Word Games: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as presented in Behold a Pale Horse; pp. 275-280

"To-day I may tell you that our goal is now only a few steps off. There remains a small space to cross and the whole long path we have trodden is ready now to close its cycle of the Symbolic Snake, by which we symbolize our people. When this ring closes, all the States of Europe will be locked in its coil as in a powerful vice."

It's not pedantic to point this out because it's contradictory to the claim that Cooper has been making in this book thus far. Our Jewish elder speaks of locking Europe in a vice, but Cooper has been discussing a conspiracy against the United States, the nations of Earth, and in some cases the planet itself. That we would know by reading something specifically about Europe tells us that Cooper is just padding out this book. 

This is not to say that I am giving him a pass on the inclusion here, far from it. It's just now I kind of get what is happening here. He is cramming anything he can into this book that furthers the conspiracy worldview. He recognized the anti-Semitic content but included it anyway because his audience was going to ask where it was. 

Another problem is the point of view of the Elder, why is he picking a snake as his symbol? Is he Cobra Commander? Culturally, for the Abrahamic people, the snake is the evil one; you wouldn't pick this animal as your symbol unless you know you're the bad guy. It's like the motto of the Bohemian Grove "Weaving Spiders Come not Here." If you are in charge of the grand conspiracy...having a symbol is a bad idea; but if you must, pick something fun or happy. 

This is Protocol 3 for those of you playing at home and this one is a mess narratively. The author is claiming that victory is at hand. Then he claims to have divided the king from his advisors and set them against each other so that nothing can be accomplished. Again, we must remind ourselves that this was originally written as a critique of Napolean III and thus does not apply to the modern day. 

The first few paragraphs are a mess, but then it gets into sharper focus as it goes on. Remember that the speaker is the villain, explaining how discord is sown and that we should want the opposite of what he wants. When he claims that the bedlam in society is the fault of journalists and pamphleteers harassing government officials, he's saying that this is the problem that good people (the reader), the non-Jews need to solve by outlawing a free press. A lack of a free press will restore order, which is what these people really want anyway. 

Then we get to a dizzying argument about the nature of rights. This is an interesting concept that gets brought up by the author because it speaks about rights as fictional, which is an interesting point from a political philosophy perspective. The debate concerns where rights come from. In US law, the right to free speech is not given by the government but protected by it. This is why the text reads that "Congress shall make no law restricting..." then listing the rights that we have. The irony here is that the Joly text is a dialogue in hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu; the notion of rights in America comes from the latter whereas our form of government comes from the former. The question isn't really handled here, what the narrator does instead is claim that these people view their rights as so precious while they are ground to death by work and debt. What good is a right to speech when you have no time to use it it the sentiment being expressed here. 

The narrator then writes of the glory of the aristocratic system. This was the preferable system because the Duke (or whatever) had an interest in keeping the worker fed, clothed, and housed. Yet the Elder wants the opposite, his people want to dominate the world and condemn them. Again, consider what is being said here, it is the evil Jewish elder that has done away with the aristocratic system which helped the laborer; and injected notions of anarchism, socialism, and communism into the public so that they futilely cling to the idea of "rights." Thus if you want to oppose the Jewish plot, you need to restore the rightful rulers to the world--the aristocrats (or contextually, the Russian Tsar). 

The goal of the Protocols is not to expose the Jewish plot but to legitimize the rule of the Tsar of Russia. This is not a pro-freedom work, it's a pro-royal work using European anti-Semitism as a lever to inject the conservative reaction to these new ideas of freedom and democracy. It's trying to win support by demonizing the European liberalism of the 19th century. 

We should pay close attention to: because everything we have read so far is too general. We just know that the Jewish Elder is the one to blame, but there is nothing specific that they've done. New ideas are the only particular poison and while we should understand that the far-right conspiracy crowd is against new ideas--these are just words. When we covered "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" I pointed out numerous times that they aren't against "communism" but against "COMMUNISM" which is just a word that they can use for anything they don't like. Gary Allen doesn't know what it is, but he does know that the word angers up the blood. 

Similarly, the word "freedom" does the same, in the opposite direction, "The word 'freedom' brings out the communities of men to fight against every kind of force, against every kind of authority, even against God and the laws of nature."

If we consider the language of Cooper's book thus far, he's fallen into this trap. He talks about wanting "Freedom" and fighting against the conspiracy for it; but what is he fighting for. Alex Jones does the same thing when he says that he's pro-freedom. Neither person can point out what it is that they want, what it is they are afraid of because it's just emotional. Cooper couldn't name one freedom he's lost under Clinton or Bush, Jones couldn't name one freedom he lost under Obama or Biden, but both are fighting against a demon they've created. 

Protocol 3 is probably the most ironic of them all. It supposedly displays the "Jewish plot" but what it really does is show how easily duped its intended audience is. Sure Communism/Socialism/Anarchism are ideas, but they only possess an emotional meaning to get conspiracy theorists to donate money and think they are helping anything but lining the pockets of grifters like Alex Jones and David Icke.