I've struggled with whether I could or should write anything related to the current news cycle and these times that try men's souls. The divisions you describe may share a common root: we've lost spaces where people of differing opinions can meet as equals. Social media rewards outrage. News amplifies conflict. Even churches and civic organizations have become sorting mechanisms rather than meeting grounds.
The tiled room is one of the last places left. Men who disagree about nearly everything else sit in the same lodge, share the same ritual, call each other Brother. That's not nothing. In fact, it might be the whole point.
But we can only heal divisions in society if we model that healing first. Are we practicing what we profess? Do we meet on the level, or do we carry worldly distinctions through the West Gate?
Just this week I watched two Brothers from opposite ends of the opinion pool have a full-blown Facebook meltdown. Both profiles proudly display every appendant body imaginable. And I think about a family whose child needs surgery, judging the character of our organization by the conduct of their neighbor who just had a public fight online. There's a child or family who may never approach us for help because of what they saw.
Is the dopamine hit from feeling "right" worth that? Is winning an online tête-à-tête worth that child? I understand how folks get sucked in. The Dunning-Kruger effect is real and playing out live on a screen near you. But at what cost?
>>>Men who disagree about nearly everything else sit in the same lodge, share the same >>>ritual, call each other Brother. That's not nothing. In fact, it might be the whole point.
It is certainly powerful. I remember when I moved across the State, as a fairly new Mason. I didn't know a soul. The very first man to truly welcome me, and offer his friendship was a man whom was completely opposite of me politically.
We both knew that from talking together outside of Open Lodge, but we maintained standards of civility that all Masons should maintain. And neither of us let our differences devalue the other in our eyes.
Unfortunately that great Brother passed away a few years ago.
>>>Just this week I watched two Brothers from opposite ends of the opinion pool have a full->>>blown Facebook meltdown. Both profiles proudly display every appendant body >>>imaginable.
I too have seen this play out this week. By men I know. And to be frank, my respect for those Brothers has declined. I can't respect men who disrespect our Craft, nor can I fully respect men who blatantly refuse to even try to live up to our principles.
And such things are disrespectful of our Craft. Precisely because they are done on the same profiles that share Masonic posts and Masonic symbolism. If a guy wants to act like a jackass, I guess that's OK. But in that case, he needs to maintain two profiles. His Masonic profile, and his jackass profile. The two things should never mix.
Related to that, I hear from time to time, Masons who are acting like jackasses claiming in defense that they have First Amendment rights to say whatever on earth crosses their mind. Undoubtedly, for Masons in the US that is true. But, when we, as Masons, knelt at an altar of God, we took certain obligations. Obligations by which we swore we would live by. So yes, our fundamental freedoms, as Masons, are more restricted than a non Masons. That was our voluntary choice, not something that we didn't consent to.
>>>I think about a family whose child needs surgery, judging the character of our >>>organization by the conduct of their neighbor who just had a public fight online. There's a >>>child or family who may never approach us for help because of what they saw.
You raise an excellent point here Brother Rob. The challenge I see is that many Lodges desire to avoid difficult or contentious conversations at all.
When we cannot maintain our decorum and preclude our Brethren from having these conversations, I think we do a disservice to our Brethren and the Craft. If we prevent our Lodges from acting as a place of open conversation and discussion, a place to explore concepts and ideas civilly, we prevent much of the work the Craft was designed to inspire. Which can only lead to those attempts being met with impassioned communications devoid of boundaries.
I think we need to learn to find common ground and meet each other on the level so these discussions can take place, which will naturally translate into those abilities finding their way back into the society again.
You and MWB Bailey are right, there are plenty of displays unbecoming of the conduct expected of us on full display, in and out of Lodge. Perhaps we need to start offering sound council and aiding our Brethren in finding the civility we are supposed to promote.
>>>Perhaps we need to start offering sound council and aiding our Brethren in finding >>>the civility we are supposed to promote.
This is exactly right, and well in keeping with what we are supposed to be doing as Masons. I've picked up the phone and called Brothers who I know when I've seen something beyond the pale that they have posted.
To good result. Not always, but usually.
We are all going to trip. We are all going to do something stupid, or post something stupid. Our Brothers help us when they point such errors out so that we can fix them.
Really this is no different than the Brother who comes to Lodge with his fly down. Do we tell him so that he can zip up and avoid further embarrassment, or do we ignore it so that everyone gets to see it. Which is the Brotherly thing to do?
But, of course, when making such a call, we need to keep our composure and use tact.
One issue I might throw in is the current removal of US Military Generals & Admirals who are African American &/or Women. The NY Army Nat'l Guard flew me to a residence course in Race Relations Equal Opportunity Institute at Patrick Air Force Base Florida. I was then a Certified Counselor Instructor of Equal Opportunity at an Engineer Battalion HQ in Buffalo NY. I truly believe in women in the US Military, even if they want to serve in Combat. I was a project engineer getting Camp Buckner USMA West Point ready to admit female Cadets. I know we are not to discuss religion or politics in a Tiled meeting, but I'd appreciate your opinions here (and at Masonic meals prior to a meeting, or during coffee discussions after a Tiled meeting)?
Thank you Brother. I never served in the military, so I don't think that I'm in any way qualified to discuss the topic. I know that lots of Emeth's readers have however spent time in the service, and are of course welcome to give their thoughts here.
I do think that one of the things driving artificial divisions in our society are commentators large and small who continually give 'hot takes' even before all of the needed information has come out, and even when they are completely unqualified to comment on a particular topic. I don't think that these things should be stopped by either governments or technology companies, but I do think we are wise to carefully consider what commentators we read or listen too.
I really appreciate you raising this and inviting the discussion. I’ve been feeling this growing divide as well, and what troubles me most isn’t simply that people disagree—it’s how quickly those disagreements turn sharp, personal, and unproductive. I don’t think we’ve lost the ability to think; I think we’re losing the ability to talk to one another with any real charity or respect.
