that? It certainly did—and much more. Here are just a few of the pertinent passages: When it comes to postulating a credible substitute for war ... the

"alternate enemy" must imply a more immediate, tangible, anddirectly felt threat of destruction. It must justify the need for takingand paying a "blood price" in wide areas of human concern. In thisrespect, the possible substitute enemies noted earlier would beinsufficient. One exception might be the environmental-pollutionmodel, if the danger to society it posed was genuinely imminent. Thefictive models would have to carry the weight of extraordinaryconviction, underscored with a not inconsiderable actual sacrifice oflife.... It may be, for instance, that gross pollution of the environmentcan eventually replace the possibility of mass destruction by nuclearweapons as the principal apparent threat to the survival of the species.

Poisoning of the air, and of the principal sources of food and watersupply, is already well advanced, and at first glance would seempromising in this respect; it constitutes a threat that can be dealt withonly through social organization and political power....

It is true that the rate of pollution could be increased selectively forthis purpose.... But the pollution problem has been so widelypublicized in recent years that it seems highly improbable that ap r o g r a m of deliberate environmental poisoning could beimplemented in a politically acceptable manner.

However unlikely some of the possible alternative enemies wehave mentioned may seem, we must emphasize that one must befound of credible quality and magnitude, if a transition to peace is everto come about without social disintegration. It is more probable, in ourjudgment, that such a threat will have to be invented.1

1. Ibid., pp. 66-67, 70-71.

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THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

AUTHENTICITY OF THE REPORT