The Georgia Guidestones
Dubbed "America's Stonehenge", this granite monument in Georgia appeals to all sorts of conspiracy theorists.
Filed under Conspiracies, Religion
| Skeptoid #198 March 23, 2010 Podcast transcript | Listen | Subscribe |
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By Brian Dunning, Skeptoid Podcast
Episode 198, March 23, 2010
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4198
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On a hilltop in rural Elberton, Georgia stands an incongruous monument: 119 tons of imposing granite in five columns, six meters high, topped with a capstone. Not only are they geometrically arranged, they also offer three astronomical viewing ports marking the positions of the sun and stars, thus their nickname "America's Stonehenge". But unlike their English namesake, the Georgia Guidestones are not ancient; they are a recent emplacement. Their most significant trait is the controversial inscriptions, in eight languages. Some feel the messages in these inscription unite us, others feel they divide us. The monument refers to these ten mottos as the Guiding Thoughts, offered to the world by the anonymous builders of the monument. The ten Guiding Thoughts are:
MAINTAIN HUMANITY UNDER 500,000,000 IN PERPETUAL BALANCE WITH NATURE
GUIDE REPRODUCTION WISELY — IMPROVING FITNESS AND DIVERSITY
UNITE HUMANITY WITH A LIVING NEW LANGUAGE
RULE PASSION — FAITH — TRADITION AND ALL THINGS WITH TEMPERED REASON
PROTECT PEOPLE AND NATIONS WITH FAIR LAWS AND JUST COURTS
LET ALL NATIONS RULE INTERNALLY RESOLVING EXTERNAL DISPUTES IN A WORLD COURT
AVOID PETTY LAWS AND USELESS OFFICIALS
BALANCE PERSONAL RIGHTS WITH SOCIAL DUTIES
PRIZE TRUTH — BEAUTY — AND LOVE — SEEKING HARMONY WITH THE INFINITE
BE NOT A CANCER ON THE EARTH — LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE — LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE
Most of those are pretty harmless, and in fact a lot of people would probably agree that many of them are fine ideas. But the first three, recommending population control, eugenics, and a single world language, throw fuel on the fire of conspiracy theorists who fear an impending New World Order. If not for these first three controversial guides, the stones would probably be long forgotten.
The story of how the Guidestones came to be is just as mysterious as their meaning. The short version of it goes like this. A gentleman named Joe H. Fendley, Sr., was the president of one of the region's many granite companies, the Elberton Granite Finishing Company. According to the story, one day in June, 1979, he received a visit from a well dressed man who identified himself only with the pseudonym of Robert C. Christian. He told Fendley he represented "A small group of loyal Americans who believe in God." Christian showed Fendley the plans for his monument and asked for a price. Interestingly, Christian gave his specifications using the metric system, which was pretty rare in the United States in 1979. Fendley later said the price he gave was "six figures". Christian inquired where Fendley banked, and then left to go meet with the banker.
Thirty minutes later, Christian was received by Wyatt C. Martin, the president of the Granite City Bank. Christian expressed the need for secrecy on this project, including that the funds would be transferred to Martin from a number of different banks around the country. As a banker, Martin did require that Christian show him his true identification, which Christian did, only after Martin agreed to absolute secrecy in perpetuity. Martin agreed to be Christian's representative in managing the project going forward. Christian then left, corresponding only with Martin from that moment on, and often from different cities.
Fendley's company went to work. On Christian's behalf, Martin purchased fives acres of land atop the highest hill in the county for $5000 from farmer Wayne Mullenix, who subsequently acted as contractor laying the foundation for the monument. The six granite slabs were cut, drilled, lettered, and positioned according to the specifications, and unveiled on March 22, 1980. About 400 curious onlookers attended the opening.
In the decades since, the Georgia Guidestones have sat on their hilltop, gradually succumbing to vandalism, although a number of local volunteers have tried to keep them maintained. Other supporters have offered to install benches or pathways. Local churches are said to disapprove, but since the Guidestones have proven to be the most significant tourist attraction in Elberton, the town lets them be. The Sheriff has even installed security cameras to keep an eye on them.