From where I sit, it feels like a mix of political polarization, economic pressure, and a general sense that many people feel untethered—uncertain about where they belong or what they can rely on. When people feel unheard or insecure, it becomes much easier for frustration to harden into anger.
What I keep coming back to, though, is my belief that we actually agree on far more than we acknowledge. In my own conversations, I’ve found that once you strip away labels and talking points, most people want the same basic things: dignity, stability, opportunity, and to be treated with respect. It seems like the loudest voices focus on the issues at the fringes, while the broad middle—where real common ground exists—gets drowned out.
I also think we’ve forgotten how to disagree well. I miss the days when differing opinions could lead to thoughtful conversation or even friendly banter. Too often now, disagreement is treated as a personal attack, and once that happens, listening stops altogether.
This is where Freemasonry continues to resonate with me. I’m reminded often that we’re taught to meet on the level—to see one another first as equals, regardless of background, belief, or opinion. That simple idea feels almost radical in today’s climate. The practice of circumscribing our passions, listening with patience, and extending Brotherly Love even when it’s difficult is something I find myself trying to apply outside the lodge as much as inside it.
I don’t know that the Craft can heal every division in society, but I do believe it can shape men who are better equipped to engage others thoughtfully and respectfully. If we can carry those lessons into our own conversations—at home, at work, and in our communities—and model a better way of disagreeing, then maybe we are doing our small part to help build the bridges you’re talking about.
I think that you are right. People of goodwill, the vast majority of people, actually agree on a lot more than they disagree about. But, of course disagreements get all of the attention.
I also agree with your thoughts that people have always disagreed, and that the difference is that we have largely forgotten how to disagree. Preferring to turn everything into a fight.
Masonry does teach us the lessons we need if we are to model civil discourse, but as individual Masons we have to be open to these lessons in order to internalize them and bring them out of the Lodge into all of our personal interactions. If we can do that though, we certainly could stand as beacons of light.
Perhaps I am radical but I believe that there are a number of foreign elements that are dedicated to a different type of order one that is more tyrannical, has less than an appreciation for the basic human rights than our nation would, and these foreign elements are wildly inflating and igniting internal tensions that would ordinarily be bonfire level and have been elevated to a total conflagration.
And our current country is not perfect, and there’s a lot of things that could be fixed by anyone’s lights, but globally any country in the world could be better off and could be fixed depending on perspective and personality and policy. What I am noticing is that the weaponisation of opinions is becoming so virulent that the vitriol is acting like acid and scarring both sides of the conversation alike.
Part of it’s probably socio-economic, but electronic platforms that thrive on chaos, misinformation, emotion- driven rants often without the benefit of any logic are a poor soap Box when attempting to have a serious discussion. Chaos, thy dread empire is again restored, indeed.
As Brother Rob stated, we have an obligation to support reasonable dialogue and we also have to be careful of how we appear in the larger community because people will see us as Mason’s first and people second. And since the Imp of the Perverse is at least metaphorically alive and well, they will forget instantly the 99 good things that we do and immediately focus on that one mistake that we didn’t mean to make but we couldn’t just help ourselves after a rotten day when it was just too much work to subdue our passions and yet again attempt to improve ourselves in our Craft What we forget is at the end of the day is that we are all human, even that other guy that we think we are mad at.
We all love we are all a mixture of gold and clay, pobody’s nerfect, and we all have the capacity of hatred. Terry Pratchett famously said that hatred is loved with its back turned.
As Masons we should be working to diffuse the conflicts, actually act like brotherly love is an emotion that we can access and project genuinely (im deeply flawed and struggle with this exercise daily) but the struggle I feel is making me somewhat of a better person (although there is a lot of work to do LOL).
I think that there are outside elements as any enemy would take advantage of a house divided, and through a combination of electronics and surreptitious dialogue, there is a fifth column at work attempting to destabilise our country because despite all of its issues it’s one of the few that I believe still take human rights somewhat seriously and try to do the right thing even in the midst of everything that is wrong. After all if we believe the Talking Heads, shrug and just say that everything is hosed, then why bother putting any effort into the edifice because it’s just gonna fall down anyway right?
Not to be paranoid, but we don’t need to go looking for this fifth column. We simply need to counter negativity wherever we see it without being socially unrealistic, in other words by combining a blend of practicality and humour I think we can inject a perspective of rationality and learned it and reasonable discourse which is so the foundation of our Mystic art. The art of being civil not just dwelling in cities of our own making.
But as Masons we have a unique Craft. With Faith Hope and Charity, we understand how to rebuild people and social edifices alike, it’s not easy but by putting in the elbow grease and injecting positivity where there is negativity ,by being realistic and not a mooncalfs, by displaying tender virtues such as frivolity, compassion empathy and humour, by crafting a gentle answer to turn away wrath, we can reverse the negative effects. I feel to a great degree and benefit not only ourselves but those who witness our actions and out of genuine pleasure attempt to imitate them. And indeed being grateful, a grateful heart completely changes your perspective from wrath to appreciation, allowing you to do things that you never thought were possible if only you’re willing to change your perspective.
I don't think that you are radical for believing that there are foreign interests throwing gasoline on the fires of division. I think not recognizing that would be just burying our heads in the sand.
Certainly foreign actors are doing this. As are those NGO's who benefit when one side or the other is in power. Policy organizations that raise money off fear. Political candidates. Traditional media that sees subscriptions grow when a story bleeds or is full of vitriol. Social Media in which emotion drives the algorithm. All of these outfits benefit from the division in society, and benefit more when those cracks between people grow. I presume that there are others as well.
You're also spot on, of course, when you mention that if we do one wrong thing, people will forget all the right we have done. That reminds us to place a watch on our tongues I think.
