The Masons?
When that women lost control in the House chamber, one of the things that stood out for me was the reference to ‘the Freemasons’. One of my uncles was in the Masons, and my Dad turned down membership because he thought it was too expensive. I turned down membership because the members were, honestly, too boring.
Apparently the Catholic Church thinks that if you join you are unCatholic, Muslims think you are a Zionist. Fundie Protestants seem to think it is some sort of Satanic religion. The Nazis sent them to concentration camps and the Soviets to gulags.
It is a fraternity for crying out loud. A bunch of guys getting together and performing their ‘secret rituals’ while making connections for business. If you travel in business it is an easy introduction to locals at their lodge. It is hard to imagine any group that is more ‘vanilla’ and mainstream boring than Masons. They don’t get involved in religion or politics, they don’t rock the boat.
I think the problem is that they have been around too long and through the magic of compound interest are perceived to be too powerful and dangerous by rulers who want their money.
I can’t believe that people who handle poisonous snakes as part of their ritual, think people who play at laying bricks are a Satanic cult … [wanders away shaking his head]
4 comments
Here in the Southwest we have another secret society, E. Clampus Vitus. I’m surprised this crazy lady didn’t mention the Clampers (as they’re called). Of course, I guess it’s hard to work a fraternal order into a conspiracy theory when said fraternal order is devoted to placing historical plaques all over the Southwest and playing the occasional prank (see Drake’s Plate of Brass). And drinking. Can’t leave out the drinking. That’s what makes the Clampers a historical drinking society. Or maybe a drinking historical society. Whatever. I think it’s only coincidence that probably a quarter of the historical plaques placed by the Clampers refer to bars or taverns :).
There is nothing worse than a joke that no one gets, even after you explain it.
They sound like a fun group, more fun than the Masons.
Hey, a lot of important stuff happens in bars and taverns. The business of the creation of this country took place in taverns up and down the coast, as well as in Independence Hall. George Washington was a distiller, among other things. The tune for the National Anthem is a British drinking song.
Drinking is very historical in the US …
Aside from bars, whore houses are also favorite places for Clampers to commemorate. There is a serious side to that though. Often times the only way we know approximately how many people were in a mining or logging town was by how many bars and whore houses were present, since there were no official population counts.
And yes, they’re a fun bunch, I run into them in the outback sometimes when we’re investigating the same piece of obscure history. They’re serious about history but they’re also serious about fun — and pranks, though none of their other pranks match the Drake plaque one :). I don’t drink though, so I’m disqualified from membership, ah well!
Given the serious lack of funding for any research, people willing to do it on their own time and money is becoming more and more important. Much of the archaeology in the Southeast is funded by people proposing pipelines. In Florida a survey is required before you can do any large scale earthwork. At some point I expect that requirement to be dropped.
Well, it keeps them out of the pool hall … unless it is an historically significant pool hall, of course 😉