The biggest question that everyone wants to know about the Guidestones is who built them? The stones themselves give one answer. A flat stone in the ground gives some information about the monument, and lists as its sponsors "A small group of Americans who seek the age of reason." This answer, quite obviously, is unsatisfactory to the curious. According to Christian, this was by design: he once said "The group feels by having our identity remain secret, it will not distract from the monument and its meaning." I happen to think he was right on the money. If the monument was known to have been erected by a particular group, it would be easy to dismiss it as "Oh, just more of that nonsense from so-and-so." The lack of a source lets the Guidestones stand on their own, and the mystery keeps people interested.
The nomination of candidates is easily started. The most obvious name is that of Robert C. Christian himself: Was he actually the only person involved? Although Christian and Martin, the banker, corresponded quite regularly through the years and occasionally even met for dinner, Martin now says that he has not heard from him for some time and assumes he has passed away. Christian said he chose that particular pseudonym because he was a Christian. Some, most notably the conspiracy theorist Jay Weidner, have pointed out the similarities between the name R. C. Christian and that of the apocryphal founder of Rosicrucianism, Christian Rosenkreuz. But whoever Christian was, he was probably not an official representative of Rosicrucianism. Rosicrucian philosophies and mysticism are well documented and widely available, and they bear only minimal similarity to the Guiding Thoughts. L. Ron Hubbard has also been suggested as Christian's true identity, but this is an even worse fit.
Martin and Fendley are indeed both real people, which is something that you do need to check out in stories like this. The late Mr. Fendley served as mayor of Elberton from 1980 through 1987; and Wyatt Martin is still alive, in fact Wired Magazine interviewed him in 2009. Could either Martin or Fendley have been the real sponsor, or even colluded as co-sponsors and made up the alleged R. C. Christian? It's a possibility. Nobody else ever saw or spoke with Christian. Martin showed Wired's reporter a box of his correspondence with Christian, but would not allow the papers to be examined, citing his promise of secrecy. It's often noted that Fendley was a 32nd-degree Freemason, and several of his top workers who participated in the Guidestones were also Freemasons in his same lodge. While this may be intriguing to conspiracy theorists, it is not useful evidence of anything at all. Since the Georgia Guidestones were a private enterprise, there are no public records of its financing trail, except the property purchase, which has been fully disclosed. Thus, if Martin and Fendley were indeed responsible, there is no evidence for it, and little likelihood of any evidence ever coming to light. There is, in fact, no reason that I could find to doubt the story as they've told it.
The best argument I can think of to point the finger at Martin and Fendley is that they lived in Elberton, near the monument; and Elberton is an awfully strange place to erect a monument that you want to be seen by the whole world. Martin and Fendley, if they wanted to build such a monument, might well choose to do it locally. However, you could make this same argument wherever in the world the monument was built, citing whoever contracted its construction. This small fact is an inevitability of the circumstance, it's not evidence; and does not suggest Martin and Fendley as the sponsors.
Conspiracy theorists also point to the name of the type of granite used: Pyramid Blue. Clearly (to some), the pyramid imagery suggests Masonic motives. In fact, the name comes from the name of the quarry, Pyramid Quarries, Inc., also in Elberton. Why was this quarry chosen? Simply because Fendley happened to own it. And he didn't even name it: He purchased the company in the 1970's as a supplier for his granite finishing and pet memorial companies.
There's one more clue in the Georgia Guidestones that points conspiracy theorists to suspect an origin in some Zionist New World Order, and that's the eight languages in which the Guiding Thoughts are inscribed. You might expect the eight most common languages to have been used. You would be in error. The languages are English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Mandarin, and Russian. Missing from the top eight are Bengali, Portuguese, Japanese, and German. Why are Hebrew and Swahili included? They're not even in the world's top fifty languages. Even if you're only considering languages spoken in the United States, the top eight are still missing Cantonese, French, German, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Italian. I'm not sure what the inclusion of Swahili tells us, but the inclusion of Hebrew suggests to conspiracy theorists that a Zionist New World Order is responsible for the Guidestones. This, of course, presumes the existence of a Zionist New World Order conspiracy, and it presumes that such a conspiracy would be usefully served by the erection of a random granite monument in the middle of nowhere in Georgia. Both presumptions strain credibility.
I dispelled my own hypothesis that the true sponsor was merely a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey with a quick calculation showing the main stones' proportions as 1×4×10, just off from Clarke's squares of 1, 2, and 3.
