TTC Video – The Real History of Secret Societies
Description The first rule of this course is you don’t talk about this course. The second rule of this course is you don’t talk about this course. Welcome to the true history of secret societies, a historical perspective on real-life groups that, if myths are to be believed, are the unspoken force behind some of the world’s major turning points, from controlling the British Crown to holding back the electric car and keeping Martians and Atlantis a secret. Show Full Description Get ready. In this course, presented to you in partnership with HISTORY®, you will visit some of the deepest rabbit holes of history, across centuries and continents, in search of secret societies in all their varieties. You will be traveling to some very dark places and to be honest some weird and sometimes silly ones. During 24 eye-opening lectures, Dr. Richard B. Spence, professor of history at the University of Idaho, guides you through the always fascinating, often mystifying – and sometimes disturbing – world of fraternities, sisters, orders, cults, and conspiracies that have influenced human culture since ancient times to the present day. Not Very Secret Societies Despite the name, “secret” societies have infiltrated popular culture and became symbols of miracle, mysticism and the spread of rumors. Phenomena such as Dan Brown’s bestsellers, hit films like Skull and Bones, or Madonna’s hit songs have made the idea of secret societies completely mainstream, allowing the general public to think they know about the most important parts of this secret underworld. However, well-known groups hardly scratch the surface of the number of real secret societies that exist. In fact, if someone didn’t know better, one would think that popularizing several groups is a conspiracy, in itself, to cover up many of them that will never be recognized. Through the history archives, Professor Spence will not leave any society uncovered and will open your eyes to the history and evolution of the factions you think you know, introducing exciting and illuminating stories and insights. Consider: The Illuminati – a group so pervasive in popular culture that their name has become synonymous with any general conspiratorial group – has been featured throughout literature in everything from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein to the Marvel comics. There are many global groups that identify themselves as Illuminati – or at least are associated with them – but the Illuminati originally took root with a young lawyer who was obsessed with secrecy, rank and order and was creating a new world order that echoed the promises of communism. The Schreiners – founded by a wealthy New York Freemason named William Florence, who recruited a group of wealthy stonemasons to build the Temple of Mecca, the first lodge of the mystical sanctuary. The mystics added exclusivity, increasing over time the number of members of the ancient Arab nobility of the mystical sanctuary to hundreds of thousands. They adopted the motto of “fun and socializing,” and they are known for wearing red fez and riding small bicycles or cars in parades, although they have also established several children’s hospitals. Masons are a group known for their secret rings and handshakes, subtle symbolism, dangerous initiation rituals, and complex hierarchies. You would think that with all this secrecy and group protection, the last place you would find them is in a parody of The Simpsons. But the truth is that they are difficult to suppress because there has never been only one school of Freemasonry; there are many variations and they do not play by the same rules. Professor Spence also looks at groups that have become so ubiquitous in our history that it is impossible to think of them as clandestine, such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Mafia, Ira, or the Nazi Party. But, as Professor Spence explains, it was these groups that began to organize behind closed doors, and their initial, secret — or at least exceptional — status was likely the impetus for the group’s success and ubiquity. After all, half the strength and attractiveness of a secret society stems from the fact that everyone (secretly) wants to join it.
Myth and reality The period from 1890 to 1930 is known as the “golden age of brotherhood,” when hundreds of lodges, mystical orders and fraternal organizations emerged in the United States. At that time, America accounted for more than half of all Masons in the world. And millions of Americans have been associated with lesser-known, oath-bound orders such as the Strange Boys, Red Men, Forest People of the World, Knights of Columbus, B’nai Brit, Moose, Owls, eagles and moose. Some groups were organized to promote camaraderie, mutual aid, or political and social reasons during difficult times for the US economy. Other groups have taken advantage of desperate times to turn groups of people against each other, encouraging superiority or separatism. However, others were simply born for purely selfish reasons and were not considered legitimate, but their stories and reputations persist. Consider these groups: The American Society for the Secret and Civil Service, a self-sustaining branch founded by Arthur Rochford Manby to “fight an unnamed evil that the ordinary authorities could not or did not want to deal with.” This society was a front for Manby to receive money, documents and mortgages from his followers in order to engage in smuggling, extortion, fraud, robbery and homicide for hire. It also reinforced the secret society’s “join or die” mantra, as Manby hunted wealthy citizens and then showed new initiates how breaking the oath of silence or obedience would result in decapitation. The Elders of Zion are a top-secret group of Jewish leaders seeking world domination by undermining the morality of non-Jews and taking control of the press and the economy. Henry Ford ignited the elders’ fire by paying for 500,000 copies of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” to be printed and distributed in the United States in a surge of anti-Semitism. This manual was also taught by German school teachers after the Nazis came to power. Real story? This group never existed and the protocols were a hoax. The Priory of Zion is a top-secret society claiming to be the restoration of an order dating back to the First Crusade in the 11th century, which was created to protect the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The purpose of the society was supposedly to restore the descendant as the ruler of a united Europe. However, this was nothing more than the invention of a professional fraudster who developed a complete pseudo-story that was taken up and repurposed by people like Leonardo da Vinci, Victor Hugo, Claude Debussy and most recently Dan Brown. Secret societies, real or not, have often been mirrors of their time, in some cases reflecting exceptional practices with religious, racist or classical overtones. In other cases, they could be considered the first American social security system, as many groups have created programs to overcome the very differences that have been caused by others. But insofar as these societies reflected American consciousness, they were fundamentally un-American. As Professor Spence notes, John F. Kennedy said in 1961: “The very word ‘secrecy’ is abhorrent in a free and open society; and we, as a people, initially and historically oppose secret societies, secret vows and secret procedures. ” Personal connection with history Professor Spence opens each lecture with a story-specific glimpse at a different time, in a different place and a real person or group of people who are somehow connected with the secret society under study. This approach introduces you to these societies both internally and on a personal level. You will also have unparalleled access to images, photographs and more, provided by history, which give you a true understanding of what these societies looked like and how they were organized. When you discover secret and often defunct societies from around the world – including ancient Greece, Japan, Korea, Ireland, Russia, France, Germany, and more – you will feel like you are there with them, whispering in underground conference rooms or conspiring at a table in Bavaria. You will meet the founders, leaders, and notable and influential members of these groups. And you will trace many well-known secret conspiracies to their roots, through their uprisings, their excavations, and into new secret societies that have almost always sprung up to take their place. Secret societies have attracted some of the brightest and most evil minds in human history. Often demonized by their enemies, many secret societies have become the subject of myths and conspiracy theories. Why do they exist? And when they are made up or made up, why would anyone pretend they exist? What do secret societies believe in? Who are they recruiting? And most importantly, what impact do they have? Buckle up and get ready to find out.
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