(New World) Order in the House

A favorite topic of antisemitic (is there any other kind?) conspiracy theorists is the "New World Order" (H Νέα Τάξη Πραγμάτων in Greek). Although the term "New World Order" (hereafter NWO for short) has a longish history (check the relevant Wikipeda article), its most recent emergence dates to a speech that U.S. President George H.W. Bush gave to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in 1990, in which he stated:
Until now, the world we’ve known has been a world divided
– a world of barbed wire and concrete block, conflict and cold
war. Now, we can see a new world coming into view. A world
in which there is the very real prospect of a new world order.
In the words of Winston Churchill, a "world order" in which
"the principles of justice and fair play ... protect the weak
against the strong ..." A world where the United Nations, freed
from cold war stalemate, is poised to fulfill the historic vision
of its founders. A world in which freedom and respect for
human rights find a home among all nations.
The historical context of the speech was the collapse (under the weight of its own contradictions as Marxists might argue) of the Soviet block and the possibility that the end of antagonism between the West and the Communist East might allow for a new and, he and many others hoped, better interaction between the former adversaries. In the optimistic outlook of the day, the NWO would replace the tainted old order. Naturally, people with vivid imagination, whether bitter defeated leftists or perennially paranoid extreme rightists, saw a much more sinister meaning in these words, alluding to some type of conspiracy for the imposition of a world government under the auspices of the United Nations but, of course, with the true overlords being the United States and the Jews.

There are many web sites and blogs, of both far right and far left persuasion, that have linked NWO conspiracies to everything that has happened since 1990, including earthquakes, tsunamis, the 9/11 attacks, Google, George Soros (ο απαραίτητος "μαϊντανός", as the Greek expresison goes, who -double bonus!- also happens to be Jewish) the devastating forest Greek fires of two summers ago, the discovery of extensive doping among Greek athletes prior to the 2008 Olympics, the re-emergence, during the past few years, of Greek terrorism, and the widespread street violence which errupted in Athens and other cities last December. For a perspective on the links between the NWO and the Jews check this blog. The "swine flu" epidemic has not escaped this association, with a rabidly anti-Israeli left wing blog claiming that vaccination against this virus constitutes a genocidal weapon, on agreement with similar claims made by a slef-professed Greek Orthodox right-wing blog. Recent proposed changes to the Greek law that governs anonymity in blogs have been blamed to the "lackeys of the NWO and the Zionists". Additionally, the festering problem with legal and illegal immigrants to Greece has also been blamed to NWO and Zionist consiprators.

It is perfectly legitimate, of course, to disagree with globalization or at least with the way globalization has affected world economies and certainly many are fearful of the possibility of outsiders imposing, by force, solutions to national problems. My own view is that these fears are unfounded: The world is too fragmented and too antagonistic to enable any worldwide entity, like the United Nations, to act decisively on any important issue; witness the world's reaction, tepid at best, to the North Korean or Iran nuclear weapon and missile development programs. In any case, this sort of attitude towards the imaginary bugbear of the NWO would be quaint if it were not for its sinister link with antisemitism.