Some fellow posts some extremely controversial political meme on Facebook. When you click through to his page, you see that meme sitting right next to a post about Freemasonry.
Undoubtedly this is extremely harmful to our Fraternity. Everyone who disagrees with the meme in question will get a bitter taste towards Freemasonry.
Make no mistake, it is great to post about Masonry. It’s also just fine to post about controversial issues however one desires. The problem comes in when these two things are mixed together in a single online space, so that viewers of the content conflate the two.
Freemasonry stands apart from questions of politics and religion. By design, it discusses neither. It is my view that Masonic online spaces need to do the same. That Masonic posts should be segregated away from posts about politics and religion.
I think that this view is very widely held, certainly many Grand Lodges, including Washington, have over recent years tried to convince Masons to use some care about this when posting to social media.
Yet it continues.
Is there a way that we can convince our Brothers to not mix Masonry and divisive issues together on Social Media?
Let’s chat about it…
I recently sat down for an episode of the Square and Compass Podcast, a repeat performance, it can be found at:
Masonry doesn't forbid politics. Only partisanship. In other words, support your opinion with facts logic and rhetoric, not party affiliation. The American revolution was a very bold and divisive political movement and many freemasons took part in it. Why? For the same reason the book discussed two days ago highlights freemasonry's/templars part in the peasant revolt of 1381. It advances individual liberty in the face of tyrants. To quote Brother Goldwater... "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue". This modern take on the fraternity that doesn't speak out against tyrannical institutions because they misunderstand partisanship with politics is a huge weakness and one of the failings of the fraternity contributing to its lackluster performance in membership and works.
What you are doing GM, "talking" about it, is probably is the most useful. Those who have not thought about what effect they may be having on our fraternity, will have a better understanding and remember when they post things. Those who don't really care will never change.
As bro jack mentions, we wouldn’t be discussing this today if it wasn’t for our forefathers divisive politics. We are told not to discuss politics or religion in lodge and for good reason. But outside of lodge we should be free to discuss whatever we want publicly.
Personal attacks in social media should never be acceptable no matter who you are. But stating the truth should never be suppressed no matter how offensive you may find it.
As I write this ,i just recieved another unasked for Facebook IM that is politically biased from a brother. Its not thoughtful, its just a shared video that has gone viral. I have passionately held beliefs in politics and i express them in the voting booth, but i do not subject anyone esle to a barrage of biased political material, especially in a social setting, electronic or otherwise. Yes, we have a right to free speech, and yes our forefathers fought for it. Its a god given right. There is also responsibility that comes with that right, and i feel a need to measure the consequences of the expression of that right. If there was one thing i would like my brethren to know, its this; Not everyone shares your beliefs, and many brethren will not argue or debate, they simply go home and don't come back. Thats the consequence of political discussions in Lodge, and on solcial media. Yeah, there are some lively and friendly debates, which is fine, but there is a cost. Is it worth it?
I’ve had those unsolicited messages also from brothers. I politely remind them that I don’t want or need to see that stuff. If they persist, I simply block them. There is no need to be reactionary or get upset. Most of the time it’s from a brother I barely know and never otherwise interact with, so no great loss.
Folks just don’t seem to realize that chances are, my fb newsfeed has been flooded with that stuff, and chances are, I’ve seen it shared a dozen times already.
And as far as political discourse, people need to put on their big boy pants, put down their sippy cups, and be able to talk like adults and realize sometimes you’re not going to change my mind. There are plenty of options on social media to filter your friends and what you see on your newsfeed.
All of us should be very conscious about what and how we post on social media. Its one thing to post opinions or different perspectives on an issue, but it's a completely different ballgame when a post belittles or degrades. If we remember the Closing Charge as we interact with people, both in person and online, we can rest assured that we will represent the best parts of Masonry.
Energy flows where attention goes. Social Media can be a useful tool, unfortunately the attention seems to gravitate toward controversial themes of division. Think about all the headlines and various debates, scandals, and contrived sciences that floods it. To me facebook has just been a digital form of vampirism; sucking out the emotions of the community and doing what it can to control the narratives that suits its agenda. Not that our local news media is much better. It’s known they report more on negative stories because people are vicarious by nature and tune in to watch chaos from a spitting distance. A saying I heard the other day from a song titled Simultaneous, “we will never know world peace until three people can simultaneously look at each other straight in the eye.”
The nature of emotion, in ignorance, seems to feed on energy of controversies, like a pendulum. As it says in the Kybalion; "Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled."
