UNTYING THE LINES OF MASONIC COLONIALISM

Right is right.  Today, we have the advantage of examining trends in history at our leisure.  For some it is not a convenience but an essential step in explaining what is happening around us today.  How did we get where we are?  Where were we when we started the trip?

“In a secular world, which is what most of us in Europe and North America live in, history takes on the role of showing us good and evil, virtues and vices." That was Dr Margaret Macmillans thought on the value of history in a secular world. 

Freemasonry has a history within a history, within a history.  So the level of analysis may not tell the whole story.   I wasn't born into freemasonry, so I don't have that sense of entitlement. You know what I mean.  I didn't expect to find a wide stream of men who joined but quickly stopped attending.  It was a little clearer when I realized the scholarship and mentoring was not available. Advancement by merit was way too slack.   Rather than best effort, good enough was standard for the day. And I didn't expect the apologists who chased after disillusioned fellows, chasing them further.   How could an organization based on grand ideas, with a remarkable pedigree, with continuous history have failed to define and operationalize success?  It staggered my imagination that an Order professing to be on pilgrimage of enlightenment would be thin-skinned.  For all that it was based on an extraordinary body of work,  the workings of Craft masonry was unappealing. So the masonic narrative remained; suspended in a state of grace.  But the story is still being written. Today a growing group of concerned masons are being to retell the story of Freemasonry, not as colonialists but driving forward a paradigmatic shift.  Is the best of freemasonry ahead?