The Tao of Masonry

It’s some kind of rule  in New England that we need a Masonic Mardis Gras; that is, a break from wearing the formal suits to lodge for at least one evening, and instead, dress up in the most garish costumes that seem to be specifically designed to emphasize our expanding waistlines by covering our upper bodies with bright colors and ridiculous prints.

That’s right, I’m talking about Hawaiian Shirt Night. It wouldn’t be summer in New England if a lodge didn’t have a Hawaiian Shirt Night. That is, except for those lodges that have Hawaiian Shirt Nights during the winter.

We didn’t have a luau for dinner, but we did have hot dogs, burgers, and barbecued chicken.

Maybe the purpose of the  shirts is to hide the barbecue sauce and ketchup?

Yes, Friendship Lodge is back for another two weekends at the Southington Apple Harvest Festival. Once again we are featuring our fried apple wedges, and despite the damp weather, the crowds are lining up for a taste.

The tent has been folded up, the flooring has been packed away until next year, the fryers have been power-washed, and the apple prep gear has been boxed and stowed away. And most of us that worked the 2009 Southington Apple Harvest Festival are exhausted. In my opinion, we spent a hell of a lot of man hours (and some woman hours) just to make $1,200.

From Apple Harvest 2009

I’m not complaining — too much. Overall, the prep work was less tiring, and the clean-up much easier than when we had been cooking up those steak sandwiches. And we discovered that fresh, local cider — hot or cold –sells pretty well. And we also discovered that the warm, friend apples were an excellent mix with some ice cream, something that we’ll keep on the menu for next year. And as I’ve written before, I think that the two weekend stint is like a built-in team-building session, except that it is not run by high-priced consultants.

But still, the lodge building is old, and we need to raise more capital in order to stay ahead of the repairs, and to be able to lay something by in case of emergencies. I wonder what we could add to the mix for next year?

I thought that the X-Files and its short-lived spin-off Millenium was the last major attempt by Freemasons to pass instructions coded into broadcast media, but as I was watching television the other night, I saw what can only be a resumption of those messages.

Amateur students of Masonic Konspiracies have most likely missed the commercial tie-in of Burger King and Spongebob Squarepants, but it did not escape me that this is a blatant attempt to pass along coded messages, and perhaps to insinuate the hidden Masonic agendas into our youth culture.

For those who may have missed the commercials, they are an ingenious method indeed; most adults would not bother to watch commercials aimed at pre-teens, and what could be a more innocuous cartoon than Spongebob? That’s the genius of the plan.

But think about the character itself: Spongebob Squarepants is a square-shaped creature, a geometric shape to which Masons frequently refer. The commercial features the rather creepy Burger King. The term “King” is too obvious for me to reference, and I won’t go into the minutiae about how “Burger” refers to the German-Austrio Hapsberg royal house. But the tie-in itself obviously references an alignment of the Freemasons – who have notably been allied with the British House of Windsor – with other members of the European royal houses. It’s not clear if the Freemasons are severing their relationship with the Windsors, or if (more likely) there is to be a merging of the lines in preparation to a One World Order.

I’m sure that there is no need to mention that the original Illuminati were from Austria.

And it wasn’t lost on me that using “rap” music was an intentional signal. Masons frequently use “raps” of gavels in their secret ceremonies, and by co-opting an old tune by “Sir” (another clue about royalty!) Mix-A-Lot was meant to catch the attentive ears of brother Masons in the English-speaking countries.

The commercial features a number of otherwise shapely young women dancing to this “rap” music, all of them wearing square-shaped boxes in their pants, which they display – indeed, call attention to – by their rhythmic shaking. Once you look past the overtly sexual innuendo, one realizes that they are shaking their “booty”, a reference to the riches to be gained by controlling the world’s monetary supply.

A secondary reference, though, is that “booty” is a term associated with pirates; pirates have been in the news lately, and alert konspiracy researchers will no doubt be aware that Freemasons may have descended from the heretical Knights Templar who escaped the purge of 1307, many of whom were rumored to have taken ships and plied the Mediterranean and southern European coasts. These ships were known to have sailed under a flag on which was a picture of a skull with crossed bones – a gruesome image with is still referenced by Freemasons even today.

