Grave Influence:
21 Radicals and Their Worldviews that Rule America from the Grave
by Brannon Howse

How did once-great America reach the sad state she finds herself in? Brannon Howse leads readers on a whirlwind tour of 21 historical figures and the anti-capitalist, anti-Christian worldviews that motivated them to plan and promote the destruction of the most free and successful nation in history. Howse distills each radical’s philosophy down to the essence, and then traces the impact of their influence on contemporary leaders in every field.

Some names in this gallery of radicals are familiar: Nietzsche, Dewey, and Kinsey, to name a few. Readers learn that Dewey, "the father of modern American education," was a leader in the Marxist movement. His primary interest in schooling children was not to teach them history, science or literature, but to change their values and make them "fit" for life within a socialist state.

Other names may be new. Alice Bailey was a leading founder of New Age occultism. She claimed to have written her 24 books under the direction of a spirit guide called Djwhal Khul, and taught that reincarnated Ascended Masters each had "a special contribution to make" in the fields of politics, religion, education, science, philosophy and economics.

Bailey might be easy to dismiss, except that many powerful Americans have been members of her Lucis Trust, and have adopted her principles for establishing a "new order." Robert Muller, a devoted Belgian adherent of Bailey, spent more than 40 years at the United Nations, eventually serving as assistant secretary-general. He helped create a UN-endorsed global curriculum, which he freely admits is based on Bailey’s teachings, and which many American schools have incorporated.

Other destructive influencers include John Maynard Keynes, Betty Friedan, William James, and Saul Alinsky. What emerges from the 21 portraits is a startling synergy of worldviews driving steadily towards globalism, via paths of socialistic governance and pantheistic spirituality. Darwinian evolution, radical environmentalism, mandatory youth service, economic crises, the Emergent Church, and the welfare state are all put in service towards concentrated power and global centrism.

Howse is not bashful about naming present-day people, organizations and movements complicit in America’s downward spiral. He also reveals tactics such as the Delphi technique, masking terminology, dialectic process, fiat currency, and the Cloward-Piven strategy, all used as end runs around dissenters and economic independence.

The author writes from an unabashedly Christian perspective, but conservatives of all stripes will appreciate the unmasking of America’s enemies within her government, educational establishment, non-profits, and religious institutions.

(Worldview Weekend Publishing, 2009, 368 pp., $15)