Last week I read an article in an online Masonic magazine that I found to be quite disturbing. In fact, it’s been bouncing around in my head ever since, and that’s caused me to take a break from my own writing. I found that I couldn’t write anything else until I rebutted the article, but I wasn’t sure what the right way to do that was.
After thinking about it far more than I should have, I’m ready now.
The article, promoted through paid advertising on social media, made an extraordinarily bold, and false claim.
It claimed that Freemasonry has always stood for equality of result.
‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity’ has been long adopted as a Masonic motto of sorts, I’ve even visited a Lodge with that exact name. It’s a good solid declaration of principles, I think used more in the Continental Masonic tradition than in our Lodges here in the United States.
Here in Washington we talk an awful lot about Meeting on the Level. All Masons are equal to all others. We talk about not judging any man by his worldly wealth or honors.
Our Craft Lodges and the Scottish Rite teach about Justice. Equal justice to all.
Certainly Freemasonry stands for equality, and has since the beginning.
There is a quote attributed to Brother Theodore Roosevelt that I think encapsulates this Masonic idea quite well:
“I violate no secret when I say that one of the greatest values in Masonry is that it affords an opportunity for men in all walks of life to meet on common ground, where for the time all men are equal and have one common interest. For example, when I was President, the Master (of my lodge) was Worshipful Brother Doughty, gardener on the estate of one of my neighbors, and a most excellent public-spirited citizen with whom I liked to maintain contact. Clearly I could not call upon him (socially) when I came home. It would have embarrassed him. Neither could he, without embarrassment, call on me. In the lodge it was different. He was over me, though I was President, and it was good for him and good for me.”
Equality of opportunity is what Freemasonry stands for, and has always stood for.
Every person on this earth, by right of birth, should have an equal opportunity to make out of themselves and their lives what they will.
No person should be held back, prevented from achieving the success they seek because they face obstacles that others do not face because of the accident of birth.
Equality of opportunity. We all have, or should have, the same shot at success.
But, we will not all achieve the same level of success, by any measurement, because we are all unique individuals.
Take me for example. I make less money than the average person in the area I live. But, I’ve achieved extraordinary success in Masonry. I’ve guided a city as its Mayor and made improvements that will stand for generations. I’ve got a closer relationship with family than I think most do. This is because the things that are important to me, don’t pay, or don’t pay well. Significant financial success just hasn’t ever been a driver for me.
But other people find other things more important, other things drive them. They might build a wildly successful business, or become doctors, or professors.
And that’s OK. Because we all have different interests. Different things we decide to spend our energy upon.
But, it assures that we will not have equality of result.
I like my house quite a lot. Indeed, I think it is a superb house. But, a lot of my friends have bigger houses, fancier houses, more modern and therefore more comfortable houses.
My friends and I have inequality of result when it comes to our houses.
Because what is important to them is not the same as what is important to me. And they are willing to put in the work to achieve that which is important to them. Just as I have always loved unique historic houses, so I did what I needed to do for this house. (Not to mention, put up with its quirks.)
If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that in the United States in 2024, we do have equality of opportunity. Our success is limited only by what we choose to put our energy into, and how much energy we are willing to pour into whatever it might be.
We can succeed, or fail, based on our own choices and labor.
It’s the same with Masonic Lodges.
Any Lodge in my Jurisdiction can find success. If it’s Masons are willing to put in the work needed, on the right things, for that success to manifest.
Lodges that fail, fail for reasons.
Indeed one of the Lodges that I consider firmly entrenched in the top five Lodges of this Jurisdiction is quite new and started with nothing but some Brothers with a heck of a lot of dedication and a solid vision.
Again, equality of opportunity. We can go through the motions in our Lodge and watch it lurch along, or we can go balls to the walls and watch it thrive. It’s up to us, the decisions we make and the labor we put in.
But the Mason who wrote the magazine article argued that Freemasonry has always stood for equality of result.
Equality of result is a fairly new philosophy, often ill defined today as equity. This is a corrosive philosophy that necessarily calls for the artificial holding back of people and their potential for success.
If we are to all have the same sized homes when we hit fifty years of age, well some will certainly benefit, for they will have a larger home than they would have had otherwise, but others will suffer, for they will not have the opportunity to own the home they desire.
Those who work less will get more than they are entitled, those who work more will receive less.
This isn’t equality as it was understood by enlightenment thinkers, the same thinkers that created Freemasonry as we know it.
It is rather an unworkable utopian vision that can never be realized. Nor should it be realized.
It’s slogan is not “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” It’s slogan is “From Each According To His Ability, To Each According To His Needs.”
The philosophy that popularized that slogan has directly resulted in the murder of tens of millions of people, as despots have tried in vain to make it work.
Interestingly, with a single exception to prove the rule, Freemasonry has been outlawed in every nation that has ever adopted that corrosive philosophy. To claim that Freemasonry has somehow always stood for it is patently absurd.
Well said Dear WB.
Equality of opportunity is not the same as equality of results, as a matter of fact there is no such thing as equality of results because the result of any action is based on the effort put for such action.
Equality of results requires a class of people to determine if that equality was achieved, and to bark out orders at the rest of us until it is.
As Orwell wrote, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
This is un-Masonic.
It is self-defeating. How can unequal classes bring about equality?
Masonry flourished by opening a space for different kinds of men - unequal men - to meet and mix freely for mutual benefit.
The results of meeting equally are going to be unpredictable and so unequal.
That’s the beauty of it.