And in case there are still some doubting Thomases, the 30-second commercial is really just an edit of a much longer, 2-1/2 minute message that is being broadcast through the YouTube medium. I haven’t had time to decipher the entire code, but I have managed to secure a copy of the text, which I have verified by listening to the commercial a number of times. I would appreciate any help or insights from other Masonic konspiracy experts in further deciphering what appears to be a message of callipygian importance.

I like square butts and I cannot lie
Squid and Sea Star can’t deny
When a sponge walks in, four corners and his pen
Like he got phone book implants, the crowd shouts

All the ladies stare
Dang those pants are square!

Swimming through the seaweed tangle
Is a butt with sharp right angles

Now Sponge Bob, I wanna get witch-ya
‘Cuz you’re making me rich-ah
Underwater, we keep it grungy
‘Cuz everybody knows that ‘He so spongey!’

Ooh, Rumplespongeskin
You dance, but your hips don’t bend
So groove it and move it
If you got caboose, then prove it

Sponge Bob is dancing
And Squidward is glancing
He’s hatin’… wet
He’s got Sponge Bob runnin’ his set

I’m tired of all these chairs
They don’t accommodate these squares
Take the average box tell him that
You gotta have square back

Mr. Krab! Yeah!
Patrick! Yeah!
Has Sponge Bob got the butt? Oh yeah!
Then shake it, now shake it
Shake it, now shake it
Shake that cubicle butt

Sponge Bob got back

Naw, dude, I said cubicle, not booty-ful. Don’t trip.Yeah baby, when it comes to sea life, curves ain’t got nothin’ to do with Bob’s selection.
2 by 2 by 2 square trousers, working that black belt, looking like dotted lines.
That’s how Sponge Bob like to rock them threads baby.

A word to the DC sponges who wanna get wit it
And watch Sponge Bob kick it

I gotta be straight when I say you gotta scrub ’til the break of dawn.
Bob got it goin’ on
Been known to rock him a thong
Them round butts won’t admit it
But they’d wear that gear if they could fit it

You can draw his body on paper
His waistline really don’t taper
Your girlfriend wants to squeeze him
Wanna push his pores and tease him

But Sponge Bob ain’t gonna have too much of that squeezin’
You other sponges don’t want none …

…unless you rock square buns!

To the new sponges in the magazines
You ain’t it Miss Thang
We rock them cubes, gals and dudes
Put it down at the goo lagoon

Some other box must get jealous
At the moves that come from square fellas
See Bob and they wanna get him
But Sandy Cheeks she won’t let ‘em

If you happen to wander on land
And you wanna be a square butt fan
And drive the crew right to Burger King
And give that sponge a ring

Sponge Bob got back!

It’s difficult to understand just what this message means. I’m counting on everybody reading this to share their insights so that we can figure it out.

News item: Connecticut and Rhode Island to merge Grand Lodges

Special to The Hartford Times
Dateline: Farmington, CT.

Citing a budget shortfall due to a lack of membership and the bad economy, and the resultant inability to fund various programs, the Freemasons of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, and those of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, jointly announced at the Grand Lodge of Connecticut’s Annual Communication their intention to merge into a single entity: The Grand Lodge of Southern New England, A.F. & A.M.

Another blogger comes out of the closet this week. In real life, the mono-nymed Radcliffe happens to be one of my best friends, and has been writing The Metaphysical Freemason for the last year or so. For reasons as yet unexplained, he decided to cast off the cloak of anonymity with the anagrammatically titled post “Edman named.” As it turns out, Radcliffe is really WB Dave Edman, Past Master of Friendship Lodge (voted “Best Lodge in Conn” by 33% of Connecticut bloggers). WB Dave joins the surprisingly small number of blogging brothers who publish under their real names, and I welcome him to the club.

Being an inveterate attention seeker and egomaniac, I fail to understand the hesitation which many of my brothers seem to have over such public disclosure – at least, under normal circumstances. I do understand that some brothers feel the need to publish anonymously, though. In the UK and other parts of Europe, Freemasons have come under scrutiny because of accusations of nepotism and favoritism in government and business dealings; and let’s not forget that Freemasons were actively persecuted in WWII. In the US, some Masons in the Bible Belt might be hesitant to announce their memberships because their neighbors, co-workers, or employers might belong to a congregation that looks askance at the Order, which conceivably could impact one’s job security.Some brothers are just new to Masonry and are shy and unsure of what they can write, for rear of ridicule from less their expressive brethren. And, unfortunately, some Masons even fear reprisals from their own, as last year’s events in West Virginia have showcased.

