I don’t think they are sacred saints, but they do live up to their name by protecting civil liberties. It’s too bad that the mainstream media only reports on the cases that seem absurd or ridiculous. My mother, who is becoming more and more progressive as the years go by, shocked me by telling me she consulted with the ACLU regarding a legal affair with one of her employers. The minute her former bosses heard she was getting the ACLU involved, they gave in and paid her what they owed her.

They’re not perfect, but I’ve seen them do wonders for those who cannot afford it.

And this particular mechanic is a hard-core fundimentalist Christian.

Well I think the reason is that the Federal Reserve is a private institution, controlled by a private corporation out of Delaware, I think.

Anyway, I wonder if a case could be made that the dollar itself is a religious artifact?

I’ve known this friend for 15 years. I know where she stands on Scientology– she thinks it’s a crock. But at the same time, she doesn’t know anything about Dianetics, or L. Ron Hubbard… sounds strange, but let’s face it: not everyone is up on the many names some churches employ. I have friends who are shocked to discover that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are the Mormons!

Anyway, she also trusts me, because I have never given her a reason to doubt me. But most importantly, the big difference betwen my actions and the actions of, say, a cult is that I presented her with a choice. If she decided to keep the pamphlets, there’d be nothing I could do about it. It’s her pet-grooming store, not mine. The fact that she threw them out is one thing, but the fact that she told me later on about the re-stocking of the pamphlets, in a tone that suggested she found it eerie that they re-stocked it in the first place… that tells me that she is not just listening to me blindly.

On the other hand, I wonder how many Americans would vote for a referendum to have all religious and/or pagan symbols removed from our currency. If some people can lobby to have the Pledge of Allegiance edited to exclude “under God”, then why can’t we the people vote on whether we want our money to contain Egyptian or Christian allusions?

I’m going to talk to the ACLU about this– it’s possible that maybe someone has already brought this up in the past, perhaps a member of the once-existant Anti-Masonic political party…

I’m only posting this as a question to arouse the ire of a commenter on one of my previous posts who clearly has his pan [...]

My friend thought they were harmless pamphlets emphasizing self-improvement. I told my friend to throw them out, which she did. A week later, someone re-stocked them. I told my friend to confront the re-stockers and demand that they stop advertising their cult in her shop. She agreed, and it worked.

If I had the power to do so, I would have the All-Seeing Eye of Horus, as well as the slogan “E Pluribus Unum” and the phrase “In God We Trust” removed from all American currency. Why? Because it’s bullshit that I don’t subscribe to, and I resent this imposition upon my individual rights.

When you say that you resent them imposing their views on you, how is that different from you telling your friend to throw out the pamphlets and confront the people re-stocking them?

… it’s fun to watch losers argue in a pointless blog forum.

I absolutely agree!

Point taken. But if you ask me, the people who REALLY need to chill out are the ones who create these secret societies and go through all the trouble of mounting their stupid slogans and messages on our currency or in the architecture of buildings in D.C.

From what I know about Freemasonry, its core beliefs are as stupid as Scientology… and I resent Scientologists pushing their Xenu beliefs upon me in insidious ways. Recently, a friend of mine bought a pet-grooming business, and I noticed Dianetics-related literature in the waiting area… but it wasn’t obvious that it was Scientology-related. One had to scan the entire pamphlet in order to find any affiliation with the Church of Scitenology, and even then it was in small print.

My friend thought they were harmless pamphlets emphasizing self-improvement. I told my friend to throw them out, which she did. A week later, someone re-stocked them. I told my friend to confront the re-stockers and demand that they stop advertising their cult in her shop. She agreed, and it worked.

If I had the power to do so, I would have the All-Seeing Eye of Horus, as well as the slogan “E Pluribus Unum” and the phrase “In God We Trust” removed from all American currency. Why? Because it’s bullshit that I don’t subscribe to, and I resent this imposition upon my individual rights.

And what’s more, these secret organizations get all huffy when an Average Joe such as myself demands to know what they are hiding. See the hypocrisy here? They can brand our money, our landmarks, even our private businesses with their bullshit, but the minute we want some answers from them (by “them” I mean any weirdo cult that uses the cloak of secrecy) all of a sudden they want privacy.

Fuck them. I want everyone to know the story of Hiram Abiff. Maybe if more people did, they would realize what a crock Freemasonry is, and they’d quit.

And kudos to “South Park” for their Scientology episode! If they decide to try and sue Trey and Matt, I’ll donate money to their cause, because it’s about time more people started unmasking these secretive fucks. They want to have their cake and eat it too. I’m sure Scientology “recruits” aren’t left alone for one second of their “training”, so why should we allow them the luxury of keeping their wack beliefs private?

In short: if the notion of a secret global conspiracy is bullshit, then why do so many organizations attempt it?