There is an old adage that recommends that we count to ten, before we speak when we are angry. I have used that many times, and I find that small intentional gap between reaction and action is really useful in staying in control. I’m not a psychologist, nor a neurologist, but I suspect that there is something hard wired in our nervous system that really ramps up our emotional response to a stimulus if we are in an environment where we are repeatedly insulted by our environment, without a break. The 24/7 news culture we have created, the 24/7 access our smart phone provides, and the intentional, manipulative and curated structure of the media designed to maximize our emotional response to it all lead to an addictive agent. I constantly see people looking at their phone, rather than each other, in fact it seems most people see their fellow humans through the lens that the phone provides rather than looking up and actually seeing them. All of this without a break. No one is counting to ten. There is now real evidence that social media is intentionally being designed to addict young minds.
I am not against social media, or smart phones. I think they are great. I believe the impact of the ‘internet-smartphone-social media’ force is much like the impact of sugar. Our species evolved to need sugar to survive, in a world where it can be hard to find and is never found in a pure refined form. Our technology has provided us with no limit of sugar. Our instincts compel us to consume it, and we have no instinctive response not to eat it. That has to be intentional and based in knowledge. This issue is so bad that it has killed millions of people. In seeking to improve our lives we created something we have no evolved resistance too. The electronic space we now live in is very similar. We are wired to look for danger, we are wired to be social, and we are wired to communicate. In real life the rate, intensity and content of those experiences are grounded in the ‘real world’. Peter and the Wolf tell us a lesson about being truthful in the real world. On the internet Peter would never have to deal with the real wolf.
All this is leading to passionate, intense, and delusional division more appropriate to immediate lethal danger, than with the philosophical debate it generally is based in. We all need to count to ten. Turn the damn phone off. Ground our feelings in what we actually and physically experience in-the-real-world. Make the cybernetic world our servant, not the other way around.
I fear that with the adoption of AI technologies, it will only get worse. People making up nonsense, and other people amplifying it on social media has long been a source of conflict, as sides end up forming in which neither even knows what the basic facts are.
But, it will get worse now that these technologies can very easily fake photographs, videos, speeches, and anything else, making those fakes appear to be completely genuine.
I think that the solution is not governmental control, as is being tried in Europe and elsewhere, not platform control as has been tried here, rather it is up to each of us as individuals. We can't just accept any BS that we see online (that happens to support our position) as true. We have to question, and we have to think. Not simply unthinkingly accept and react.
I think it would be great if individuals demonstrated restraint and discernment, but I am becoming increasingly pessimistic that that solution will work. I unfortunately fear that some form of external control may become necessary if not to prevent catastrophe, then to recover from it. When I was in school, back in the Fred Flintstone days, we were taught that every right has a responsibility, and that if you want one you have to have the other. I wish I still believed that enough people would take responsibility not only for what they say, but what they accept.
I just think about schools. When I was a kid, I was a bit of a hellion. If I got in trouble in school, and it rose to the level that my parents found out about it, there was a lot more hell to pay at home then there ever was at school.
(With a single exception when my folks thought that what I did was perfectly acceptable, and that the school was wrong in declaring it out of proper bounds.)
But, is that the case today? I don't think so. Not for a lot of kids anyway. Now it seems that if the kid gets in trouble at school, far too often the parents rush down to defend little johnny, because in their eyes the little bugger can do no wrong.
We even see this in restaurants. If my brother and I behaved bad in a restaurant our mother would have dragged us outside to give us a good whack or ten. So, we behaved in restaurants. Just the other day, before a Lodge meeting I was in a restaurant where some little bugger (who was old enough to know better) was flinging food all over heck and back. Trashing the joint. The adults were apparently completely oblivious, ignoring it while scrolling their phones.
I fear that if we refuse to teach responsibility to our children, they will never be responsible as adults.
Your contemplation on the roots of our current disorder, whether political, economic, or spiritual, strikes at the very heart of the crisis we face. Drawing on thoughts I penned at the start of this year, I believe the fundamental basis of this discontent is that we have become a nation of foolish builders. We have traded the rock of a shared identity and the rule of law for the shifting sand of identity politics.
In our society's obsession with defining ourselves by our differences, we have fundamentally altered our role in the republic. We have ceased to be operative masons building a society and have instead become speculative critics tearing one down. As you noted, chaos benefits from this division, and we see this daily as people fight over the interior decoration of their political rooms while ignoring the fact that the foundation is cracking beneath them.
To answer your question regarding what Freemasonry can do to help heal these divisions, I believe we must return to the Trestleboard. Our Craft offers the specific tools required to fix what I call the collective astigmatism of our time. Currently, society views neighbors through the distorted lens of politics, but the Lodge can serve as the corrective lens, helping men focus on truth in love rather than distortion.
We must encourage the Brethren to swap the gavel of judgment, which we have been using too freely to demand others fit our stones, for the trowel, which spreads the cement of unity. If we treat our shared principles not as open source code to be hacked and altered by every passing cultural whimsy, but as the stable kernel of our operating system, we can reintegrate a fragmented system.
We cannot legislate unity, but we can model it by refusing to move the ancient landmarks. It is time to stop standing outside the temple shouting about the cracks and pick up our tools to maintain the structure.
I think that men best thrive when they have a shared struggle. Likewise, they best come together when facing such a struggle.
I've seen that in my own Lodge. Years ago a bunch of us were thrown into a super fast paced situation in which none of us knew what to do. But, we figured it out, we made it through the night, and that stressful experience bonded the Lodge together better than anything I've seen, before or since.
We don't really have a shared struggle as a nation anymore. We sent King George packing. We developed our share of the continent. We kicked ass in World War 2. We could have been undone at any of those moments. The revolution could have turned into dictatorship or terror as most such revolutions do. The French could have become our enemies instead of our allies. Japan could have invaded the Continental US, the Germans could have developed the bomb first. These are just three quick examples of shared struggles our nation has faced, but of course there have been so many more over the course of our history.