The facts of the Guidestones' history and construction is publicly available in great detail, in a 50-page book published by the Elberton Granite Finishing Company, called The Georgia Guidestones. It includes biographies of many of the principal workers and characters in the story, and dozens of photographs of the monument and its construction process. Anything you want to know about the Guidestones can be found in this book. Is the publication of this book evidence that Fendley was behind the whole thing? Not really, because there is another explanation that does not require such an assumption. The Guidestones were the most expensive project Fendley ever did, and by far the most famous. As such, they were the best possible advertisement for his company. What business would not leverage such a marketing opportunity? So, again, Fendley's promotion of the Guidestones were merely an inevitability of the circumstance.
In a world with free speech, there are going to be Georgia Guidestones, and all manner of similar exhibits. If you don't expect to find them outside of the existence of a New World Order conspiracy, you are being unrealistic. There's no proof that the Guidestones are not evidence of a conspiracy, but they're also exactly consistent with what we'd expect to find without such a conspiracy.
© 2010 Skeptoid Media, Inc.
References & Further Reading
Bridges, B. The Georgia Guidestones. Elberton: Elberton Granite Finishing Company, Inc., 1980.
Curators. "The Georgia Guidestones (sculpture)." Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Smithsonian Institution, 1 Nov. 1993. Web. 23 May. 2011. <http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!333035~!0>
Lewis, M. Paul (ed). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth Edition. Dallas: SIL International, 2009.
May, L. "In one small town, the human condition is etched in stone." Los Angeles Times. 4 Sep. 1989, Volume 108.
Schemmel, W. Insiders' Guide Off the Beaten Path Georgia. New York: Globe Pequot, 2006. 205-206.
Sullivan, R. "American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse." Wired. 20 Apr. 2009, Volume 17, Number 5.
Reference this article:
Dunning, B.
"The Georgia Guidestones." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc.,
23 Mar 2010. Web.
22 May 2013. <http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4198>
Discuss!
10 most recent comments | Show all 104 comments
I like to give the benefit of the doubt and maybe the people who had these stones erected were coming from a good place. But my goodness, the only part of this that isn't about the shallowness of the New World Order, is number ten, "bee not a cancer." Anyone who has taken anytime to listen to the speeches and investigate the destruction going on around the world, will not unreasonably be able to connect the two. If they fail to do so, they are either swallowing all the main stream propaganda or are part of the problem themselves. Maybe the NWO bregade, just decided to run with it. It's nothing to do with conspiracy theorists, the ruling elite are aiming to get to the point the stones are making and they dont care who or how many they have to sacrifice to get there. Sort of "hypocricy" isn't it? In simplest terms, what gives one person the right to rule over another, which is what these stones are about, although they try not to give that impression. A person who actually wants to rule over another, never mind the world, has a personality disorder to start with, so the whole paradigm eminating from these stones has a faulty base, regardless to whether the intent is good.
Jane, Ipswich
September 21, 2012 3:11am
The name of the town is Elberton. Knowing that I'd heard of an Elbert Hubbard, I googled him, and sure enough, he was the turn of the century writer, artist, and philosopher who Elron Hubbard first modeled himself after.
The initials RCC of the mystery man probably correlate to the Roycroft Campus that Elbert Hubbard started as the founder of the Arts & Crafts movement, in the early 20th century at East Aurora, New York.
Since Elron Hubbard was once said to have claimed that he was Elbert Hubbard's nephew, I would think that this was the work of Scientologists, perhaps once again inventing a bigger and more mysterious life for their founder.
Michael Hester, Gardena, CA
October 14, 2012 7:05am
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it".
ARISTOTLE
Having said that:
When do the good people of this Earth will realize that we cannot, as a Human race, continue living the way we do?
I'm confident, that with the necessary intelligence we will understand and heed this message.
It's NOT anti-christian or anti- anyhting! Perhaps with science will come a time when, we will reproduce with consciousness; e.i. only give birth to a child who's an able and productive member of society.I'm not promoting abortion or any purposful harming of a human life! I'm merely saying that, even BEFORE conception we will know if that gene will have the "pure" if you will, characteristics.No harm,no "control" just pure science and reason! After all, all souls deserve to be born; however, if we can, with science, be aware of what we create, we'd be well on our way to a population deserving to occupy this Wonder Of the Universe!
This seems completely logical and reasonable to me; no theories of any kind, conspiracy or otherwise. As to mixing races;have you ever noticed how beautiful, healthy and smart the children are of mixed races? Case dismissed...hopefuly, the day will come when there will be only ONE pride; HUMAN PRIDE!
