The Loon

It dawned at me while watching the amazing rescue of the miners trapped in Chile that there were 33 of them. “33,” I pondered. “How long will it take conspiracy loons to whip together some kind of Masonic connection to all this?”

It didn’t take long.

You can read someone’s imagination running wild here.

Anyone can connect anything to anything if they really want to. Some of the most far-fetched things I’ve read in my life involve supposed Masonic connections to world events. World? Nay, in other parts of the universe, too.

Freemasonry and its various ancillary groups have so many symbols, legends, ceremonies and written pontifications about them that even the most addled mind can convolute and mash them to come up with some kind of “proof” about a Masonic link to virtually anything. Using the very same connect-the-dot method employed by the wild and wacky, it was once proved to a hyped-up conspiracy fan that Canada Geese from ancient Egypt founded the United States of America. Naturally, when faced with admitting the ridiculousness of his very own method of “proving” things, the conspiracy fan repeatedly refused to discuss it and moved on to some unrelated topic.

There’s something sad when someone can’t celebrate the human spirit surviving an unimaginable ordeal against the odds but instead plays silly games with numbers looking for hidden meanings. And others nod their head in affirmation because they want to believe in the fanciful.

I’ve never understood why some people are drawn to conspiracy nonsense and even invent it, and why they aren’t able to accept the simple truth—the Masonic fraternity is a non-denominational group of men who use symbols and legendary stories to remind them to be better people. The truth is hidden in plain sight, but they don’t want to see it.

As Masons, we can’t get worked up about the wilfully ignorant. Conspiracy loons use their own twists on logic and won’t listen to rational statements of fact. About all Masons can do is carry on with their labours, striving to be better people and, by extension, make this a better place for us all to live.

(And, as an added bonus, you can listen to a loon on your computer’s media player here. Maybe he’s got a hidden Masonic message!