Perhaps not anymore. No one can touch us militarily. No one can touch us economically. I'm certain not forever, but for now, the USA is the undisputed Champion of the World. As such, what shared struggle remains?
And without that shared struggle, don't we tend to see differences that we would have ignored if we were struggling?
Perhaps that is one of the reasons we seem to be ever dividing into smaller and smaller identities.
Words mean things. Indeed, words mean extremely specific things.
Studies have shown that we actually normally use very, very few words. Even writers, who weave magic with words, normally use very few words. Written and spoken, not very many words.
But we have words for almost anything we can imagine or experience. Those words, specialized words get thrown in with the very few words we normally go to, and that is how we can accurately communicate what it is that we are looking to have another person understand.
It's a good system. Developed since the dawn of human time.
But, alas, it only works if two things are in place:
-We must all agree that words actually mean things.
-We must all accept shared meanings for words.
If I insist that your Harley Davidson is not a motorcycle, we will never be able to have a rational discussion about that machine on two wheels.
Likewise, when we intentionally misuse words, rational discussion is impossible.
I heartily agree with much of what has been said in the other comments, and would add one more opinion. And I'll try to be brief. :-)
Over the last 50 years or so our society as a whole has moved away from valuing community to valuing the individual. President Kennedy famously said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." JFK also had a quote on liberalism which I offer because it conveyed the mood of the country at the time. "If by a "Liberal," they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say that I'm a "Liberal."
Contrast that with the Gordon Gecko quote 25 years later, "Greed is good." Along with that, we have developed a cynicism for the public good. Some politicians and businessmen even brag about cheating on their taxes and civic obligations, perversely as a sort of 'patriotic' duty.
Personally, I think our families, communities, our nation, and indeed the world do better in the Kennedy mindset. And Freemasonry flourished in 1960, with 4 million members in the US. I don't think that was a coincidence. Now, to my more conservative friends, I would certainly concede that the 90% top tax rate in the early 60's was too high. But, I'd posit that most folks then were proud of the things federal taxes were funding - interstate highways, NASA, public education, etc. The point being that most people, and most Freemasons felt proud of being a part of a greater good. (Read Clausen's Commentaries sometime.) I'll close with a thought that Freemasonry and Brothers should always avoid discussing partisan politics; but maybe it's time for us to spread light and truth about civics, civil liberties, our rights, responsibilities and freedoms.
I think JFK's definition more fits with the "progressive" ideology than the liberal. Classic liberal is "defined as an advocate for individual liberty, limited government, and free-market capitalism, rooted in 17th-19th century enlightenment ideals. Core values include prioritizing individual rights (life, liberty, property) over collectivism, advocating for the rule of law, skepticism of state power, and promoting tolerance, free trade, and peace.".
A liberal, by definition, is the conservative party today. Progressive ideology took over the democratic party around Woodrow Wilson's time in office.
I think that one man can make a difference. If he speaks with authority.
Our country was born in a revolution. But how often do such revolutions actually succeed? Indeed we've succeeded for centuries, based on documents. Paper. But there was no promise of this, no guarantee. Our revolution inspired a similar movement in France. Ours created a democratic Republic. France's created The Terror which was in turn replaced with dictatorship.
But, I think it is easy to forget (or not teach) just how precarious our position was. How easily it could have turned to mob rule or dictatorship. At the end of the revolution, the army revolted. Washington put it down with words, and the moral authority of his position.
It got worse. Units of the Continental army mutinied, marched on Congress with the intent to either have its demands met or take Congress out. The State's leadership refused to call up the militia to protect Congress. Congress was forced to flee the very building in which the Declaration of Independence had been signed, to decamp to another State. Hamilton put that mutiny down, with his words. He wasn't even an officer in the army any longer, so had no authority. But he spoke and the mutinying soldiers returned to their base.
The revolution was eventually secured, but not without coming very close to going completely off the rails.
I think that very few are speaking for America and Americans today. Rather they are speaking for a side, or an identity, or a particular issue. We need leaders, not just political leaders, but leaders in every field of endeavor, who will stand up and speak for America and Americans as a whole, and as ideals. I fear we don't have much at all in the way of that today.
Our Order has a long history of being neutral territory for disputes going back hundreds of years. Even during your civil war, Masons from both sides would help each other. Lodges in Belfast during the troubles often served as common, neutral ground. Perhaps this is where the Craft can best serve, as neutral territory. In Canada, we are watching you tear your country apart and the rest of the world look on and shake its collective head. Freemasonry's values and moral compass are where to look. Dialogue is the path forward.
I did not know that about Belfast. Thank you for pointing it out. That's certainly something that the Craft can be rightly proud of.
Getting way off topic here (sorry) I do think that there is much that we can learn from Canada, and much Canada can learn from us.
I'll start with you northerners and just remark that you all need to come down here to learn how to make a decent cigarette! Those things you guys smoke, holy smokes they are bad!
Seriously though, and this is just an example. Given my career, I've developed very specific beliefs about taxation. What serves best for economic development, and lessens impact on those who can least afford it. But, traveling to and through Canada challenges my beliefs with evidence I can see with my own eyes.
And that is vitally important, because if we never expose ourselves to things that challenge our beliefs, we can never think properly. All we do is confirm our own biases by avoiding anything contradictory to those biases.
That's what social media, and even traditional media does today. It confirms biases, rather than challenging them. That hardens positions that should never be hardened.
Well, I guess this wasn't too off topic after all!
My Most Worshipful Brother,
I've struggled with whether I could or should write anything related to the current news cycle and these times that try men's souls. The divisions you describe may share a common root: we've lost spaces where people of differing opinions can meet as equals. Social media rewards outrage. News amplifies conflict. Even churches and civic organizations have become sorting mechanisms rather than meeting grounds.
