The Russian Tower of Babble
In re: "Decoding the Symbols: Did Masonic Psychology Inspire the Oslo Attacks?" on RT TV Cable, with Alex Jones
About nine months ago I was on a cruise in Asia, and one of the few stations on our little TV set was, strangely, "RT" which stands for Russian TV. I was a sort of captive audience for it, therefore, and it gave me a unique insight into the world of state- sponsored conspiracy-hyping. At first I could not figure out what their "angle" was. But then I just realized that the only angle was to make their own domestic problems look less severe by highlighting the difficulties in other spots of the world. A pretty simple desire, and since there are always lots of problems everywhere, one that is certain to keep them busy. But please note that it leads to simply never figuring anything out. If you are looking for insight into difficult matters, you have to at least occasionally reach a plateau of insight, and thence continue your trek. RT seems to be a new phenomenon on such a large scale. It is devoted, by contrast, to never reaching a plateau of insight, and instead further and further vexing reality.
Well, for vexation , you could not have a better example than their "coverage" of so-called connection of the terrible events in Norway and the Masonic Lodge. As a Masonic scholar, who holds an official position for scholarship with an important Masonic organization, let me put this as elegantly as possible: There ain't nothing there. This is the necessary preface to even being able to describe what I watched on Youtube of a video clip from RT about the story. The first thing is to state simply, the whole philosophy of Freemasonry is the opposite of the cauldron of ideas that was and is the Norwegian crazyman's mind. It is the simplest fact of verifiable history that the very resistance to Freemasonry that has occurred here and there has occurred -- precisely!! -- because Freemasonry emphasizes tolerance. It emphasizes a tolerant working within one's own country, with its laws and civil order. Just read a little history and you will see that this indeed is the reason that Freemasons have faced persecution themselves, sometimes from established religious communities as well.
With this in mind, we can see the Norwegian crazyman's ravings in a more judicious light. Because he is calling on the Pope to convert the West, that clearly does not say anything about Catholicism. But it does say something about Freemasonry and the mind of the crazyman. It makes 100% clear that there is no relation of Masonic philosophy to the toxic soup of these ideas. For while Masonic tolerance and clarity eschews the fanaticism that would be necessary to claim some relation between the Oslo nut and the Catholic Church, that self-same lack-of-fanaticism stands as a potent rebuke to the outlandish notion that his ravings could have had the least resonance within the Masonic Lodge.
To anyone with the least bit a real-world sense it is clear why he sought connection with the Masonic Lodge. Simply because, especially in Norway, it a a high-brow activity, with connections to Norwegian royalty. The crazyman apparently attended a highschool where the king went too, and so as an adult he wanted to continue his adolescent sense of entitlement. It is quite likely that he was disappointed by the Lodge, and that is why he was not active. Precisely because again, the Lodge is a place where adolescent fantasies are given no place, and mature fraternal relationship is expected.
Of course all such reality is lost on the maelstrom of concoctions known as RT, Russian TV. Their piece on what they took to be Masonic psychology as somehow related to this whole mess, simply had nothing to do with Freemasonry. I am not exaggerating. I did not hear even one phrase that could be confirmed by any reputable source of history. It was as if someone just created a word-cloud from the worst looking sites one could find by doing 5 minutes of Googling. That's all. Just pure laziness and desire to goose things up. The talk show host they had on was himself a tower of babble. He was a vortex of every false notion about Freemasonry. Literally, not one thing he could be ascertained by reading any reputable book. I always find it a bit funny how blunderbuss these types are. If they really wanted to score some points against the Craft you'd think they would base it on something that has actually been described somewhere. For instance, it is a great sorrow for all regular Masons that some irregular lodges in the south of Italy got mixed up with the Mafia. That is something that has been described by a reputable study of the Mafia. And being clear about this tragic case makes only clearer how careful regular Masonry is at keeping nefarious elements out. But being clear about these precise faults, especially in the irregular context, is not what mountebanks like Alex Jones want to do. They want to posit a paranoiac vision of no shape or size that is based in turn on a faulty notion of Masonic symbols themselves. Their reason is simple. Having to be precise is kinda boring. Cooking up fantasies is what the worst talk shows are all about, plain and simple. I really laughed when I heard him trotting- out all the old lies about Albert Pike. These are lies that were disproved ages ago, and by which a lot of people were taken in by what is known as the "Taxil Hoax". If one's research cannot even include a little Wikipedia type desire to be informed then I've got a beach resort in Siberia to sell you.
It seems that in Russia itself there are routinely crazy articles about Freemasonry. Even though there are very few Freemasons in the country ironically. Well, Catherine the Great got all worked up about Freemasonry and even wrote plays about it. This allows us a purely aesthetic comparison. Catherine's literary forays, funny as they are in the light of history, look like Shakespeare compared to the bedraggled mess of RT. So I guess I would ask, if you are going to concoct some anachronistic tales about the Craft, couldn't you take your cue from history and at least do it with a bit of finesse? At least then it might have some entertainment value, and not be just a moment of ennui, when we are forced to contemplate other people's mental dead-ends.
