Secret Societies
edited by Norman MacKenzie
It is possible that some degree of secrecy is necessary for the survival of a society. That is a view put forth by Norman MacKenzie, the editor of Secret Societies, a collection of scholarly essays on the titular subject. This statement is less of an argument in favor of anything and more of an introductory idea to lead into a history of secretive organizations, what they do, and what they have done.
In the introduction and conclusion by MacKenzie, he starts with a Freudian explanation as to why secrecy develops in an individual. In order for society to function, some things need to be done out of the public eye. For this reason, we have private bathrooms, clothing, and bedrooms with locks on the doors. Governments and militaries also need to keep secrets, and sometimes groups that oppose them form in secrecy to protect their members’ identities. In the latter case, secrecy can be used as a motivational force or as a means of social bonding. Some people even fetishize secrecy and go to great lengths to maintain a private life strongly guarded from their public persona. MacKenzie’s introductory remarks lead to the question of what kind of a man joins a secret society (historically, secret societies have been primarily open to male membership only). Maybe the question “What kind of a man reads Playboy would yield a similar answer. (That is an obscure joke. If you want me to explain it you will have to go through an initiation ceremony after paying a $100 entrance fee. Feel free to contact me if you are interested.) MacKenzie actually leaves this question unanswered by the end of the book.
From there, we get a series of chapters written by historians and social scientists, none of which are people I have ever heard of. The first examines secret societies in pre-modern, tribal cultures. Even though the author uses the outdated word “primitive”, the essay still stands up as a good introduction to the subject. It is written from a functional perspective to show how secret societies connect members to their group, transmit knowledge across generations, preserve specialized skills, and maintain structure in society. Some of these societies maintain legalistic codes and shamanistic traditions that are necessary for cultural survival. None of this was new information to me, but I can see how it might be eye-opening information for someone unfamiliar with the social sciences. And I’m not referring to opening the eye in the triangle, so don’t even go there.
From there, essays cover the Mau Mau movement which happened in Kenya when members of the Kikuyu tribe rebelled against British colonialists. The Thugees of India were also a troublesome group of Muslim highwaymen who secretly worshiped the Hindu goddess Kali similar to the way Santa Muerte is prayed to by members of the Mexican underworld today. We also learn about medieval societies like the Assassins, led by Hassan-i Sabbah and the Knights Templar. By this point, you might notice that there is a political dimension to some, if not all, of these secret societies. The Carbonari, for example, were a group of Italian nationalists and the Assassins were formed because Hassan-i Sabbah had ambitions of becoming a prominent imam in the Islamic caliphate. The Chinese triad societies also originated as Buddhist monks who fought to restore the Ming Dynasty after the Mongol Manchus invaded and conquered them from the north. (Lesson for the MAGA people who don’t know about history: the Great Wall of China failed)
The Enlightenment saw a different kind of secret society emerge. The Order Of the Rose Cross formed to push the newfound interests in science, philosophy, medicine, alchemy, and mysticism, serving as inspiration for later modern groups like The Hermetic Order Of the Golden Dawn which was little more than a bunch of men wearing costumes and pretending to be wizards. Those types might have insisted on secrecy simply because they knew people would laugh at them. The author isn’t sure if the Rose Cross actually existed, but there are better texts out there that give a more complete picture like The Rosicrucian Enlightenment by Frances A. Yates. Then came the Freemasons and the Illuminati, two groups that have had more conspiracy theory crap written about them than any other organization. The Illuminati were little more than a book club for anarchist and atheist college students.
In modern times, nationalist and terrorist groups operated as secret societies like the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the forerunner of the IRA. Meanwhile, the Northern Irish Order of Orangemen grew to maintain Protestant dominance, resisting the revolution to unite Ireland under one government at the expense of the British colonialists. The Orangemen might bear some semblance to the Ku Klux Klan, addressed in the final chapter, since both secret societies intended to maintain and preserve a way of life they saw slipping away from them as the rest of the world progressed and changed. The Sicilian-American Mafia also get an informative chapter describing their history and complex relationship with legal institutions. The Mafia also originated as a means of maintaining social stability through family loyalty on the island of Sicily which kept getting conquered and re-conquered by foreign invaders with little interest in the impoverished peasant farmers of that Mediterranean island.
These chapters are all good works of scholarship, written mostly from a historical perspective with not so much sociology. Given how old most of these secret societies are, that shouldn’t be a surprise since sociologcal data would be hard to come by. Most are also written from a neutral standpoint, but this academic distance is broken in the chapters on Mau Mau, who the author brands as terrorists, and the Ku Klux Klan, who the author rightfully expresses a healthy degree of disgust over. The quality of the writing is a little dense, a little dry, but mostly consistent in detail. The issue of conspiracy theories is never approached. Several of these groups, along with the Jews, the New World Order, the Bilderbergs, and so on have been targeted by all kinds of kooks and loonies as part of a mythical world-dominating cabal. This paranoid tendency has its roots in the politics of the Habsburg Empire and the Russian aristocracy before the Bolshevik Revolution. Consideration of these conspiracy theories is well beyond the scope of this book. However, most of these secret societies written about here have been involved in conspiracies in one form or another. The difference is, these conspiracies are bottom-up plots forged by groups that seek to gain power or preserve power they once had. They are not top-down conspiracies coming from powerful elites who want control.
Overall, Secret Societies is a good book, if a little dull at times, about groups that use secrecy as a tool for social or political purposes. If you want sensationalism or wild speculation, you will only be disappointed here. There are no false flags, smoking guns, occult rituals, or lizard people included. Thank whatever non-existent god you might believe in for that. If you’re serious about history from a realistic standpoint, this might be an interesting book for you. If you’re looking for rabbit hole full of delusional nonsense, you’ll do better looking for it on the internet. I guarantee you, there’s no shortage of garbage there.