The tiled room is one of the last places left. Men who disagree about nearly everything else sit in the same lodge, share the same ritual, call each other Brother. That's not nothing. In fact, it might be the whole point.
But we can only heal divisions in society if we model that healing first. Are we practicing what we profess? Do we meet on the level, or do we carry worldly distinctions through the West Gate?
Just this week I watched two Brothers from opposite ends of the opinion pool have a full-blown Facebook meltdown. Both profiles proudly display every appendant body imaginable. And I think about a family whose child needs surgery, judging the character of our organization by the conduct of their neighbor who just had a public fight online. There's a child or family who may never approach us for help because of what they saw.
Is the dopamine hit from feeling "right" worth that? Is winning an online tête-à-tête worth that child? I understand how folks get sucked in. The Dunning-Kruger effect is real and playing out live on a screen near you. But at what cost?
The work is somewhere in there.
As always thank you for your work Sir.
>>>Men who disagree about nearly everything else sit in the same lodge, share the same >>>ritual, call each other Brother. That's not nothing. In fact, it might be the whole point.
It is certainly powerful. I remember when I moved across the State, as a fairly new Mason. I didn't know a soul. The very first man to truly welcome me, and offer his friendship was a man whom was completely opposite of me politically.
We both knew that from talking together outside of Open Lodge, but we maintained standards of civility that all Masons should maintain. And neither of us let our differences devalue the other in our eyes.
Unfortunately that great Brother passed away a few years ago.
>>>Just this week I watched two Brothers from opposite ends of the opinion pool have a full->>>blown Facebook meltdown. Both profiles proudly display every appendant body >>>imaginable.
I too have seen this play out this week. By men I know. And to be frank, my respect for those Brothers has declined. I can't respect men who disrespect our Craft, nor can I fully respect men who blatantly refuse to even try to live up to our principles.
And such things are disrespectful of our Craft. Precisely because they are done on the same profiles that share Masonic posts and Masonic symbolism. If a guy wants to act like a jackass, I guess that's OK. But in that case, he needs to maintain two profiles. His Masonic profile, and his jackass profile. The two things should never mix.
Related to that, I hear from time to time, Masons who are acting like jackasses claiming in defense that they have First Amendment rights to say whatever on earth crosses their mind. Undoubtedly, for Masons in the US that is true. But, when we, as Masons, knelt at an altar of God, we took certain obligations. Obligations by which we swore we would live by. So yes, our fundamental freedoms, as Masons, are more restricted than a non Masons. That was our voluntary choice, not something that we didn't consent to.
>>>I think about a family whose child needs surgery, judging the character of our >>>organization by the conduct of their neighbor who just had a public fight online. There's a >>>child or family who may never approach us for help because of what they saw.
Excellent point.
You raise an excellent point here Brother Rob. The challenge I see is that many Lodges desire to avoid difficult or contentious conversations at all.
When we cannot maintain our decorum and preclude our Brethren from having these conversations, I think we do a disservice to our Brethren and the Craft. If we prevent our Lodges from acting as a place of open conversation and discussion, a place to explore concepts and ideas civilly, we prevent much of the work the Craft was designed to inspire. Which can only lead to those attempts being met with impassioned communications devoid of boundaries.
I think we need to learn to find common ground and meet each other on the level so these discussions can take place, which will naturally translate into those abilities finding their way back into the society again.
You and MWB Bailey are right, there are plenty of displays unbecoming of the conduct expected of us on full display, in and out of Lodge. Perhaps we need to start offering sound council and aiding our Brethren in finding the civility we are supposed to promote.
>>>Perhaps we need to start offering sound council and aiding our Brethren in finding >>>the civility we are supposed to promote.
This is exactly right, and well in keeping with what we are supposed to be doing as Masons. I've picked up the phone and called Brothers who I know when I've seen something beyond the pale that they have posted.
To good result. Not always, but usually.
We are all going to trip. We are all going to do something stupid, or post something stupid. Our Brothers help us when they point such errors out so that we can fix them.
Really this is no different than the Brother who comes to Lodge with his fly down. Do we tell him so that he can zip up and avoid further embarrassment, or do we ignore it so that everyone gets to see it. Which is the Brotherly thing to do?
But, of course, when making such a call, we need to keep our composure and use tact.
MWPGM Bailey,
One issue I might throw in is the current removal of US Military Generals & Admirals who are African American &/or Women. The NY Army Nat'l Guard flew me to a residence course in Race Relations Equal Opportunity Institute at Patrick Air Force Base Florida. I was then a Certified Counselor Instructor of Equal Opportunity at an Engineer Battalion HQ in Buffalo NY. I truly believe in women in the US Military, even if they want to serve in Combat. I was a project engineer getting Camp Buckner USMA West Point ready to admit female Cadets. I know we are not to discuss religion or politics in a Tiled meeting, but I'd appreciate your opinions here (and at Masonic meals prior to a meeting, or during coffee discussions after a Tiled meeting)?
Thank you Brother. I never served in the military, so I don't think that I'm in any way qualified to discuss the topic. I know that lots of Emeth's readers have however spent time in the service, and are of course welcome to give their thoughts here.
I do think that one of the things driving artificial divisions in our society are commentators large and small who continually give 'hot takes' even before all of the needed information has come out, and even when they are completely unqualified to comment on a particular topic. I don't think that these things should be stopped by either governments or technology companies, but I do think we are wise to carefully consider what commentators we read or listen too.
MWPGM Bailey,
I really appreciate you raising this and inviting the discussion. I’ve been feeling this growing divide as well, and what troubles me most isn’t simply that people disagree—it’s how quickly those disagreements turn sharp, personal, and unproductive. I don’t think we’ve lost the ability to think; I think we’re losing the ability to talk to one another with any real charity or respect.
