Aspen Institute

There are very few places in the world as beautiful as the city of Aspen, Colorado. That has not always been the case. The time period immediately following World War II was a true crossroads for American life, especially when the Great Depression is considered, and Aspen was no different than most other rural communities. But it had one advantage. The natural beauty of the region was breathtaking. The town was a sleepy little mountain town that was suffering from the same growth inabilities as the rest of the nation. Then came Walter Paepcke, former chairman of the Container Corporation of America, with a visionary plan for the community. 

The Aspen Institute began as a big-tent community event in 1949 as a celebration of the 200th birthday of the German poet and philosopher, Johann von Goethe. The vision of Paepcke had the Aspen locals wondering about his ideas of transformation for the community, but they did realize that they had one tempting draw: The skiing was excellent. The initial event was highly successful, as it lasted 20 days, had drawn the interest of many worldwide intellectuals and journalists and was attended by approximately 2,000 individuals. The community was impressed enough to plan another event for the next summer. 

The summer of 1950 brought about the birth of what is now The Aspen Institute. The initial mission was to help businessmen, based upon the idea that the reassessment of an individual's personal priorities could better be attained by interweaving economics with culture and nature. Businessmen were normally focused on business. Paepcke felt it was important for the successful businessman to be well-rounded in mind and activity.

The result was the invention of the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar, taken from the model of the Great Books Seminar held at the University of Chicago, which focused on the writings of the great classical thinkers and modern writers. The University of Chicago was also the employer of Dr. Leo Strauss, the highly controversial political theorist who was generally misinterpreted by many of his students as being a proponent of "The Noble Lie," a modern twist on one of Plato's possibly-coerced writings. The Noble Lie allows for government leaders to misrepresent facts to the mass population because of the "nobility" associated with power.

The Aspen Institute continues to be very active, hosting multiple events and symposiums including the Aspen Environment Forum, the Aspen Security Forum and the Aspen Ideas Festival. All of these productions feature highly-recognized individuals and experts from various areas of influence in a relaxed and cozy community. Aspen is clearly a unique community and has The Aspen Institute to thank, at least in part, for the economic stability that the skiing resort town enjoys.

It is very much more than just a vacation magnet, however, as can be seen from the above description. Conspiratorial historians liken the Aspen Institute to Britain's Tavistock Institute, which is said to have produced modern rock and roll (including the Beatles and Rolling Stones) as "mind control" facilities intended to diminish the role of the family while celebrating the (nobility of) the State. The idea is that as cultural and family ties wane, global government becomes easier to erect. Both Aspen and Tavistock, in this view, are think tanks aimed at tearing down human relationships and substituting bureaucratic ones.