The Political Immortality of Cthulhu and the Federal Reserve

About one hundred years ago in the United States, the creation of the Federal Reserve took center stage as a major issue, when Great Cthulhu was barely a speck in H.P. Lovecraft's brain (or so we're told). Now, nearly a century later, the Fed is back in the limelight, and so is the Cthulhu like symbolism around it. Right now, Presidential candidates from Obama to Ron Paul and Rick Perry alternatively defend and deride the Fed, espousing alternating perceptions of it as a benevolent financial overseer or a conspiratorial monster. Who does that remind you of?

The incredible longevity of Cthulhuvian forms in relation to the banking system is interesting and certainly noteworthy. It seems to reinforce something inherently loathsome about chilling creatures with tentacles who lurk in the depths, and the dreadful parasitism in modern finance. The dark, the unknown, and the alien nature of the Cthulhu like octopus is weird and frightening, making it a suitable representative of institutions with little public trust or comprehension.

There are enough conspiracies and nefarious occurrences swirling around the Fed to make a Cthulhu cultist blush. Books like The Creature from Jekyll Island provide plenty of real life nightmare fuel. Regardless of what one thinks about the Fed, in an election year, political ire is so high toward Ben Bernanke and his system that more direct Cthulhu comparisons may be coming.

One final curiosity: H.P. Lovecraft shared his state with Senator Nelson Aldrich, the powerful Rhode Island politician behind bringing the Federal Reserve into existence. At one point, Lovecraft and Aldrich both lived in Foster, Rhode Island, just outside of Providence. Today, both are buried in Swan Point Cemetery. Further shadows of a conspiracy? You decide.

-Grim Blogger