Bobo08 said:
I think that making money is only one of the objectives of the secret masters, maybe even a secondary objective. A more important objective for them is to kill off normal people in the world or to put them under constant fear for easier control. They do it by dividing the world into camps and pitting one against the other, like Communist vs Western or Islamic vs Western.
Laura said:
Control is what they want: dominance, ownership. In some cases, also, entertainment and enjoyment that they can only achieve by seeing others suffer. Money is only a means to that end.
Vulcan59 said:
So yes money is probably not the sole or only objective. It's more about conquest and total control!!
There's actually quite a bit of data indicating that money is not the sole or only objective, but a means to that end - domination / control. In the film industry, for example, there's ample evidence that there have been situations where making money took a back seat to control (which in the long term increases the chances of making money also, by controling and monopolizing all resources needed for the field - but only for the dominant few). Orson Welles and his career as a filmmaker are a good example.
He may have been manipulated into serving the agenda that is served by the film and entertainment industry early on. However, as he wanted to assert himself and do things that made it more difficult for the industry to control those who work in the industry (writers, directors, actors - Welles was all of these), as well as antagonizing a powerful interest such as media giant William Randolph Hearst, the industry made it impossible for him to have a career as a director, even though they could have made money consistently from his films. He ended up acting in films to try to raise money for his own projects for the rest of his life and made much less films as a result.
After his first film, Citizen Kane, which infuriated Hearst because it was a thinly disguised fictionalization of his life and career, he was sent to Latin America by Nelson Rockefeller to be a "cultural embassador" to USA's neighbors to the south. While filming a documentary in Rio, Brazil (in the early 1940's) while he left his second film, The Magnificent Ambersons, in the stages of post-production, the film was taken away from him, majorly re-edited, new scenes shot, including a totally new ending, etc. And every film of his after that had major problems either to produce, to have as he wanted it made or to release, where even the distribution and promotion were sabotaged resulting in less money for the studio.
His film of many years later, A Touch of Evil (1958), was also taken away in post-production (he was locked out of the studio editing facilities) re-edited with new scenes added, etc. When the film was finally released, the marketing was totally sabotaged, even though it had two major stars - Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston who had recently won an Oscar. Someone from the studio snuck a copy to a European film festival where it won best film and best director. The studio was furious when they found out even though it would be a major promotional advantage for the film.
Welles once said that although everyone in Hollywood talks about money, it's actually a lot less important than all the talk, just like, he said, sex; everyone in Hollywood is obsessively talking about it but there is a whole lot less sex than the talk (the obsession itself is a good means of control, so the actual frequency of the act is less important). And he continued that if the people running the business were really only interested in making money, there are a lot easier and faster ways to do so, and none of them would be invovled in the film business.
And this is just the example of the film and entertainment industry. Think how much money is spent to influence people in the advertising and related fields to get them to buy things they don't need and also wouldn't want without such efforts. Instead, the customers could easily be listened to as to what is wanted in goods and services, what is most appreciated, and follow a marketing scheme based on that, leading to satisfied long term customers who develop loyalty to the business they have a relationship with. In addition to this huge value for the business (loyalty / long-term customer relationships), also would be the fact that they would spend much less on advertising and the most effective real advertising would be driven by word of mouth of truly satisfied customers. The most successful businesses would be those of highest competence and most integrity, instead of the most ruthless, pathological, and dishonest and most monopolistic out to eliminate true competitors while giving lip service to the "free market". But all this is antithetical to pathocratic control.
So it becomes pretty obvious that control and domination is the ultimate goal and making money is a secondary factor to serve the primary one.