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Today, the Masons are basically a social club

In Reply to: The Masons posted by Lark on August 24, 1999 at 14:25:40:

: Just how powerful are the Masons? Are they the big international brotherhood they make out?

In the "Enlightenment" era, Masonic lodges were often fronts for liberalist, anti-feudalist, and republican movements. As a result, many of the leaders of the financial and political regimes that arose out of the revolutions of the 18th and 19th century had Masonic ties. Today, the Masons are basically a social club, like the Shriners or the Elks lodge. Their history and their continuing connections to positions of power in business, finance, and government make them somewhat more powerful than a random collection of people without these historical connections, but they are nowhere near the "all-powerful illuminati" that people like the John Birch Society suggest. They probably aren't even as powerful as their own mythology suggests, frankly.
That's not to say that they are without some influence, since many of the G7 leaders, as well as many heads of industry are members. This is particularly true because the Masons specifically target wealthy and/or powerful people for membership. However, macroeconomic trends have, in the past two decades, been favoring productivity over connections, and the "old-boys network" aspect of socio-economics is fading as the boards of publicly traded companies replace individual owners with elected C.E.O.s in the interest of profit.
Personally, I distrust "secret societies" of any kind, and I agree that the perpetuation of elitism is inherently wrong.
-Floyd

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