In re: "Decoding the Symbols: Did Masonic Psychology Inspire the Oslo Attacks?" on RT TV Cable, with Alex Jones
About nine months ago I was on a cruise in Asia, and one of the few stations on our little TV set was, strangely, "RT" which stands for Russian TV. I was a sort of captive audience for it, therefore, and it gave me a unique insight into the world of state- sponsored conspiracy-hyping. At first I could not figure out what their "angle" was. But then I just realized that the only angle was to make their own domestic problems look less severe by highlighting the difficulties in other spots of the world. A pretty simple desire, and since there are always lots of problems everywhere, one that is certain to keep them busy. But please note that it leads to simply never figuring anything out. If you are looking for insight into difficult matters, you have to at least occasionally reach a plateau of insight, and thence continue your trek. RT seems to be a new phenomenon on such a large scale. It is devoted, by contrast, to never reaching a plateau of insight, and instead further and further vexing reality.
Well, for vexation , you could not have a better example than their "coverage" of so-called connection of the terrible events in Norway and the Masonic Lodge. As a Masonic scholar, who holds an official position for scholarship with an important Masonic organization, let me put this as elegantly as possible: There ain't nothing there. This is the necessary preface to even being able to describe what I watched on Youtube of a video clip from RT about the story. The first thing is to state simply, the whole philosophy of Freemasonry is the opposite of the cauldron of ideas that was and is the Norwegian crazyman's mind. It is the simplest fact of verifiable history that the very resistance to Freemasonry that has occurred here and there has occurred -- precisely!! -- because Freemasonry emphasizes tolerance. It emphasizes a tolerant working within one's own country, with its laws and civil order. Just read a little history and you will see that this indeed is the reason that Freemasons have faced persecution themselves, sometimes from established religious communities as well.
With this in mind, we can see the Norwegian crazyman's ravings in a more judicious light. Because he is calling on the Pope to convert the West, that clearly does not say anything about Catholicism. But it does say something about Freemasonry and the mind of the crazyman. It makes 100% clear that there is no relation of Masonic philosophy to the toxic soup of these ideas. For while Masonic tolerance and clarity eschews the fanaticism that would be necessary to claim some relation between the Oslo nut and the Catholic Church, that self-same lack-of-fanaticism stands as a potent rebuke to the outlandish notion that his ravings could have had the least resonance within the Masonic Lodge.
To anyone with the least bit a real-world sense it is clear why he sought connection with the Masonic Lodge. Simply because, especially in Norway, it a a high-brow activity, with connections to Norwegian royalty. The crazyman apparently attended a highschool where the king went too, and so as an adult he wanted to continue his adolescent sense of entitlement. It is quite likely that he was disappointed by the Lodge, and that is why he was not active. Precisely because again, the Lodge is a place where adolescent fantasies are given no place, and mature fraternal relationship is expected.
Of course all such reality is lost on the maelstrom of concoctions known as RT, Russian TV. Their piece on what they took to be Masonic psychology as somehow related to this whole mess, simply had nothing to do with Freemasonry. I am not exaggerating. I did not hear even one phrase that could be confirmed by any reputable source of history. It was as if someone just created a word-cloud from the worst looking sites one could find by doing 5 minutes of Googling. That's all. Just pure laziness and desire to goose things up. The talk show host they had on was himself a tower of babble. He was a vortex of every false notion about Freemasonry. Literally, not one thing he could be ascertained by reading any reputable book. I always find it a bit funny how blunderbuss these types are. If they really wanted to score some points against the Craft you'd think they would base it on something that has actually been described somewhere. For instance, it is a great sorrow for all regular Masons that some irregular lodges in the south of Italy got mixed up with the Mafia. That is something that has been described by a reputable study of the Mafia. And being clear about this tragic case makes only clearer how careful regular Masonry is at keeping nefarious elements out. But being clear about these precise faults, especially in the irregular context, is not what mountebanks like Alex Jones want to do. They want to posit a paranoiac vision of no shape or size that is based in turn on a faulty notion of Masonic symbols themselves. Their reason is simple. Having to be precise is kinda boring. Cooking up fantasies is what the worst talk shows are all about, plain and simple. I really laughed when I heard him trotting- out all the old lies about Albert Pike. These are lies that were disproved ages ago, and by which a lot of people were taken in by what is known as the "Taxil Hoax". If one's research cannot even include a little Wikipedia type desire to be informed then I've got a beach resort in Siberia to sell you.
It seems that in Russia itself there are routinely crazy articles about Freemasonry. Even though there are very few Freemasons in the country ironically. Well, Catherine the Great got all worked up about Freemasonry and even wrote plays about it. This allows us a purely aesthetic comparison. Catherine's literary forays, funny as they are in the light of history, look like Shakespeare compared to the bedraggled mess of RT. So I guess I would ask, if you are going to concoct some anachronistic tales about the Craft, couldn't you take your cue from history and at least do it with a bit of finesse? At least then it might have some entertainment value, and not be just a moment of ennui, when we are forced to contemplate other people's mental dead-ends.
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