From where I sit, it feels like a mix of political polarization, economic pressure, and a general sense that many people feel untethered—uncertain about where they belong or what they can rely on. When people feel unheard or insecure, it becomes much easier for frustration to harden into anger.
What I keep coming back to, though, is my belief that we actually agree on far more than we acknowledge. In my own conversations, I’ve found that once you strip away labels and talking points, most people want the same basic things: dignity, stability, opportunity, and to be treated with respect. It seems like the loudest voices focus on the issues at the fringes, while the broad middle—where real common ground exists—gets drowned out.
I also think we’ve forgotten how to disagree well. I miss the days when differing opinions could lead to thoughtful conversation or even friendly banter. Too often now, disagreement is treated as a personal attack, and once that happens, listening stops altogether.
This is where Freemasonry continues to resonate with me. I’m reminded often that we’re taught to meet on the level—to see one another first as equals, regardless of background, belief, or opinion. That simple idea feels almost radical in today’s climate. The practice of circumscribing our passions, listening with patience, and extending Brotherly Love even when it’s difficult is something I find myself trying to apply outside the lodge as much as inside it.
I don’t know that the Craft can heal every division in society, but I do believe it can shape men who are better equipped to engage others thoughtfully and respectfully. If we can carry those lessons into our own conversations—at home, at work, and in our communities—and model a better way of disagreeing, then maybe we are doing our small part to help build the bridges you’re talking about.
I think that you are right. People of goodwill, the vast majority of people, actually agree on a lot more than they disagree about. But, of course disagreements get all of the attention.
I also agree with your thoughts that people have always disagreed, and that the difference is that we have largely forgotten how to disagree. Preferring to turn everything into a fight.
Masonry does teach us the lessons we need if we are to model civil discourse, but as individual Masons we have to be open to these lessons in order to internalize them and bring them out of the Lodge into all of our personal interactions. If we can do that though, we certainly could stand as beacons of light.
Perhaps I am radical but I believe that there are a number of foreign elements that are dedicated to a different type of order one that is more tyrannical, has less than an appreciation for the basic human rights than our nation would, and these foreign elements are wildly inflating and igniting internal tensions that would ordinarily be bonfire level and have been elevated to a total conflagration.
And our current country is not perfect, and there’s a lot of things that could be fixed by anyone’s lights, but globally any country in the world could be better off and could be fixed depending on perspective and personality and policy. What I am noticing is that the weaponisation of opinions is becoming so virulent that the vitriol is acting like acid and scarring both sides of the conversation alike.
Part of it’s probably socio-economic, but electronic platforms that thrive on chaos, misinformation, emotion- driven rants often without the benefit of any logic are a poor soap Box when attempting to have a serious discussion. Chaos, thy dread empire is again restored, indeed.
As Brother Rob stated, we have an obligation to support reasonable dialogue and we also have to be careful of how we appear in the larger community because people will see us as Mason’s first and people second. And since the Imp of the Perverse is at least metaphorically alive and well, they will forget instantly the 99 good things that we do and immediately focus on that one mistake that we didn’t mean to make but we couldn’t just help ourselves after a rotten day when it was just too much work to subdue our passions and yet again attempt to improve ourselves in our Craft What we forget is at the end of the day is that we are all human, even that other guy that we think we are mad at.
We all love we are all a mixture of gold and clay, pobody’s nerfect, and we all have the capacity of hatred. Terry Pratchett famously said that hatred is loved with its back turned.
As Masons we should be working to diffuse the conflicts, actually act like brotherly love is an emotion that we can access and project genuinely (im deeply flawed and struggle with this exercise daily) but the struggle I feel is making me somewhat of a better person (although there is a lot of work to do LOL).
I think that there are outside elements as any enemy would take advantage of a house divided, and through a combination of electronics and surreptitious dialogue, there is a fifth column at work attempting to destabilise our country because despite all of its issues it’s one of the few that I believe still take human rights somewhat seriously and try to do the right thing even in the midst of everything that is wrong. After all if we believe the Talking Heads, shrug and just say that everything is hosed, then why bother putting any effort into the edifice because it’s just gonna fall down anyway right?
Not to be paranoid, but we don’t need to go looking for this fifth column. We simply need to counter negativity wherever we see it without being socially unrealistic, in other words by combining a blend of practicality and humour I think we can inject a perspective of rationality and learned it and reasonable discourse which is so the foundation of our Mystic art. The art of being civil not just dwelling in cities of our own making.
But as Masons we have a unique Craft. With Faith Hope and Charity, we understand how to rebuild people and social edifices alike, it’s not easy but by putting in the elbow grease and injecting positivity where there is negativity ,by being realistic and not a mooncalfs, by displaying tender virtues such as frivolity, compassion empathy and humour, by crafting a gentle answer to turn away wrath, we can reverse the negative effects. I feel to a great degree and benefit not only ourselves but those who witness our actions and out of genuine pleasure attempt to imitate them. And indeed being grateful, a grateful heart completely changes your perspective from wrath to appreciation, allowing you to do things that you never thought were possible if only you’re willing to change your perspective.
I don't think that you are radical for believing that there are foreign interests throwing gasoline on the fires of division. I think not recognizing that would be just burying our heads in the sand.
Certainly foreign actors are doing this. As are those NGO's who benefit when one side or the other is in power. Policy organizations that raise money off fear. Political candidates. Traditional media that sees subscriptions grow when a story bleeds or is full of vitriol. Social Media in which emotion drives the algorithm. All of these outfits benefit from the division in society, and benefit more when those cracks between people grow. I presume that there are others as well.
You're also spot on, of course, when you mention that if we do one wrong thing, people will forget all the right we have done. That reminds us to place a watch on our tongues I think.
