What did he mean by this?

[Mercurius]

"Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand. For you see, the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes."
BENJAMIN DISRAELI 1804-1881 (Former British PM)

[Gnosomai Emauton]

Are you looking for a Thelemic analysis of Disraeli?

[gerry456]

"Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand. For you see, the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes."
BENJAMIN DISRAELI 1804-1881 (Former British PM)

Yeah well he was obviously talking about financial forces but as Gnosomai said how are you relating this to the subject of Thelema?

[Mercurius]

I don't like to gaslight discussion but wondered if anyone's minds wandered to secret chiefs.

[gerry456]

I don't like to gaslight discussion but wondered if anyone's minds wandered to secret chiefs.

Well those financiers did work in secret and their decisions were chief!! Lol.

No, alien dieties running the affairs of Victorian governmental shennanigans would be the last thing on my mind if I was writing a history essay based on this quote.

I'd probably get an F minor grade as well if I went down your avenue.

What gives you the impression that D'Isreali was a Balavatskyite?

[Avshalom Binyamin]

"Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand. For you see, the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes."
BENJAMIN DISRAELI 1804-1881 (Former British PM)

Yeah well he was obviously talking about financial forces but as Gnosomai said how are you relating this to the subject of Thelema?

Well, he said: "the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes."

Now, you're not behind the scenes. And you imagine it's financial forces. So Disraeli is saying that it's very different from financial forces.

[Gnosomai Emauton]

Though I still fail to see what any of this has to do with Thelema, I can at least clear up the mis-quote.

The actual quote is from chapter 15 of the novel Coningsby which Disraeli published in 1844. It is spoken by Sidonia, who is modeled on Nathan Mayer Rothschild (2nd gen. of the famous German-Jewish banking dynasty) with a bit of Disraeli himself thrown in for good measure. It comes at the end of a long discourse wherein Sidonia educates the title character on the complete penetration that Jews have accomplished at all levels of international government, despite their semi-official status as underdogs and outcasts. After multiple examples of the various Jews that Sidonia himself has encountered as government officials in his closed-door meetings across the continent, he concludes with:

‘So you see, my dear Coningsby, that the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.’
‘You startle, and deeply interest me.’ [says Coningsby]

The first sentence, regarding the "hidden hand", may have also been said by Disraeli (though I cannot find a source for it), but it was not said in regards to anything "behind the scenes". If it was said by him, I'd presume it did refer, as gerry assumes, to Adam Smith's "invisible hand" of the market though it could, possibly, refer to the "hidden hand" of Jewish financial firms.

[EDIT:] It appears that most of the conspiracy theory websites that utilize this quote source back to the same original document that misattributes the first half to Sidonia as well. This is incorrect. There is nothing in Coningsby about machinery of government or a hidden hand.

[Mercurius]