But these are exceptions. To me, the surprising thing is that 2/3 of the 100+ bloggers that I’ve counted choose to do so under a nom-de-plume. Bro. Radcliffe Dave writes something that echoes sentiments that I’ve seen elsewhere:

“[...] does it matter what a persons name is, does it cause less credibility or more, when one is attempting to move ideas. I would generally suppose that while of potentially little harm it probably causes even less good.”

The essential question that Dave – and others – poses is this: “What difference does my name make? What does it matter who I am? Why can’t you just evaluate what I’m saying on its own merits?” And on some level this is a perfectly valid issue: The truth – or at least, what one believes is true – really should take priority over who is reporting it. The value of an opinion offered should not change depending upon who is opining.

At one time in our society, you might have seen advertisements like “Try Doc Johnson’s Vit-A-Tonic. It adds pep to your step!” in magazines and newspapers. Those were simpler times, though. Marketing experts have long since realized the importance of adding some amount of authority to the context of the message in order to create a degree of verisimilitude in order to increase the attractiveness of the product. My grandmother would buy almost anything endorsed by Robert Young, the actor who played Doctor Marcus Welby, MD on a show of the same name.

But now, in our post-modern, self-aware society, the discriminating among us demand more than the patina of realism; we want actual authority in order to give meaning within the context. And while the desire for meaning within context is a mark of critical thinking, do we sometimes discount the validity of facts or opinions when they are divorced from the context? I would say that we do, especially in the internet world – but that we do so not without reason. The speed in which various internet hoaxes are passed around by the unaware is amazing, and the tenacity of these hoaxes (or rather, the belief in them) rival the faith that some people have in religion.

Don’t believe me? How many times in the last decade (yes, it’s been at least that long) have you seen emails promising money, free meals, or prizes (from a merger of Microsoft, AOL, Outback, and Disney, apparently) based on your propensity to forward it to as many people as possible. And almost every such email contains the phrase “I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s worth a try, isn’t it?” Newer versions, ironically, even contain such “authority” phrases as “My sister in law is an attorney, and she says it’s legal” or “My accountant says that this is binding” or now, the ultimate in authority: “I saw this on Snopes.com, so it must be true.”

Yet, the messages which some people would claim have merit even without a context, have certainly been created with some context; context that enhances the impact of the message itself. If I wrote an article about my concerns over publishing something critical of my Grand Lodge (Connecticut, one of the more progressive and forward-thinking states), it would not have the same impact as (for example) an author from West Virginia, knowing that some members of the Craft have been expelled for speaking their mind, and that their Grand Lodge has been actively seeking the authors of an anonymously written blog chronicling the issues involving the Past Grand Master Haas. Indeed, the words of both articles may be the same, but the knowledge of the environment of the authors impacts the sense of meaning that the reader develops.

I’m not suggesting that my brothers in self-imposed anonymity suddenly announce their names; they obviously have their own reasons, and I would never suggest that their reasons are not valid – at least, to them. But I do encourage anyone who can, to write freely about Masonry; to write about their experiences, their beliefs, and their education. In our post-modern times we have opened up our lodges so that non-Masons can see what goes on, in hopes of encouraging some of them to join our ranks. Maybe, by being more open amongst ourselves, we can encourage those of us in the ranks to help mentor and educate each other, as well as those who have chosen to follow similar paths.

Not all Grand Masters are heads of a Grand Lodge.

Sci-Fi maven Cory Doctorow’s freaky & fascinating blog Boing Boing has a mention of a brother who is a Grand Master of a different obedience.

HIS NAME is Grand Master Priest Faustus, and I had the honor of seeing him perform at the 215 Festival on Friday at the Society of Free Letts, where he appeared as part of Patrick Borelli and Douglas Gorenstein’s “Holy Headshot” project.

HE IS, frankly, the poppingest, lockingest Freemason I have ever met, and also a contemporary of many of the men who invented things like popping and locking. (He did not invent Freemasonry, however. HE IS NOT IMMORTAL. But he did have an amazing square and compass belt buckle, which started our discussion of The Craft)

There is a little more discussion in the Comments section below the main post, and a follow-up post from later today.

