Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction - Andreas Önnerfors 2017

Distrust
Two approaches to freemasonry

During the 1790s freemasonry and other groups were accused of undermining social order and promoting revolutionary change. Influenced by public opinion, in 1799 the British parliament adopted a ’Secret Societies’ Act’, which controlled the activities of masonic lodges in Britain until 1967. About two decades later, two investigative book titles appeared on the British book market, The Brotherhood (1983) and later Inside the Brotherhood (1989), followed up by a TV documentary. The claim was made that freemasonry interferes in significant sectors of society, particularly within politics, the police, and courts of law.

One of the backdrops to the success of these books was a political turmoil in Italy caused by the criminal activities of a lodge in Italy, Propaganda Due (P2), which was hijacked by a mafia-like secret network. The claim of both books is that freemasonry occupies a significant place in many sectors of British society (predominantly the police force) encouraging nepotism and corruption and potential covering-up of unlawful activities. In so far as it is possible to count religion in Britain as an integral part of social life, both titles cemented the centuries-old argument that freemasonry is incompatible with Christianity. In the last chapter of The Brotherhood, the author used the polarization of the Cold War conflict, the fact that Britain was at war with Argentina, and the topicality of the events surrounding the Italian lodge P2 to claim that freemasonry, as a tool of Soviet secret politics, posed a substantial danger to Britain. Six years later, after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, such a point was of course void of meaning; however, the insinuations expressed in both books still are plentiful. It is worth noting that they called for an official government investigation to be carried out in the UK, and also concluded that membership of public servants in a secret society such as freemasonry should be banned. A similar argument had already been expressed in governmental prohibitions and regulations against secret societies across Europe from around 1800. The vocabulary of both books is rife with scandalizing terms like ’undermine’, ’conspiracy’, ’corruption’, and ’manipulation’ that have been voiced in anti-masonic discourse ever since. The stories had all the ingredients of a real-life political thriller of Cold War proportions, with KGB intervention, money laundering, assassinations, and evil machinations. The anti-masonic theme of these books eventually percolated down to popular fiction such as an episode of Inspector Morse, ’Masonic Mysteries’, screened in 1990, where Morse’s disdain for freemasonry and its influence upon the police force is laid open.

And, just as after the French Revolution, the issue stirred up public opinion in the United Kingdom, leading to a parliamentary inquiry: in 1997 the two-volume Home Affairs Committee report ’Freemasonry in the Police and Judiciary’ appeared, which was followed up two years later by ’Freemasonry in Public Life’. As a result, between 1998 and 2009, the Home Office adopted a policy of demanding disclosure of masonic membership for all successful candidates for judicial appointment. The legislation was eventually withdrawn because of its incompatibility with European human rights standards. However, secrecy and public life always make for an uneasy mix. The decline in the status of freemasonry in England in the 1990s was in part a consequence of the role freemasons had appeared to play in some high profile miscarriages of justice. The relationship between the police, the legal and political establishment, and freemasons is complicated, raising further questions about the extent to which the esoteric side of freemasonry is divorced from public life.

An important thing to note with both Home Affairs Committee reports is, however, how much they are concerned with (despite the lack of credible evidence) the public’s negative view of freemasonry, the ’general feeling of unease’, or the ’widespread belief that improper masonic influence does play a part in public life’, which potentially undermines public confidence in public institutions. This might also point to larger issues such as disturbed relations between perceived societal elites and ordinary citizens, existential fears that important decisions are taken in opaque zones of informal economies beyond electoral influence. Psychologically, as Swiss sociologist Georg Simmel (1906) pointed out, this is a matter of trust. To allow secrecy is a measurement of confidence in interpersonal and societal relations. Secrecy, he claimed, is ’one of the greatest accomplishments of humanity’.