| 17 June 2006 The Temple I was reading this week that the fraternal lodge system is falling apart in America. The kind of men that joined them in the past no longer have those sorts of needs. They have computers and high-speed Internet access, Barcaloungers, and a thousand sports channels at home. Our generation does not need to put on funny hats or aprons and hang out with other identical white males. You can instantly identify the organizations I am thinking of. The most ubiquitous are the Knights of the Mystic Shrine, or the Shriners. I hope I have that right. I don't want the Clown Squad after me. We see them in funny costumes on the little motorcycles riding in the parades. There are others, like the Moose and the Eagles. Every city had them, and they were essential to the social fabric of American life. I remember as a child, riding on long family car trips to Ohio, before the interstate system was complete. We actually had to drive through the little towns and hamlets on the blue highways. Every one of them had an American Legion, or a Veterans of Foreign Wars post with some tired artillery out front, or a Sherman tank. But there were other little buildings in many of the towns, ones with older cannons in front. They belonged to the predecessor organization to those veterans organizations. The letters “GAR” were scribed in quaint letters of an antique type over the doors. I had to ask my parents what they meant, and they knew. We didn't, since it was a club doomed to commit suicide. There was no way to create new members. The organization was the Grand Army of the Republic, the American Legion of the Civil War. You only saw the buildings in the North, of course, since it was a club for the army that won. For at least sixty years after the war, the GAR controlled the civic and political life of the nation. Their power was at its zenith through the turn of the century before last, and then began to wane with the passing of a generation, from General down to the former bugle boys who passed away with such fanfare when I was a kid. The last GAR National Convention was held in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1949 and the organization that once named Presidential candidates disestablished itself. The last member was Albert Woolson, who died in 1956 at the age of 109 years. The Veterans of the Spanish War four decades later studied the demise of the GAR and remedied the problem of new members; henceforth, membership would be open to all who served for the Legion, and for those who severed in combat zones for the VFW. We will always have an Army, of course, that covers the Legion. The VFW had to scramble after Vietnam, when we appeared to a to be out of the foreign wars business. They opened membership even to people like me who had served in the long twilight struggle in Korea. Thankfully, we have now participated in eight major overseas military operations since Grenada, and there is no end in sight. The VFW membership base appears secure, at least until the Administration changes. But I often wondered, in idle moments, about the GAR buildings, and who owned the whole vast infrastructure of the organization once the members were all gone, and who benefited from their passing? The article in the Times talked about the a similar phenomenon in the cadre of American males who joined lodges and made them work. It is part of the “Bowling Alone” theory of social engagement. People are not joining bowling leagues anymore, and I am not completely sure they are getting off the couch at all. That is what began my thinking on this. I think it is time to do so; time to get up and act. Here is my thinking: The appalling novels by Dan Brown- which make equally appalling films like The DaVinci Code- have sparked considerable interest in shadowy secret groups that actually direct the world. Dan is mostly hung up with the organizations of the Church, but there has been considerable interest in the Freemasons as well. If you watch the History Channel, you will see that the Masons have links back to the Knights Templars and Hospitalers of the Crusades. There are still rumors of where all the treasure went, and why the Orders went underground. The organizations of Freemasonry that came to the New World were immensely powerful and influential. My own Grandfather was a 32nd degree Mason, and you know what that means. These days, the Masons have a program that will take you from first to 32nd Degree in one day- something that would have appalled the Founding Fathers, but it is viewed as a necessity. It isn't going to work. Why would you join a secret organization that told you everything in one day? The History Channel tells us that Masons had the Washington DC built to a Masonic plan, and in every American city there is a temple of awe-inspiring size and grace. The one in Philadelphia is located next to the City Hall, and complements it in magnificence. The one in Washington is the size of Phaeroe's Tomb, coolly elegant and fitted with the finest marble and bronze. The one down the street in Alexandria in the mother temple, dedicated to mason George Washington. It soars a precise 333 feet above Alexandria, and in winter, I can see it from the balcony at Big Pink. It is modeled on the temple of Solomon, to which apparently they have the plans, and it has seats for hundreds of earnest Masons. The members included George Washington himself, and Harry Truman along with a dozen other Presidents. Washington's Masonic tools and gavel are housed within, in a secret chamber, and they used to pack the place with men who knew all the levers to pull, and what bells to ring. Few of them show up for meetings anymore, a couple dozen at most, and the ones that do are old. The Masons have declined from a membership base of more than 4 million to less than two, with an average age in the sixties. In this precipitous decline, I sense vast opportunity. If the great old fraternal lodges are dying off, I propose to do some hard work researching ownership, resources and real estate. Identify the one that is the richest and with the fewest members. I don't think there is any question that a new energetic cadre, respectful at first, could take one over. A lot of big things are paid for. By ascending to leadership, we could leverage the accumulated treasure that goes back to the Knights Templer. Then, we take the institution over. In ten years- by the time we will need it- we will be able to vote all sorts or sweet deals. Use the temples as condos, or new office buildings. Put the hidden Empire up for sale, and live for free in the choicest pieces that remain! A little patience and penetration, and there we are, Grand Masters of the Temple all. An implacable world force, and rent free to boot! I can almost feel the trowel in one hand, the gavel in the other. Copyright 2006 Vic Socotra |