There is an old adage that recommends that we count to ten, before we speak when we are angry. I have used that many times, and I find that small intentional gap between reaction and action is really useful in staying in control. I’m not a psychologist, nor a neurologist, but I suspect that there is something hard wired in our nervous system that really ramps up our emotional response to a stimulus if we are in an environment where we are repeatedly insulted by our environment, without a break. The 24/7 news culture we have created, the 24/7 access our smart phone provides, and the intentional, manipulative and curated structure of the media designed to maximize our emotional response to it all lead to an addictive agent. I constantly see people looking at their phone, rather than each other, in fact it seems most people see their fellow humans through the lens that the phone provides rather than looking up and actually seeing them. All of this without a break. No one is counting to ten. There is now real evidence that social media is intentionally being designed to addict young minds.
I am not against social media, or smart phones. I think they are great. I believe the impact of the ‘internet-smartphone-social media’ force is much like the impact of sugar. Our species evolved to need sugar to survive, in a world where it can be hard to find and is never found in a pure refined form. Our technology has provided us with no limit of sugar. Our instincts compel us to consume it, and we have no instinctive response not to eat it. That has to be intentional and based in knowledge. This issue is so bad that it has killed millions of people. In seeking to improve our lives we created something we have no evolved resistance too. The electronic space we now live in is very similar. We are wired to look for danger, we are wired to be social, and we are wired to communicate. In real life the rate, intensity and content of those experiences are grounded in the ‘real world’. Peter and the Wolf tell us a lesson about being truthful in the real world. On the internet Peter would never have to deal with the real wolf.
All this is leading to passionate, intense, and delusional division more appropriate to immediate lethal danger, than with the philosophical debate it generally is based in. We all need to count to ten. Turn the damn phone off. Ground our feelings in what we actually and physically experience in-the-real-world. Make the cybernetic world our servant, not the other way around.
I fear that with the adoption of AI technologies, it will only get worse. People making up nonsense, and other people amplifying it on social media has long been a source of conflict, as sides end up forming in which neither even knows what the basic facts are.
But, it will get worse now that these technologies can very easily fake photographs, videos, speeches, and anything else, making those fakes appear to be completely genuine.
I think that the solution is not governmental control, as is being tried in Europe and elsewhere, not platform control as has been tried here, rather it is up to each of us as individuals. We can't just accept any BS that we see online (that happens to support our position) as true. We have to question, and we have to think. Not simply unthinkingly accept and react.
I think it would be great if individuals demonstrated restraint and discernment, but I am becoming increasingly pessimistic that that solution will work. I unfortunately fear that some form of external control may become necessary if not to prevent catastrophe, then to recover from it. When I was in school, back in the Fred Flintstone days, we were taught that every right has a responsibility, and that if you want one you have to have the other. I wish I still believed that enough people would take responsibility not only for what they say, but what they accept.
Do we teach responsibility to our children today?
I just think about schools. When I was a kid, I was a bit of a hellion. If I got in trouble in school, and it rose to the level that my parents found out about it, there was a lot more hell to pay at home then there ever was at school.
(With a single exception when my folks thought that what I did was perfectly acceptable, and that the school was wrong in declaring it out of proper bounds.)
But, is that the case today? I don't think so. Not for a lot of kids anyway. Now it seems that if the kid gets in trouble at school, far too often the parents rush down to defend little johnny, because in their eyes the little bugger can do no wrong.
We even see this in restaurants. If my brother and I behaved bad in a restaurant our mother would have dragged us outside to give us a good whack or ten. So, we behaved in restaurants. Just the other day, before a Lodge meeting I was in a restaurant where some little bugger (who was old enough to know better) was flinging food all over heck and back. Trashing the joint. The adults were apparently completely oblivious, ignoring it while scrolling their phones.
I fear that if we refuse to teach responsibility to our children, they will never be responsible as adults.
Most Worshipful Brother Bailey,
Your contemplation on the roots of our current disorder, whether political, economic, or spiritual, strikes at the very heart of the crisis we face. Drawing on thoughts I penned at the start of this year, I believe the fundamental basis of this discontent is that we have become a nation of foolish builders. We have traded the rock of a shared identity and the rule of law for the shifting sand of identity politics.
In our society's obsession with defining ourselves by our differences, we have fundamentally altered our role in the republic. We have ceased to be operative masons building a society and have instead become speculative critics tearing one down. As you noted, chaos benefits from this division, and we see this daily as people fight over the interior decoration of their political rooms while ignoring the fact that the foundation is cracking beneath them.
To answer your question regarding what Freemasonry can do to help heal these divisions, I believe we must return to the Trestleboard. Our Craft offers the specific tools required to fix what I call the collective astigmatism of our time. Currently, society views neighbors through the distorted lens of politics, but the Lodge can serve as the corrective lens, helping men focus on truth in love rather than distortion.
We must encourage the Brethren to swap the gavel of judgment, which we have been using too freely to demand others fit our stones, for the trowel, which spreads the cement of unity. If we treat our shared principles not as open source code to be hacked and altered by every passing cultural whimsy, but as the stable kernel of our operating system, we can reintegrate a fragmented system.
We cannot legislate unity, but we can model it by refusing to move the ancient landmarks. It is time to stop standing outside the temple shouting about the cracks and pick up our tools to maintain the structure.
Sincerely and Fraternally,
Randall Webster
The Ouachita Optic
I think that men best thrive when they have a shared struggle. Likewise, they best come together when facing such a struggle.
I've seen that in my own Lodge. Years ago a bunch of us were thrown into a super fast paced situation in which none of us knew what to do. But, we figured it out, we made it through the night, and that stressful experience bonded the Lodge together better than anything I've seen, before or since.
