Misinformation

Something Freemasonry has been dealing with since time immemorial

Misinformation seems to be all over the news the past few years. Governments seem to be trying to take new powers in an effort to stop it, technology companies are seemingly being pressured to delete it. But time and again we see that these same Governments and companies are some of the largest purveyors of disinformation, as what is deemed to be true one day is no longer seen to be true the next. Circumstances change, knowledge grows.

But of course Freemasonry has dealt with misinformation ever since it declared its existence to the wider world in 1717.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

If you listen to the conspiracy nuts we worship Lucifer, drink the blood of sacrificed infants, and secretly run the world, all in service of creating some kind of evil New World Order.

If, as a Mason, one points out to said conspiracy nuts that none of that is true, we are simply informed that we are not of high enough rank within Freemasonry to be let in on the great secret conspiracy.

I don’t actually know any of these conspiracy nuts, but I do know a couple of people who wonder. A couple of people who wonder if there isn’t truth to the conspiracy claims. What I find to be most interesting is that I know these people extremely well. They know that I have held the highest position in all of Freemasonry, hold the highest Degree in all of Freemasonry. But still they wonder. Maybe ol’ Cameron just isn’t quite high enough to be let in on the evil doings. It is a very strange form of mental gymnastics.

If one points out to the conspiracy nuts all the good Freemasonry is doing in the world each and every day, things like our Shriner’s Hospitals for Children, our Scottish Rite Speech and Language clinics, our extensive scholarship programs, our Royal Arch Heart Foundation, the Grotto’s dental care for disabled youth, the Knights Templar eye foundation, and so much more… That is all simply dismissed because we apparently do those things not to improve the lives of millions, but to distract attention away from our evil plans to rule the world.

I often wonder how the conspiracy nuts can think that we are so devious and nimble to be able to secretly take over the world, when any quick glance at most of our Masonic Temples will clearly show that it can take us a couple of months to change a lightbulb, or a couple of weeks to check the Lodge voicemail.

But, alas, these conspiracy theories have always plagued Freemasonry. From the Taxil Hoax in Europe to the Anti-Masonic Party in the United States, to nuts spouting nonsense on youtube today.

For over three hundred years Freemasonry has been unable to stem the tide of misinformation about our Craft, and it will be unable to stem it for the next three hundred years as well. Not because we have gone about it in the wrong way, but because it is impossible to stop the spread of that which is untrue, just as it is impossible to stop the spread of that which is true. Ideas live a life of their own.

Our Ancient Craft was an important part of the Enlightenment. Shaping and perfecting the ideas and ideals that have resulted in the Western World as we know it today. Springing from the British isles and very quickly expanding to encompass the entirety of the earth, Freemasonry spread the knowledge and wisdom that led to progress. Directly and indirectly improving the lives of countless millions the world over.

The concept of Free Speech being a natural right, or a right given to all people individually from God was undoubtedly the most important underpinning to Enlightenment thought.

No more could the Church torture and kill scientists who made discoveries that were thought to conflict with dogma. No more could a man be tortured and killed for believing something different about the nature of God than what Rome allowed. No more could questioning a King’s fitness to sit on a throne be deemed treason worthy of death. No more could a man be punished for publishing disagreement or discontent with a government’s laws or a lord’s edicts.

It was determined instead that the right of the individual to believe what he or she believed, and to express that belief was absolute. Granted by God. Not subject to abridgement by any authority, not Church or State.

This is, and always has been, a Freemasonic ideal.

In the Washington State Capitol, in the hallways behind the galleries that overlook the Senate and House chambers, there are photographs of each and every Legislator since our Territorial founding. By looking at these photographs, and comparing them with our own membership rolls, it is easy to see that in Washington’s early days, the overwhelming majority of Legislators, and statewide elected officials were Freemasons.

Heck, in the early days the Legislature itself actually met in Olympia’s Masonic Temple.

In those days, Legislative power could have been utilized in an attempt to stamp out misinformation about Freemasonry.

It wasn’t.

It wasn’t because the Freemasons that composed our Legislature understood the value of freedom of speech. They held it to be sacred.

They also of course understood that it would not work. The Church had gleefully spent centuries murdering scientists and freethinkers to no avail, just as the State had spent centuries murdering anyone who dared to speak out for fairer government and freer society. Yet neither of these all powerful institutions were able to stop the spread of ideas permanently.

So how did Freemasonry fight misinformation in those days?

The same way it does now.

It ignores it. And it allows its good works and reputation to speak for it.

Normal people will see the Freemasons they happen to know doing good for themselves, their families, and their communities, and seeing that, they will not believe the lies peddled by conspiracy nuts.

Western history has taught us that the best way to combat misinformation is by countering it with correct information. Not by trying to silence those who are wrong, but by providing that which is right, and trusting that reasonable people can discern the truth for themselves.

That is the tack Freemasonry has always taken, and that is the tack Western governments have largely taken since the Enlightenment. Indeed, it is a core bedrock of our free societies.

But today this idea is under attack throughout the Western World.

Under attack by governments claiming a need to stem the tide of enemy propaganda and health information surrounding the recent pandemic. Under attack by massive social media platforms, eagerly silencing voices that sound disagreement with whatever seems true on any given day.

Here in Washington State, at this very moment the Legislature is considering a bill that would give our Attorney General new powers to identify misinformation, label those individuals deemed to be spreading disinformation with a remarkably terroristic sounding term, and wrap the whole scheme up by somehow declaring it a function of public health.

Reading the bill reminded me of stories from the Soviet Union of my childhood where those who disagreed with the government, but were too well known to be disappeared, ended up being locked away in mental hospitals.

Proposals such as this are wrong. Wrong because they stand in direct opposition to the Enlightenment values that resulted in all the progress we enjoy today. Wrong because they sacrifice the individual for the collective. And of course, they will not work. History shows that ideas, true or not, do not die. The Church of Rome murdered countless individuals because of their beliefs about God, yet still Protestantism arose.

But Freemasonry stands.

Freemasonry stands, watching these machinations of men.

Stands as a silent example, proving that centuries of misinformation can not destroy that which is good and true.

Silently stands and by doing so shows that the best, and only effective way of combating disinformation is by quietly speaking the truth and letting people everywhere see good results with their own eyes.

Freemasonry stands as the shining example to the world of truth and goodness as she has done for centuries. May Church and State continue to follow her lead.