The world can be likened to one giant company. There are workers, managers, directors and presidents. But who are the shareholders? Can it really be that this giant infrastructure just runs itself, with no guidance or overseeing from any interested parties?
And what if the workers and their managers should discover the luxurious, privileged and powerful lives of these 'shareholders', so distanced from their own experience of the world? All the human emotions of anger, jealousy and inadequacy would be triggered, resulting in a giant angry mob!
It seems logical, therefore, that if these 'shareholders' should really exist, they could only maintain their superpowers by employing a sophisticated veil of secrecy.
For hundreds of years, the masons existed silently, apparently behind such a veil. But in our world of hi-tech digital communications, the sheer volume of their membership caused that veil to slowly crack. Beginning with books like Knight's 'The Brotherhood', the existence of a hitherto unknown 30 degrees of membership, above the public 3, were revealed to the world. Blogs, such as this, websites and specialist magazines soon played the game of Chinese-wispers that led to the long-locked doors swinging open. Today, their websites and activities are apparently played out in public, doubtless reflecting a significant compromise in the powers they once enjoyed behind that great dark screen.
So who were the recipients of the shift in power that resulted from the Masonic door-opening? The illuminati? Do they even exist? We have no proof, beyond the rantings of a thousand conspiracy-theorists. But even a million wrongs, dont make right. This legendary organisation is - for many - little more than symbolism; a way of communicating the concept of our global 'shareholders' in much the way God describes our many facets of religion.
Other candidates, from those we know exist, might include The Secret Order of Libertines. Believed to have their beginnings in the latter end of the Roman empire, recent revelations by European newspapers, touting powerful royals among their present-day membership, triggered a statement from the Vatican which both denounced them, and confirmed their knowledge of the order for over 1,000 years.
Perhaps their timeline of secrecy is but a few decades behind their Masonic friends. But their ability to exist in relative silence for so long must be credit to a huge security effort spanning centuries. Online references to them seem to disappear almost as fast as they are written (I hope you're able to reach the end of this!). Now that their online existence (www.secretorderoflibertines.org) has been discovered by the conspiracy-theorists, perhaps it's only a matter of time before hackers break through their apparently impenetrable virtual walls to reveal the secrets of within? But are those secrets limited to little more than 2,000 years of secret orgies for the rich and powerful (Byron and the Marquis de Sade are both alleged to have been Master Libertines). Even the name itself is said to derive from the order's celebration of Liber, the ancient god of fertility (but also of crops; where the origins of the Mafia begin).
The Mafia are another surefire candidate for power. They too have origins stretching far back, but their relatively high profile and heavy-handed tactics suggest they're less likely to be the true holders of power on a worldly scale. The Skull and Bones organisation may be cited by many. But it's origins go back just decades, rather than centuries, and their powers seem limited to just one country (the US) and are unlikely to be taken seriously by the true dominions of power.
In all likelihood, we shall never know. Whilst religious power seems to depend upon the omnipresence of its soveriegn, real-world power seems to be intrinsically linked to a contrasting absence!
In this blog, we will explore, in more detail, the likely contenders for true position of 'shareholder' to the world.
