1. THE GOOD SHEPHERD the c.i.a. as god visual overview by david bruce visualhollywood.com

2. James Wilson (Matt Damon) understands the value of secrecy, discretion and commitment to honor, which have been embedded in his soul since childhood, when he was the sole witness to his father's suicide.

3. As an eager, optimistic student at Yale, he is recruited to join the sacrosanct Skull and Bones fraternity, a brotherhood and breeding ground for future world leaders. The ritual is a very dark occult-like ordeal.

4. Wilson's acute mind, spotless reputation and sincere belief in the American way of life (America as god) render him a prime candidate for a career in intelligence, and he is soon recruited to work for the CIA during its WWII infancy (a true disciple).

5. While working within the very heart of an organization where duplicity is required and nothing is taken at face value, James' idealism is soon replaced by a growing suspicious nature, reflective of a world settling into the long paranoia of the Cold War (Satan under every stone philosophy).

6. As his methods are adopted as standard operating procedure, Wilson develops into one of the Agency's veteran operatives, all the while becoming more firmly entrenched in his mistrust of everyone. (Why should such a “great institution” bring such loneliness, isolation and friendlessness?)

7. His myopic dedication to his work comes at an ever- increasing price and eventually forces him to sacrifice everything in pursuit of his job, costing him his innocence and, finally, his family as well. (This “pro-family” and pro-America institution is really not about either -it is about itself)

8. ISSUES FROM THE MOVIE

9. AMERICAN DEMOCRACY AS NOT PERFECT! Democracy is the worst form of government. It is the most inefficient, the most clumsy, the most unpractical.... It reduces wisdom to impotence and secures the triumph of folly, ignorance, clap-trap and demagogy.... Yet democracy is the only form of social order admissible because it is the only one consistent with justice. --Robert Briffault (1876–1948)

10. DON’T HARM OTHERS The author of several books about the CIA, Milt Bearden, a retired 30-year veteran of the CIA and adviser to the film, explains “My rule is: ‘Don’t do anything that hurts anybody or puts anybody in danger, and don’t do anything that makes the job harder for anybody who’s still trying to do it.’”

11. SKULL AND BONES TAKE OVER OF EARLY CIA “I researched people who went into the early years of the CIA and where they came from,” Screenplay writer Roth says. “It was traditionally Yale and Skull and Bones.” Almost exclusively, white male Ivy Leaguers of a patrician class— considered the best and the brightest that the U.S. had to offer—ran the government arm.

12. SKULL AND BONES MEMBERS This ultra-secret society counts several prominent Americans as members, including President George W. Bush; his father, former President George Bush (who headed the CIA before becoming president himself); his father’s father, Prescott Bush; as well as President Bush’s opponent in the 2004 election, John Kerry. “The world became polarized,” explains Bearden. “It was the United States and the Soviet Union. You were lined up behind one or the other. And Khrushchev said, ‘We will bury you,’ and so we said, ‘We better figure this out.’ After 1945, that was the beginning of the American empire. An American empire without any intelligence capability didn’t make any sense.”

13. US AND USSR – SUPER POWERS IN CONFLICT “The world became polarized,” explains Bearden. “It was the United States and the Soviet Union. You were lined up behind one or the other. And Khrushchev said, ‘We will bury you,’ and so we said, ‘We better figure this out.’ After 1945, that was the beginning of the American empire. An American empire without any intelligence capability didn’t make any sense.”

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