I would like to re-write Hassan-i-Sabbah’s maxim to read as follows: “Nothing is secret; everything is out in the open”

I have a personal disdain for pretenders and people who meander around with stupid silliness.

Mr. Mark S. May I ask what your credentials are? Have you written a book? If so, why are you wasting time on this blog? If not, how do you know so much about the process of writing a book? Perhaps this blog is simply a way to “test” the ideas Tim wishes to put in print.

I also notice that you’ve nothing constructive to add to the conversation, you simply say the conversation is pointless. You’ve stated that something is “Out of Tim’s League” but haven’t said why. Just out of curiousity, was it out of Knight and Lomas’s league to write about the Freemasons? What about Dan Brown? How does one get “in the league?”

In this matter, your “disdain” and my regard for Tim have exactly the same weight: We’re bystanders, he’s doing the work.

Now that that’s dealt with, onto the homework.

I can’t speak for Tim, but I’ve occasionaly used a blog to explore ideas that I don’t know enough to write a book about.

On topic, though:
A secret society is antithical to the traditions of open, transparent republican govornments that we consider good. That does not neccessarily make them bad - the republic is not neccessarily the only good way to run a country, although I am not aware of any other methods that work with groups of more than about 100 people.

But in general, when one is doing good, one is likely to advertize the fact. This makes secret societies suspect. But the tendency is not universal, some people shun the spotlight. So who knows.

And then there are secret societies that are either purely social or service-oriented. If you want to gather for fun or to fix something or fund a hospital and don’t want to share the details, I’ve got no objection as long as those involved are all consenting adults.

However, I like republics. A lot.

Once I asked her what I thought about this stuff, if those entities exist, if so what their agenda is, where they come from. I watched her rotate her eyes like she was accessing a memory. And she smiled and said “I just checked with my spirits, sorry, I’m not allowed to talk about this with you.”

That was the first of many times she pulled that on me. It used to enrage me, it made me think she was snobby and pretentious, that her “spirits” were all a hoax and a way to feel important.

Now I am in a similar position myself and realize that she was right to treat certain types of conversations that way. Not all secret societies are primarily political - some are largely, or almost completely, spiritual. By this I mean that there do exist secret socities which are based on the individual’s adoption into families of non-human entities - for guidance, protection, healing, growth, etc.

Spirits don’t always want to be bought and sold and popularized and commoidified. They do want to be treated like sacred beings, with respect, which is to say, not profaned for the sake of gossip.

Which means, sometimes, that if you have a relationship with certain spirits you are better off not talking about them with people who do not share that relationship. For the dignity of the spirits, for your own peace of mind and for the safety of the outsider.

However starting a daily blog with something like “Are Secret Societies bad,” is kind of a pointless blog, it’s such a deep deep emotional topic that a simple blog is a really tacky way of trying to discuss the issue.

That’s what they want you to think!

Tim Boucher can write any topic he wants this his own blog, leave him be. If you don’t like some of his blogs then that’s your problem not his

Who is a king? Not he who governs a country, but HE WHO GOVERNS HIMSELF.

-Sri Chinmoy

Secret societies infiltrating governments and judicial systems to pervert democracy into the furthering of their own, nonpublic and selfish goals ?

But have you ever considered that governments and judicial systems already operate according to much the same dynamics?

Secrecy is a problem for people who are supposed to be accountable to the public.

This goes to an even deeper question though of does a system of voting equal accountability? Some would say yes and some would say no.

Anyway, “did” - you didn’t do my homework assignment. I asked if you were going to say that they were bad if you could also come up with theoretical reasons why they might be good.

sometimes the truth will cause the most damage.

Absolutely! Examples of this abound in ordinary life, nevermind government.

And besides: they’re just people. Secret societies are as old as people

And I think a good homework assignment for people who are afraid of high-level secret societies is to form your own with your friends and close confidantes where you pledge to look out for one another. Tell me how evil you think that is.

Oh, and this is a great point:

Secret societys infiltrating the guberment– thats a funny one. The United States was _organized_ and _created_ by the most well known one in history.

Ah, great call! Nobody ever mentions this, do they?

Here are chapters from the larger very confusing story.

Secret societys infiltrating the guberment– thats a funny one. The United States was _organized_ and _created_ by the most well known one in history.

The article you quote is a familiar one that “hurt feelings” or the idea of being excluded from something is usually more an expression of feelings of an inferiority complex than any slight of the organizations in and of themselves, “WHAT? someone out there knowns something “I” do not!” And besides: they’re just people. Secret societies are as old as people and will continue to have more relevence and appeal in a consumer society that BUY any one of the ideas in the spiritual market place but must ATTAIN in the before said, secret society. And besides, real secrets are not something you can read about or be told, but Experienced.

Secrecy is a problem for people who are supposed to be accountable to the public. If they have unpublished allegiances which can conflict with their public responsibilities, I can’t see any good coming from this.