As for the rest of the "commandments" it's very simple and completely sustainable. So is the "Ten Commendments" but are we capable of living up to it?
Therefore, sadly we're very far away from any advancement?!
Kinga, Apple Valley, CA
November 14, 2012 12:00pm
Cantonese is NOT language, some informal writing can be done using the dialect with Chinese characters.
But there is only one written Chinese language.
Reader, Vancouver
December 10, 2012 12:08am
Who gives a crap. Grow up already.
Thee Ox, Mil, WI
December 21, 2012 12:28pm
There is no way of knowing except through the eyes of God which way the wind will blow from one day to the next. Is it not? there exists so many theories which have many skeptics posing the question, "Does this stone commandment list really have to do with humans who are part of an imperfect race or is it more related to the uncontrollable issues such as big climate changes or threats of war? Here is one theory to contemplate in a world full of unanswered questions;
The subtext of the stones is that the future generations shall read the message in a world depopulated by some climax event. What is the climax event?
Is the climax event a natural event or man made made event? Is it a disaster or a blessing?
What does the "climax event" have to be for the subtext of the stones to make sense?
Is it the 21st century collapse of industrial civilization post-petroleum?
Is it the plague?
Is it the result of population overshoot exceeding the Earth's carrying capacity?
Is it the deliberate depopulation of the earth by the dynastic cryptocracy?
Is it the synchronicity and transhumanism?
Is it an interstellar electrical storm as Sol crosses the median of the galactic plane and enters the mouth of the Orubus: alpha and omega in the year 2012, and we discover Luna's true purpose; or just a rogue asteroid strike?
Venture us to say it instead could it be the world coming to its senses?
That the billions now living will reason together and voluntarily adjust their reproduction, to a peak...
Lola Hunt, Rockland, Maine
March 30, 2013 10:30am
Lola, you have been reading the old Australian Nexus havent you?
On your last, we cross the "median" every six months...so what?
We aren't ants for better or worse..
Mud, Sin City
May 02, 2013 9:17am
The Guidestones were sponsered by Ted Turner.
Bryan, Atlanta
May 05, 2013 7:08pm
Aurelio Peccei, Hasan Ozbekhan, Erich Jantsch, Alexander Christakis...
Club of Rome
"Limits to Growth"... was the inspiration behind the "why" the monument was built
these Gentlemen were the only people sophisticated enough, at THAT time with their level of life/work experience and education, to pull of the building of the Guidestones....
(in the mid(planning) to late(construction) 70's, there was no Google or Google Translate...you just couldn't walk up to someone off the street and ask them to translate verses into 8 different languages, put tiny holes in stones that line up with specific astronomical coordinates or know where on Earth has the best access of Limestone Deposits.....
The message is Humanistic....
The Natural Yearly Cycle of Earths seasons can probably ONLY maintain a Human Population of approx. 500 million without the technology of organized farming and breeding of cattle technologies used today to feed the approx. 7 billion inhabitants that we have on our Planet today....
Aurelio Peccei- World Traveler and was versed in different languages..
Erich Jantsch- Astrophysicist-studied forecasting techniques...
Hasan Ozbekhan-Philosopher
Alexander Christakis- (only one still living)- Theoretical Physics, Theoretical Nuclear Physics...Worked with the Architectual firm Doxiadis Associates.....
justanoverman, somewhere on, Earth
May 21, 2013 5:15am
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The time, place, and context of this particular construct tell the story.
Basically, as some saw it, the world was on the brink of inevitable nuclear annihilation, and this multi lingual edifice was erected as a legacy for the very few who would survive the atomic apocalypse, giving 10 thoughtful edicts by which the new world scene could abide by responsibly. At its very core it is a symbol of hope for the future.
Since those days time and the world has moved on, and the overgrown world is becoming a sicker place. Mentally deranged conspiracy theorists have recently assigned the monument a whole new ominous fictional meaning that has nothing to do with its original purpose or intent. Deviously manipulative and convincing, the theorists infect many unsuspecting others with their paranoid delusions about the ever elusive (and non existent) 'Illuminati' and the New World Order.
What these people rant about is not demonstrably tangible physically manifest reality. It's just the outgrowth of sick minds with an axe to grind and something to prove.
Immune to the bullshit, Regards
Thomas A, Australia
September 18, 2012 1:26am