What are we to make of the Bilderberg Society, Skull and Bones, the Klan, Freemasonry and the like? I would like to think most rational people would observe BlaiseP’s Corollary to Occam’s Razor: never attribute to conspiracy what stupidity will adequately explain. Yet I am a member of a church which forbids its members to be affiliated with a secret society.
I put no stock in these conspiracy theories, personally, and know nobody who does. I write this diary, not because I believe the secret societies are running the world, but to deconstruct our right to privacy and freedom of association from a Devil’s Advocate position, hoping it will inspire a little debate. more below fold...
My church's prohibition on secret societies emerged from the unfortunate corollary between certain churches and the Klan, and I generally approve of this prohibition.
Yet the world is not a rational place. The world’s elite has always attempted to hold onto power and grasp at new power where it can. We laud Magna Carta as one of the founding documents of western democracy, but it was no such thing. The barons cornered King John and made him subject to law, their law, Parliament’s law. Is it completely irrational to believe today’s financial barons are no less powerful, able to sway the world’s governments? It all seems so ridiculous. I refuse to believe the world can be manipulated by a handful of hereditary elites within secret societies. It would seem the vagaries of the market and forces beyond the control of anyone would foil any attempt at such manipulation.
In a free world, I do not understand why any good society would choose to be secret. There’s something very stinky about a secret society: if there is nothing to fear from them, why are they so secret? Is there any good argument for such societies? What are they hiding?
I’ve given money to Morris Dees, of Klanwatch. Though it might seem the USA has become less racist, the Skinheads and other racial gangs are making an appearance again. They are a serious problem: in the Land of the Free, there are people among us who continue to perpetuate evil in our midst. I use that word Evil in its spiritual sense, I believe various evil movements through time have attempted to exert control over the world, many of them, like the Klan, had secret memberships.
Is there any reason to fear secret societies? I think most of us would laugh off any such assertion with a mention of the Tinfoil Hat Factory. But consider: the FBI has been caught out abusing the issuance of secret letters, secret prison camps hold terrorists. How much secrecy can a society tolerate? When does it start becoming a problem?
No answer shall I provide, there are no pat answers, at any rate. We have the right to privacy, and our associations are our own. Our right to privacy is under assault from every quarter. The entire paradigm of privacy is changing, faster than we have thought through the problem. Where do we draw the line? What do progressives think?