Conspiracy theorists, megalomaniacs and even the man in the street will be interested in the theories of French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine as to who actually runs the world. In an interview given to a French magazine the other day Mr Vedrine spelled out a hierarchy of global power which included film-makers, organised crime, journalists, the American President, researchers, pension fund savers and company chairmen.
To stop it sounding dull he also included chaos theory, computer bugs, passions, individuals and "anyone who can throw grains of sand into the mechanism".
The man in the street isn't actually named, but he might like to think he can sometimes dump sand in the mechanism. So in the end there is hardly anyone excluded from Mr Vedrine's list. Indeed, "nobody" is at the top of his list (along with chance and chaos theory). Even sex is there, since presumably it is a passion, if not an element of chaos theory.
All this suggests that trying to find out who runs the world is a waste of time, or a big joke, or the foolish pursuit of eccentrics. But Mr Vedrine has offered his conclusions as "a realistic and factual list, without any value judgment." He is to be thanked for that. We should take him seriously.
So is he right? The trouble with his list is its global inclusivity, and its vagueness. Identifying "the Americans" as people who help run the world is not revealing. The "emerging Europe" is pretty vague too, as is the inclusion of "five or six other (i.e. non-American) political, economic and cultural powers", with France the only one named.
In other words, if global control is a conspiracy, it's one in which an awful lot of us are engaged. This will disappoint, or more likely enrage, all genuine conspiracy theorists, who are well aware the world is controlled by one or more of the following: the Bilderberg Group; the Jews; 12foot lizards; the New World Order; the Masons; the Devil; and the European Union - "a beast ridden by the harlot Catholic Church, conspiring to create a Europe controlled by the Vatican" (according to the Rev Ian Paisley).
It is easy to laugh at these theories. But it is well known (I am aware this is a giveaway prefatory remark) that the Bilderberg Group (for example) actually exists, that it has included people like Henry Kissinger, Umberto Agnelli, David Rockefeller and Lord Healey, that it is highly secretive and that its global influence is considerable. The dubious might like to read Them: Adventures with Extremists (Picador) by respected Guardian journalist Jon Ronson, in which he talks to extremists of all sorts (including Dr Paisley) and to members of some of the organisations they fear.
You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to wonder about some of the abuses of power, often directed against individuals, carried out by supposedly liberal regimes around the world. Jon Ronson reminds us of the case of the misfit Randy Weaver in Idaho in 1992. When he refused to appear in court on a gun charge, Weaver's cabin was surrounded by 400 troops, along with tanks and armoured personnel carriers. His teenage son was shot dead from behind. His wife was shot dead carrying her baby to safety. This was done in the name of public order and a perceived threat to society. Is it any wonder then that conspiracy theories should proliferate?
Even more disturbing is the story, as related by Jon Ronson, of David Icke - and not because the former goalkeeper thinks he is the Son of God and that the world is ruled by 12-foot lizards. Again, is it merely mad conspiracy theory to suggest that his enemies (forces of law and order and alleged liberals) decided that the best way to deal with him and his admittedly loony beliefs was to smear him as an anti-Semite? Despite his vehement denials, they did this very successfully (duping Irish university students along the way) and eventually curtailed his freedom of speech. When he tried to get airtime in Canada, the networks were fed the line that by "lizards" he meant Jews, and he was denied a voice.
Sometimes it seems the world is ruled not by Hubert Vedrine's global hierarchy but by zealous bigots masquerading as liberals, and ever at the ready with lots of firepower to "protect" us from anything or anyone that threatens an unquestioning status quo. Lone misfits in cabin or cottage, Rhode Island or rural Ireland, watch out. And let more of us be willing to throw sand in the mechanism.