Oh yes, the Freemasons.
The organization you’ve heard about plotting everything from the French Revolution to driving
tiny cars wearing a fez.
Let’s find out, which one is true.
(PSST IT'S THE FEZ ONE) The Freemasons trace their roots from British
medieval construction guilds.
A lot of the Masons’ eccentricities do make a lot more sense if you think about them this
way.
Imagine a medieval town.
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, are all people you know.
Their business relies on relationships and trust.
However, this is difficult if you’re a construction worker.
This period’s construction projects were arduous affairs.
There were no modern machines and construction required a lot of labour.
Often builders needed help from stonemasons and other construction tradespeople.
However, in this period, there was no vouching for skill, no certificates, and even if a
union or guild existed there’d be no guarantee someone was a member.
Most people were illiterate, so contracts or membership cards were pointless.
What was their solution?
Build a well-known and reputable organization with secrets and make sure members who had
never met could trust each other.
This meant secret handshakes or rituals.
This was a useful setup.
A culture built around it like many organizations.
They built an internal mythology that placed them all the way back to the tower of Babel.
The group grew so tight people outside construction wanted in.
They eventually did get in, calling those in the building arts ‘operative’ masons,
and the rest ‘speculative’ masons.
These groups or ‘lodges’ popped up around England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
In 1717 several London lodges merged, and what we would today call Freemasonry was born.
Elias Ashmole often gets credit, but most freemason historians claim this merger involved
many more people not recorded.
The Masons have had an interesting role throughout history, though often overstated.
As an old man’s club in a world dominated by old men, masons are often overrepresented
in the halls of power.
Many claims are exaggerated or fabricated.
There were only three masons amongst the founding fathers.
OR IS THAT WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK?!?!?
Before the social safety net, the Freemasons ran many orphanages, retirement homes, and
insurance programs.
They built a society around temperance, prudence, fortitude, and justice, and “make good men
through philosophy, charity, and fraternity.”
OR IS THAT WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK?!?
And so we come to why you clicked on this video.
The Masons’ opacity, secrecy, symbology, and popularity resulted in the blame for anything
that has ever happened.
Accusations range from being responsible for everything from the French Revolution and
Communism to the dominance of international finance.
For a full and exhaustive list of conspiracy theories associated with the Freemasons, scroll
down and read what I imagine are at least three-quarters of the comments.
I’m noticing a pattern here…
Could the reason be the Masons, unlike many clubs in the past, allowed Jewish members?
These conspiracies substituting Jews for Masons are the basis of many anti Semitic conspiracy
theories.
Their secrecy, and tolerance for different religions and religious sects have run afoul
of many people.
The Catholic Church isn’t a fan, and the US had an anti-masonic political party, which
was the most popular third party from the Civil War until World War Two.
Far fewer Masons exist today, but they do the same stuff they used to.
They run some charities and meet to play dress-up as they have for centuries.
Most secrets have been published in one tell-all book or another, and the vast majority of
Masons never advance too far.
They do have some problems with modernity.
The Freemasons’ demographics skew pretty old and white and are almost exclusively male.
They recently debated whether or not they’re cool with gay marriage, and sometimes a subgroup
called the Shriners like wearing fezzes and driving tiny cars.
Pretty tame stuff…
OR IS THAT WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK?!?!?
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*wink* What, am I not supposed to say that pa-
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