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Freemasonry — awesome demonstration of the power of myths

I'll bet you've heard all the stories about Masons -- Freemasonry, that is -- and their supposed "secret government" behind the U.S. founding and early governing? The tales of Masonic symbols on our money and "New World Order" stuff in Latin on our dollar bills?

I strongly recommend you keep an eye out for the Discovery Channel's special, "Secret History of the Freemasons." It absolutely debunks every silly one of those myths and others. As an example: You've heard the myth that the pyramid and eye on the backs of U.S. dollar bills were put there by our Founding Fathers as a mystical symbol of Freemasonry, haven't you? Never happened. According to the Discovery Channel (and a search at wikipedia.org), the pyramid with the "all seeing eye" was added to U.S. currency for the first time on the dollar bill by FDR in 1935.

So why do we continue to believe bunk couched in high-sounding, scholarly terms? Why do we continue to pay attention to nuts who make nice livings off rumors and tales that are obviously fiction?

One word, I think, explains why we all love a good conspiracy theory: boredom. Okay, we'll add another word to that -- fear.

Boredom or dissatisfaction with the hum-drum, routine nature of most of our lives leads us to jump at things that are out of the ordinary. And fear makes us want to find deep or hidden answers that explain those circumstances in life we are not able to control.

As long as life for most people is a string of boring routine punctuated by sudden, unexplained situations that bring fear -- the world will believe in conspiracy theories. No matter that all those "alien life forms" out there responsible for UFO appearances and abductions never show themselves to anyone actively, scientifically seeking them, we'll still believe. No matter that the physical realities of the universe make it almost impossible that living beings from anywhere in that universe would or could come near earth -- we want to believe, so we by gosh WILL believe.

And that's all right, isn't it? Especially in America. Our country is built on the inalienable right we all have to make ourselves appear to be a**es at any time we wish to, as long as we don't hurt others or interfere with their rights to do so.

God bless America! (And, please, please, PLEASE don't tell the Freemasons on me.)
[tags]conspiracy theories, Freemasonry, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]