Cult of Dan Brown: The Illuminati: Fact from fiction.

Speaking of folks who "will not listen," I've explained to you in detail several times, both publicly and privately that I do not hate America. EVDebs has said essentially the same thing in his postings. You don't seem to want to believe that, however, so how are you in any better position to look down on people who may be skeptical about your claims?

You seem to think that "find[ing] fault with every government known to man" implies hating countries or systems of government. It should not be an act of treason to point out problems, mistakes, and flaws in one's government. Frankly, I think the people who have the courage to point out problems and work to get them fixed care more about the country than those who prefer to pretend the problems don't exist. Criticism--when it's constructive--is how the world gets better, not worse.

On the other hand, if you've drunk so much of the Kool-Aid that you've effectively immunized yourself against the hazardous effects of exposure to facts, then there's not much anyone is going to be able to do to reach you. If your mind is truly that closed to the truth, you're a lost cause--just like the people you're criticizing in this post.

Personally I'm ambivalent about Freemasonry--I have only a Devil's Advocate's interest in the matter of whether there's some great conspiracy at work or not. Others here may have more passionate convictions on either side, and I gather that your main beef is with them. With regard to those at the conspiracy theory end of the spectrum, you may be right about your inability to dissuade them from their beliefs--the very nature of any good conspiracy theory is that no amount of factual evidence can ever prove or disprove it.

As a case in point, a die-hard conspiracy theorist could argue that Masons like yourself are the innocent dupes of a larger conspiracy. In organizations with partitioned, hierarchical knowledge, after all, it's accepted that members learn more of the secrets of the organization as they ascend in rank. Perhaps, then, the conspiracy theorist might argue, the highest-ranking members are finally let in on the greater conspiracy, which is kept secret from all lower ranks. No matter how many ranks (or degrees) you might claim there to be, such a conspiracy theorist can always posit that there's one more above that one--a "secret" or "shadow" degree. Completely unprovable, but for the same reasons it's also impossible to disprove, allowing people to go on believing whatever they want. Hence the beauty--and frustration--of conspiracy theories.

The only way to change the mind of someone with that kind of inclination to believe is to address the reasons he might want to believe in the conspiracy theory. What makes Freemasonry such an easy target is the fact that for most of its history it kept secrets. In recent years, the efforts to "open up" Freemasonry--everyone and his dog seems to have written a book about it--have tried to dispel a lot of the suspicions about the organization, but it's impossible for an outsider to ever know that these books contain the whole truth. It's a bit like dealing with someone who's kept secrets from you for most of your life, and one day says he wants to "come clean"--given his secretive past, do you take what he tells you now at face value, or with a large grain of salt? I can understand why some people will be skeptical of anything published in any of these tell-all books, as much as you're willing to swear that it's all there between the covers.

All of that said, however, take heart from the fact that your efforts to educate the rest of us about Freemasonry are not altogether in vain. The die-hard conspiracy theorists I described above will not be moved to change their minds, of course, but remember that they represent the extreme end of the spectrum. The "moderates" are out there in much larger numbers, reading what you write, they just don't post. If what you write sounds reasonable, you'll reach those people, even if they never drop you a line to thank you for it. Don't judge the entire forum commmunity based on what the most vocal posters have to say--some of us just like to hear the sound of our own voices

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