We don't really have a shared struggle as a nation anymore. We sent King George packing. We developed our share of the continent. We kicked ass in World War 2. We could have been undone at any of those moments. The revolution could have turned into dictatorship or terror as most such revolutions do. The French could have become our enemies instead of our allies. Japan could have invaded the Continental US, the Germans could have developed the bomb first. These are just three quick examples of shared struggles our nation has faced, but of course there have been so many more over the course of our history.
Perhaps not anymore. No one can touch us militarily. No one can touch us economically. I'm certain not forever, but for now, the USA is the undisputed Champion of the World. As such, what shared struggle remains?
And without that shared struggle, don't we tend to see differences that we would have ignored if we were struggling?
Perhaps that is one of the reasons we seem to be ever dividing into smaller and smaller identities.
Really really hard to have civil discourse when one side is labeling the other with hate filled violent rhetoric.
Words mean things. Indeed, words mean extremely specific things.
Studies have shown that we actually normally use very, very few words. Even writers, who weave magic with words, normally use very few words. Written and spoken, not very many words.
But we have words for almost anything we can imagine or experience. Those words, specialized words get thrown in with the very few words we normally go to, and that is how we can accurately communicate what it is that we are looking to have another person understand.
It's a good system. Developed since the dawn of human time.
But, alas, it only works if two things are in place:
-We must all agree that words actually mean things.
-We must all accept shared meanings for words.
If I insist that your Harley Davidson is not a motorcycle, we will never be able to have a rational discussion about that machine on two wheels.
Likewise, when we intentionally misuse words, rational discussion is impossible.
MW,
I heartily agree with much of what has been said in the other comments, and would add one more opinion. And I'll try to be brief. :-)
Over the last 50 years or so our society as a whole has moved away from valuing community to valuing the individual. President Kennedy famously said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." JFK also had a quote on liberalism which I offer because it conveyed the mood of the country at the time. "If by a "Liberal," they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say that I'm a "Liberal."
Contrast that with the Gordon Gecko quote 25 years later, "Greed is good." Along with that, we have developed a cynicism for the public good. Some politicians and businessmen even brag about cheating on their taxes and civic obligations, perversely as a sort of 'patriotic' duty.
Personally, I think our families, communities, our nation, and indeed the world do better in the Kennedy mindset. And Freemasonry flourished in 1960, with 4 million members in the US. I don't think that was a coincidence. Now, to my more conservative friends, I would certainly concede that the 90% top tax rate in the early 60's was too high. But, I'd posit that most folks then were proud of the things federal taxes were funding - interstate highways, NASA, public education, etc. The point being that most people, and most Freemasons felt proud of being a part of a greater good. (Read Clausen's Commentaries sometime.) I'll close with a thought that Freemasonry and Brothers should always avoid discussing partisan politics; but maybe it's time for us to spread light and truth about civics, civil liberties, our rights, responsibilities and freedoms.
I think JFK's definition more fits with the "progressive" ideology than the liberal. Classic liberal is "defined as an advocate for individual liberty, limited government, and free-market capitalism, rooted in 17th-19th century enlightenment ideals. Core values include prioritizing individual rights (life, liberty, property) over collectivism, advocating for the rule of law, skepticism of state power, and promoting tolerance, free trade, and peace.".
A liberal, by definition, is the conservative party today. Progressive ideology took over the democratic party around Woodrow Wilson's time in office.
I think that one man can make a difference. If he speaks with authority.
Our country was born in a revolution. But how often do such revolutions actually succeed? Indeed we've succeeded for centuries, based on documents. Paper. But there was no promise of this, no guarantee. Our revolution inspired a similar movement in France. Ours created a democratic Republic. France's created The Terror which was in turn replaced with dictatorship.
But, I think it is easy to forget (or not teach) just how precarious our position was. How easily it could have turned to mob rule or dictatorship. At the end of the revolution, the army revolted. Washington put it down with words, and the moral authority of his position.
It got worse. Units of the Continental army mutinied, marched on Congress with the intent to either have its demands met or take Congress out. The State's leadership refused to call up the militia to protect Congress. Congress was forced to flee the very building in which the Declaration of Independence had been signed, to decamp to another State. Hamilton put that mutiny down, with his words. He wasn't even an officer in the army any longer, so had no authority. But he spoke and the mutinying soldiers returned to their base.
The revolution was eventually secured, but not without coming very close to going completely off the rails.
I think that very few are speaking for America and Americans today. Rather they are speaking for a side, or an identity, or a particular issue. We need leaders, not just political leaders, but leaders in every field of endeavor, who will stand up and speak for America and Americans as a whole, and as ideals. I fear we don't have much at all in the way of that today.
Our Order has a long history of being neutral territory for disputes going back hundreds of years. Even during your civil war, Masons from both sides would help each other. Lodges in Belfast during the troubles often served as common, neutral ground. Perhaps this is where the Craft can best serve, as neutral territory. In Canada, we are watching you tear your country apart and the rest of the world look on and shake its collective head. Freemasonry's values and moral compass are where to look. Dialogue is the path forward.
I did not know that about Belfast. Thank you for pointing it out. That's certainly something that the Craft can be rightly proud of.
Getting way off topic here (sorry) I do think that there is much that we can learn from Canada, and much Canada can learn from us.
I'll start with you northerners and just remark that you all need to come down here to learn how to make a decent cigarette! Those things you guys smoke, holy smokes they are bad!
Seriously though, and this is just an example. Given my career, I've developed very specific beliefs about taxation. What serves best for economic development, and lessens impact on those who can least afford it. But, traveling to and through Canada challenges my beliefs with evidence I can see with my own eyes.
And that is vitally important, because if we never expose ourselves to things that challenge our beliefs, we can never think properly. All we do is confirm our own biases by avoiding anything contradictory to those biases.
That's what social media, and even traditional media does today. It confirms biases, rather than challenging them. That hardens positions that should never be hardened.
Well, I guess this wasn't too off topic after all!