I have started to keep my masonic comments, here on Emeth, and rarely post on facebook anymore. I do agree that people should stand up and voice their opinions and share thoughts for reductive reasoning and logical purposes. As there is a lot of misleading information out there (half-truths). Personal freedoms and choices are being stripped and censorship seems to be on the rise. This country is in dire need of new leadership, where we actually vote for the smartest among us; a Mason. Our constitution (written mostly, by Freemasons), set up the laws to regulate its government, not the other way around.
Well, in our not to distant past we had a past Grand Master order atomic bombs drop on Japan. Also our founder of this Republic went to war with Great Britain among others. If one just sets by and lets a country be distorted from within shame on them.
Masonry doesn't forbid politics. Only partisanship. In other words, support your opinion with facts logic and rhetoric, not party affiliation. The American revolution was a very bold and divisive political movement and many freemasons took part in it. Why? For the same reason the book discussed two days ago highlights freemasonry's/templars part in the peasant revolt of 1381. It advances individual liberty in the face of tyrants. To quote Brother Goldwater... "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue". This modern take on the fraternity that doesn't speak out against tyrannical institutions because they misunderstand partisanship with politics is a huge weakness and one of the failings of the fraternity contributing to its lackluster performance in membership and works.
Excellent, thanks.
What you are doing GM, "talking" about it, is probably is the most useful. Those who have not thought about what effect they may be having on our fraternity, will have a better understanding and remember when they post things. Those who don't really care will never change.
As bro jack mentions, we wouldn’t be discussing this today if it wasn’t for our forefathers divisive politics. We are told not to discuss politics or religion in lodge and for good reason. But outside of lodge we should be free to discuss whatever we want publicly.
Personal attacks in social media should never be acceptable no matter who you are. But stating the truth should never be suppressed no matter how offensive you may find it.
As I write this ,i just recieved another unasked for Facebook IM that is politically biased from a brother. Its not thoughtful, its just a shared video that has gone viral. I have passionately held beliefs in politics and i express them in the voting booth, but i do not subject anyone esle to a barrage of biased political material, especially in a social setting, electronic or otherwise. Yes, we have a right to free speech, and yes our forefathers fought for it. Its a god given right. There is also responsibility that comes with that right, and i feel a need to measure the consequences of the expression of that right. If there was one thing i would like my brethren to know, its this; Not everyone shares your beliefs, and many brethren will not argue or debate, they simply go home and don't come back. Thats the consequence of political discussions in Lodge, and on solcial media. Yeah, there are some lively and friendly debates, which is fine, but there is a cost. Is it worth it?
I’ve had those unsolicited messages also from brothers. I politely remind them that I don’t want or need to see that stuff. If they persist, I simply block them. There is no need to be reactionary or get upset. Most of the time it’s from a brother I barely know and never otherwise interact with, so no great loss.
Folks just don’t seem to realize that chances are, my fb newsfeed has been flooded with that stuff, and chances are, I’ve seen it shared a dozen times already.
And as far as political discourse, people need to put on their big boy pants, put down their sippy cups, and be able to talk like adults and realize sometimes you’re not going to change my mind. There are plenty of options on social media to filter your friends and what you see on your newsfeed.
All of us should be very conscious about what and how we post on social media. Its one thing to post opinions or different perspectives on an issue, but it's a completely different ballgame when a post belittles or degrades. If we remember the Closing Charge as we interact with people, both in person and online, we can rest assured that we will represent the best parts of Masonry.
Energy flows where attention goes. Social Media can be a useful tool, unfortunately the attention seems to gravitate toward controversial themes of division. Think about all the headlines and various debates, scandals, and contrived sciences that floods it. To me facebook has just been a digital form of vampirism; sucking out the emotions of the community and doing what it can to control the narratives that suits its agenda. Not that our local news media is much better. It’s known they report more on negative stories because people are vicarious by nature and tune in to watch chaos from a spitting distance. A saying I heard the other day from a song titled Simultaneous, “we will never know world peace until three people can simultaneously look at each other straight in the eye.”
The nature of emotion, in ignorance, seems to feed on energy of controversies, like a pendulum. As it says in the Kybalion; "Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled."
I have started to keep my masonic comments, here on Emeth, and rarely post on facebook anymore. I do agree that people should stand up and voice their opinions and share thoughts for reductive reasoning and logical purposes. As there is a lot of misleading information out there (half-truths). Personal freedoms and choices are being stripped and censorship seems to be on the rise. This country is in dire need of new leadership, where we actually vote for the smartest among us; a Mason. Our constitution (written mostly, by Freemasons), set up the laws to regulate its government, not the other way around.
Well, in our not to distant past we had a past Grand Master order atomic bombs drop on Japan. Also our founder of this Republic went to war with Great Britain among others. If one just sets by and lets a country be distorted from within shame on them.