In the introduction and conclusion by MacKenzie, he starts with a Freudian explanation as to why secrecy develops in an individual. In order for society to function, some things need to be done out of the public eye. For this reason, we have private bathrooms, clothing, and bedrooms with locks on the doors. Governments and militaries also need to keep secrets, and sometimes groups that oppose them form in secrecy to protect their members’ identities. In the latter case, secrecy can be used as a motivational force or as a means of social bonding. Some people even fetishize secrecy and go to great lengths to maintain a private life strongly guarded from their public persona. MacKenzie’s introductory remarks lead to the question of what kind of a man joins a secret society (historically, secret societies have been primarily open to male membership only). Maybe the question “What kind of a man reads Playboy would yield a similar answer. (That is an obscure joke. If you want me to explain it you will have to go through an initiation ceremony after paying a $100 entrance fee. Feel free to contact me if you are interested.) MacKenzie actually leaves this question unanswered by the end of the book.
From there, we get a series of chapters written by historians and social scientists, none of which are people I have ever heard of. The first examines secret societies in pre-modern, tribal cultures. Even though the author uses the outdated word “primitive”, the essay still stands up as a good introduction to the subject. It is written from a functional perspective to show how secret societies connect members to their group, transmit knowledge across generations, preserve specialized skills, and maintain structure in society. Some of these societies maintain legalistic codes and shamanistic traditions that are necessary for cultural survival. None of this was new information to me, but I can see how it might be eye-opening information for someone unfamiliar with the social sciences. And I’m not referring to opening the eye in the triangle, so don’t even go there.
From there, essays cover the Mau Mau movement which happened in Kenya when members of the Kikuyu tribe rebelled against British colonialists. The Thugees of India were also a troublesome group of Muslim highwaymen who secretly worshiped the Hindu goddess Kali similar to the way Santa Muerte is prayed to by members of the Mexican underworld today. We also learn about medieval societies like the Assassins, led by Hassan-i Sabbah and the Knights Templar. By this point, you might notice that there is a political dimension to some, if not all, of these secret societies. The Carbonari, for example, were a group of Italian nationalists and the Assassins were formed because Hassan-i Sabbah had ambitions of becoming a prominent imam in the Islamic caliphate. The Chinese triad societies also originated as Buddhist monks who fought to restore the Ming Dynasty after the Mongol Manchus invaded and conquered them from the north. (Lesson for the MAGA people who don’t know about history: the Great Wall of China failed)
The Enlightenment saw a different kind of secret society emerge. The Order Of the Rose Cross formed to push the newfound interests in science, philosophy, medicine, alchemy, and mysticism, serving as inspiration for later modern groups like The Hermetic Order Of the Golden Dawn which was little more than a bunch of men wearing costumes and pretending to be wizards. Those types might have insisted on secrecy simply because they knew people would laugh at them. The author isn’t sure if the Rose Cross actually existed, but there are better texts out there that give a more complete picture like The Rosicrucian Enlightenment by Frances A. Yates. Then came the Freemasons and the Illuminati, two groups that have had more conspiracy theory crap written about them than any other organization. The Illuminati were little more than a book club for anarchist and atheist college students.
In modern times, nationalist and terrorist groups operated as secret societies like the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the forerunner of the IRA. Meanwhile, the Northern Irish Order of Orangemen grew to maintain Protestant dominance, resisting the revolution to unite Ireland under one government at the expense of the British colonialists. The Orangemen might bear some semblance to the Ku Klux Klan, addressed in the final chapter, since both secret societies intended to maintain and preserve a way of life they saw slipping away from them as the rest of the world progressed and changed. The Sicilian-American Mafia also get an informative chapter describing their history and complex relationship with legal institutions. The Mafia also originated as a means of maintaining social stability through family loyalty on the island of Sicily which kept getting conquered and re-conquered by foreign invaders with little interest in the impoverished peasant farmers of that Mediterranean island.
These chapters are all good works of scholarship, written mostly from a historical perspective with not so much sociology. Given how old most of these secret societies are, that shouldn’t be a surprise since sociologcal data would be hard to come by. Most are also written from a neutral standpoint, but this academic distance is broken in the chapters on Mau Mau, who the author brands as terrorists, and the Ku Klux Klan, who the author rightfully expresses a healthy degree of disgust over. The quality of the writing is a little dense, a little dry, but mostly consistent in detail. The issue of conspiracy theories is never approached. Several of these groups, along with the Jews, the New World Order, the Bilderbergs, and so on have been targeted by all kinds of kooks and loonies as part of a mythical world-dominating cabal. This paranoid tendency has its roots in the politics of the Habsburg Empire and the Russian aristocracy before the Bolshevik Revolution. Consideration of these conspiracy theories is well beyond the scope of this book. However, most of these secret societies written about here have been involved in conspiracies in one form or another. The difference is, these conspiracies are bottom-up plots forged by groups that seek to gain power or preserve power they once had. They are not top-down conspiracies coming from powerful elites who want control.
Overall, Secret Societies is a good book, if a little dull at times, about groups that use secrecy as a tool for social or political purposes. If you want sensationalism or wild speculation, you will only be disappointed here. There are no false flags, smoking guns, occult rituals, or lizard people included. Thank whatever non-existent god you might believe in for that. If you’re serious about history from a realistic standpoint, this might be an interesting book for you. If you’re looking for rabbit hole full of delusional nonsense, you’ll do better looking for it on the internet. I guarantee you, there’s no shortage of garbage there.
No comments:
Post a Comment