What strikes me is that it’s no longer surprising to see that Freemasons have a wide range of ages and interests. Although one commenter did quip “It’s not your grandfather’s Masonry” (making me wonder if he was quoting my post from a couple of years ago about Masonic Ink), more of the responders – several of them members of the Craft – were quick to point out that Masons are not all a bunch of fossils.

I’d write more, but I’m a little sore from break dancing at the all-night rave over the weekend.

Internet Masonry is not new; in fact, even seven years ago when I first started researching the fraternity, it was easy to find websites with papers, articles, and reprints on subjects ranging from rules and regulations to the esoteric. More importantly for me, however, were the various discussion groups. Yahoo had several groups, as did MSN. I also discovered that some of the hard-core BBS guys had taken the old Compuserv/Prodigy board and opened up a Usenet group. According to legend, within an hour after the group’s initial posting, a troll posted an Anti-Masonic message to the group.

I learned quite a bit about Masonry from hanging out at those various discussion groups. It’s one thing to read about the Craft and it’s workings; it’s quite another to discuss it with experienced Masons from various jurisdictions. Before I joined, I learned about things that most members of the fraternity rarely even hear about. I learned about recognition and regularity, about Prince Hall, that there are women Masons, and most importantly, that the impression that you have of Masonry from your lodge is only an impression – that rituals, ceremonies, even signs and tokens are not the same around the world, yet the essence of brotherhood somehow manages to shine through from everywhere you find a square and compasses.

Blogging is a great pastime for those of us who are egomaniacs inclined to write, but the medium does not lend itself well to discussion. Yes, one can leave comments on an article, but the narrow column format of web logs makes following a discussion difficult, especially lengthy ones. Even worse are side discussions that inevitably grow out of lengthy discussions – it often seems “rude” to hijack a comment discussion on a blog belonging to someone else. So, as much as I enjoy popping in on my new blogging friends, I often prefer to hang out at several of the various web-based Masonic discussion forums.

But before I mention those forums, I should first give a nod to the Usenet groups – the grandfathers of Internet Masonry. Although Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Forte Agent are probably the most common clients for accessing Usenet groups, I suspect that most people only stumble across newsgroups using Google Groups now. Usenet groups – a widely propagated text-only medium (think: message board) – are devoid of the flash, graphics, Java, and even HTML. Text-only messages are sent out and distributed by various news servers where they are picked up by the various Usenet service providers. Several years ago, AOL dropped their own coverage of Usenet groups, and most people simply found web-based groups. Many Usenet groups have been overrun with spammers and trolls. However, a few die-hards still frequent news://alt.freemasonry (the oldest Masonic Usenet group, now caught in a flaming cross-posting war between trolls on other groups) and news://soc.org.freemasonry ( a “Moderated” group which relies on human moderators to keep the spammers and trolls out, and to make sure that members don’t allow their passions on certain subjects to go out of bounds). Both can be accessed via Google groups: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.freemasonry/topic and http://groups.google.com/group/soc.org.freemasonry/topics

Yahoo members have a lot of choices: a quick search turned up well over 300 groups having something to do with Freemasonry, many of which are moderated and some of which will only allow verified Freemasons to join the group. I subscribe to about a dozen Masonic Yahoo groups; I find it convenient because I can read the messages at the website, or have them delivered via email. Admittedly, though, I rarely frequent any of them since I began blogging. But anyone with a yen for Masonic discussion should register for a Yahoo ID and join some of the very good groups that have been active for years. I even set up my own group a few years ago, just to test the email capabilities for Friendship Lodge.

I have long lost count of the various web-based groups, sometimes called “bulletin boards.” Several hosting companies now offer up great group discussion software, making a discussion board fairly easy to set up and maintain, even for newbies, which is probably why there are any number of small web forums, and a growing number of larger ones. The better forums have several moderators who generally try to maintain order, keep out spammers and trolls, and encourage harmony when brothers begin to get a bit heated over certain subjects. At times, some moderators will “lock” the discussion threads, which prevents any more people from posting to them while tempers cool. A Google search for Masonic web forums turns up several hundred potential hits, and thousands of references to them. I subscribe to about a dozen of them, although – as with the Yahoo groups – I haven’t been active in any since I started blogging.

But lately I’ve been in the mood to have some discussion, so I’ve been looking at the some of the more well-known forums. My new favorite hangout has been The Three Pillars; I find the groups to be fairly young-minded and the regulars seem open to discussing controversial subjects. The forum also has men and women Masons from jurisdictions that are unrecognized by the mainstream GLs, and I find that my own understanding of Masonry is enhanced by their perspectives. Having run across a number of forums that do not allow members of non-mainstream Masonry, I find their inclusion to be an asset.

