Members past and present include every republican president since Herbert Hoover, William F. Buckley, Jr., Frank Borman, Justin Dart, William Randolph Hearst Jr., Caspar Weinberger, Charles Percy, George Shultz, Edward Teller, Merv Griffin, Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger and Newt Gingrich.
Every fall the Bohemian Club’s Annual Summer Encampment (which Herbert Hoover described as the greatest men’s party on earth) is held at the 2,700-acre Bohemian Grove in Monte Rio, California about 70 miles north of San Francisco. They meet to uphold what they call the spirit of Bohemia: an opportunity for the most powerful men in the United States and a handful of other countries to gather around the campfire and network in the best tradition of (largely) white male elitism. It is the smoke-filled room transported outdoors into the woods.
A 1914 Gove play entitled Nec-Natama or Comradeship. On the surface this play reveals nothing new about the activities of the club, yet it does provide an example of the the club’s style.
The plot centers around the theme of the pure but foolish White man coming to the Grove and being overcome by an evil spirit that conquers love and lures the man to give away his conscience and cares in favor of the dance of a hating lustful woman.
The man is instantly proclaimed a god by the Indians who inhabit the Grove, yet all within are doomed to hate and strife by The Great One
Those who have renounced goodness and love worship The Great Hate Chief who rules with an iron fist and without conscience. The Great Hate Chief becomes embroiled in a struggle with forces of goodness and conscience that reside beyond the Grove.
In addition to the general theme of hate, there are numerous references to evil spirits, the darkness of the Grove, torture and sacrifice. There are Hate braves, War dancers, water spirits and a master of lighting and illumination.
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- 1914: Nec-Natama