...through ignorance

"[. . . ] and neither are you to suffer your zeal for the institute to lead you into arguments with those who, through ignorance, may ridicule it."

From Cectic - The Comic

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First, I want to thank my hosts Greg Stewart and Dean Kennedy of Masonic Central for having me as a guest. It was fun, and while I may be modest most of the time, how could I resist when such charming brothers ask not once, but several times for the pleasure of my company?

Second, I imagine that my brothers in Connecticut want to thank Greg and Dean for waiting until July, so that they don't have to listen to me ask "Didja hear my podcast? Huh? Didja? How was it? Was it good? Didja like it? Huh? Didja?" for the rest of the summer. I'm sure that everyone around me hopes that my over-inflated ego will have returned to normal by the time that meetings start again in September.

That said, based on some of the comments and emails that I've received, I thought I should take a moment to clarify some of my comments on certain topics, while I still have my dues card.

There are dozens of masoniphobic web boards, ranging from those run by religious fundamentalists who believe that Freemasons worship some demon, or at least, some entity that is not the One True God© that they, themselves believe in. Other boards are run by people who believe that Freemasons either run, or inexplicably who are the bottom rung on the Illuminati/New World Order hierarchy. I say "inexplicably" because most of the time they keep referencing some mythical "high ranking Freemasons." A few even espouse theories that Masons are somehow connectied with aliens or NASA or are involved in the moon landing hoax.

Sometimes you can even see some intermingling of ideologies, which in itself presents some ironic humor. I've declined to point out these boards, mainly because it's pretty easy to find them if you search on terms such as "Freemason Conspiracy" and "Freemason Demon Worship."

I used to argue with masoniphobes, but I've given up. They don't want to believe me; their minds are already made up, and they are going to nit-pick every bit of evidence that I try to give them to prove their ideas wrong, if not outright ridiculous. They are going to twist words, pull quotes from Pike and Mackey and Hall out of context. They are going to point to the Washington Monument and to the occult Masonic symbols on the back of the one-dollar bill. To those of such a mind, there is no argument. Seriously, if you're not willing to entertain other concepts, then what you're doing is not arguing, it's simply name-calling.

In the US and in some other areas, Freemasons are cautioned after they are initiated not to let themselves get dragged into arguments with masoniphobes. Masoniphobes everywhere are reading this and thinking "Ah ha! That's because the new Mason hasn't been completely indoctinated into the cult."

Feh! Indoctrination is so last century. The truth is, we wait until they become Master Masons and then give them the mind control implants. It's much easier, it takes less time, and our Zeta Reticulan overlords protectors have a huge supply of them - enough for everybody in the US and UK, in fact.

Yes, that's right. A few years ago I got tired of arguing, so I decided to take another tactic. Since the masoniphobes are accustomed to a certain amount of pushback, I've decided to throw them off-balance; applying a metaphorical judo, if you will. For the last year or so, I've been telling them "You think we're part of the Illuminati? Hell, that's the least of what we are! You ain't seen nothing yet."

You'd be surprised at how well this actually works. In fact, the results point out some sociologically interesting things.

A number of times in the last few years I've had discussions with people who are convinced that Masons are part of some kind of global political conspiracy. My approach is now to agree with them, and then point out just how deeply ingrained we are in the various financial and political hierarchies around the globe. The responses I get are almost paradoxical: at first, they express something like "Ah hah! I knew it all along!" but as I describe the depth and breadth of the conspiracy, surpassing even their own accusations, they get confused and sometimes nervous.

They tell me that I'm making it up, that Masons can't possibly be as deeply into it as I claim.

How fascinating. I overpower their belief systems by feeding back into it, which causes them to go back and re-examine their original claims. It's almost as if they have a certain capacity for belief that can not be stretched.

Now, I'm not sure if this counts as "not arguing." But can anyone blame me for not resisting the subversiveness of this approach?

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Tao of Masonry | Freemasonry | Masonry

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