A few other forums of note are The Masonic Forum of Light, The Trestleboard, and The Lodgeroom International, (with a separate forum for our British brethren) and a newer forum, Novus Ordo Saeculorum which was just started last year. All forums are active with plenty of side discussions on a wide enough range of subjects to keep any Mason informed and entertained.

Sometimes I want to have a discussion with people from Connecticut, and instead of getting my butt off the chair and going to lodge, I can surf over to www.friendshiplodge33.org, where the l33t web team at Friendship Lodge set up a great website while the GL sites were under construction. They put up a forum page, although the only people who use it are Friendship members. Similarly, I sometimes head to my own Grand Lodge website and log into the GL-CT forums. They really aren’t active (I suspect that I’m the most active member aside from the moderator), but I’m hoping that more people will discover them.

On a different scale are the Social Networking sites. These are sites in which members can participate in forum discussions, post simple blog articles, and more importantly, form groups based upon common interests. You can search a database of interests and when you find someone who matches up with your own, you can “friend” them, or add them to your group. LiveJournal is one of the oldest of these, and I’ve had my own LJ account for a while, although I don’t really use it. LJ has a small Masonic community, which does not attract the kind of traffic that a web forum would do.

Last year I started a MySpace account because I had a number of family members who had them and we thought it would be great to communicate that way. It turns out that MySpace is a great way to waste a lot of time, look at ads for things you don’t want, and to be flooded with emails from people you don’t know, most of whom want you to subscribe to a porn site, a dating site, or to buy what can euphemistically be termed “male enhancement drugs.” MySpace has a number of Masons, though, and the list keeps growing.

Recently, I joined a social networking site developed strictly for Freemasons: The Working Tools, hosted on the site of the online magazine of the same name. While similar to MySpace and LiveJournal, TWT was started by Cory Sigler, a moderator at The Three Pillars. In his words,

I started it to give Masons a place to meet each other in a fun comfortable manner without the hassle of having anti’s bother us with nonsense.

I noticed a huge gathering of Brothers on Myspace & Facebook so I figured [I would] give them a place to go for just us.

I rather liked the idea of having a Social Network that was already composed of Masons; presumably it would be ideal for discussions and questions. I joined right before Christmas and copied my favorite blog posts from the past year over to the TWT blogging area. There is a forum area, however it’s a bit sparse at the moment; I’m sure it’s because TWT is only a few weeks old and despite having over 400 members, not everyone has discovered all of the features yet. The Working Tools magazine is an excellent read itself, and because January issue picked one of my articles as the Blog Post of the Month simply enhances my opinion, in addition to making me ever so much more humble and modest than I already am. Here’s hoping for the success of this venture.

I can’t imagine anything now replacing the fascination I had for the Usenet groups seven years ago, but I still enjoy finding new Masonic web groups. Even when I don’t participate, I find that I learn something new about the Craft just from reading the discussions. I recommend these and other groups to new Masons as a way to increase your knowledge, and to more seasoned brothers who might be interested in learning how things are done elsewhere.

Tao of Masonry | Freemasonry | Masonry

Several brothers have now asked me pointedly why I haven’t written anything about the recent split of Halcyon Lodge from the Grand Lodge of Ohio. First of all, I haven’t written anything in almost over a month; even some of my online friends have noticed that I’ve hardly even left any comments lately. This is because I’m getting into the year-end crush at work, and also the year-end rush in Connecticut Freemasonry. In the last month I’ve been to (or have been in) four degrees, three rehearsals, two Grand Lodge meetings, one District meeting, and several regular and special meetings at several different lodges. Somewhere in there I managed to make some family time, get a Christmas tree, do some household projects, do the single parent thing while my wife was on a business trip, and I’m sure I frittered away some spare moments as well; which means that just about every time I sat down to write something, I ended up reading the backlog of messages and then – more than once – dozing off at the keyboard.

The other reason I haven’t written anything about Halcyon, (and now, Euclid and, um, the other one, wherever it is) or the American “Grand Orient” thingie though, is because while the subject has generated enormous quantities of heat in several venues, there has been disproportionately very little light. And frankly, when I step back from the subject matter a little bit, there isn’t much worth writing about.

No, really.

A small group of Freemasons worked very hard at revitalizing an older lodge. During the course of this, they ran into some Grand Lodge regulations that they believed complicated their designs. Unable to work out an amicable compromise with their Grand Lodge, they chose to turn in their charter and go it alone.

Yeah, yeah, I’ve read all about the other stuff. Allegations of financial chicanery, hot-headedness, stubborn Grand Lodge officers, politics, breaking of obligations, revolution against the established order, and disturbing the peace and littering.

Big, fat, hairy deal.

The first Grand Lodge was formed in 1717, and within twenty years lodges began splitting off, which means that it took less than a generation for lodges to develop issues with their overseeing Grand Lodge. Even a quick perusal of the literature shows that schisms in Freemasonry are surprisingly common; and although that latter half of the 20th century has been fairly quiet in that respect in the US and UK, splits and schisms in other countries have made recognition of various Grand Lodges throughout the world a mish-mash. However, it’s interesting to note that even Paul Bessel’s slightly out-of-date website on the various Grand Lodges operating within the US shows well over 200 non-mainstream (i.e., not AF&AM or Prince Hall) Grand Lodges extant. This averages to roughly six unrecognized jurisdictions per state in the US.

The point is that schisms within Freemasonry, and indeed, within almost any organization are fairly typical. To me, though, the more interesting aspect is not the schism itself, but the reaction to the split. In reading the responses on the several blogs and websites that have been carrying such discussions, I’m reminded of the old Emo Phillips joke. I posted this back in August, but under the circumstances, it bears repeating:

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. I immediately ran over and said “Stop! Don’t do it!”
“Why shouldn’t I?” he said.
I said, “Well, there’s so much to live for!”
“Like what?”
“Well … are you religious or atheist?”
“Religious.”
“Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?”
“Christian.”
“Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?”
“Protestant.”
“Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?”
“Baptist.”
“Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?”
“Baptist Church of God.”
“Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?”
“Reformed Baptist Church of God.”
“Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?”
“Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!”
To which I said, “Then die, heretic scum!” and pushed him off.

The thing that makes this joke so funny is that we all recognize that some perversity of human nature makes us less tolerant of a group that is almost like us than, than we are of some group that is very different. But we also recognize that any group that splits off from us becomes a them; this implies some kind of rejection of us; we get defensive and wonder – demand – that they explain themselves in order to make things more consistent with our own world view. This is difficult enough, but we then add to this volatile mix that they have their own reasons for splitting off, and have probably endured a long time – years, maybe decades – in harboring frustration. In order to justify splitting off, they develop a psychological or sociological rationale, which often takes to form of blaming us for actions or situations which they believe to be unfair. The result is generally a situation in which the groups, despite being very close on many other issues, harbor some animosity toward the other for some narrow range of wants or desires.

Certainly a number of my brethren have been reading the web boards and the several blogs – notably Burning Taper – and wondering why there is so much arguing. And frankly, I’ve long since stopped reading the threads on Burning Taper because I’m embarrassed, even mortified by the displays of vitriol from all sides. Personally, I’m of the mind that if you belong to an organization in which you don’t like the management, then make an attempt at trying to change things. If it doesn’t work, and if you can see that it’s going to cause some hard feelings, then get out and go to Plan B while everyone still has the opportunity to make things work.

But I also understand that we hate for people to split off from whatever groups we belong to because that implies that they weren’t happy; people who aren’t satisfied tend to break away out of anger, and others in the original group tend to see it as a rejection of established ways. This prompts the question “What was wrong with the established way?” and from that, any answer is bound to cause some kind of defensive reaction. Perhaps a Martian, unschooled in human nature, might wonder why such splits can’t be amicable affairs, but I think that most of us can well imagine that once we start to develop the “us vs them” mindset, then it’s only a matter of time before the rioting starts.

At some point, one has to take a step back and ask “Is there any evidence that would convince me that the other side is correct?” If the answer is “No,” then chances are that the people of the opposite opinion feel the same way, and the argument is at a stalemate. Go home. Sit down with a book and have a quiet scotch by the fire. Rebuild that old PC in the corner of the basement that you were going to give to your niece. Clean out the garage. Do something constructive… or not. But stop wasting your breath – or your bandwidth – once you understand that nothing is going to change, be it the situatio
n or your mind.

Tao of Masonry | Freemasonry | Masonry