Some thoughts on the Illuminati…

Well, as far as a secret society goes, the Illuminati haven’t done a very good job of staying secret in recent years, have they?

As far as history goes, I think it’s true to say that the Illuminati were a secret society, said to have formed in late 18th century Bavaria; well, if we’re trying to be correct, a date of 1776 has been proposed. It’s hard to piece together a meaningful history of this ‘society’ as the whole thing has been tainted with misreferenced conspiracy paranoia, pseudo-historical analysis, and a fraud or two (tricks).

Starting with the choice of name, Illuminati, it appears that the society professed to be in line with some type of information or approach that made its members ‘illuminated’. It is likely that they had a republican political agenda that included the abolition of monarchies. Furthermore, it is suggested that they tried to bring about change through subterfuge, secrecy, and conspiracy, including the infiltration of other organizations. They were not very successful and were destroyed, or at least banned, within fifteen years of their origin (Pipes 1997).

The founder is said to be Adam Weishaupt of the University of Ingolstadt and it appears that the aims of the society were closely related to the ideas of the Enlightenment, namely combating religious thought and promoting and fostering rationalism. Wieshaupt was an anti-monarchist and secularist who obviously influenced the nature of the society he created. In 1777, Karl Theodor became ruler of Bavaria, and in 1784, his government banned all secret societies, including the Illuminati, and they were disbanded (or perhaps imprisoned, ‘destroyed,’ or otherwise dispatched! )

There is no empirical evidence that this society survived the eighteenth century.

What we hear today is a mixture of conspiracy theories that have at their core the notion of some kind of elite, powerful and probably wealthy ‘secret society’ behind veils of other ‘secret’ or at least ‘underground’ groups.

Like an onion skin, although conspiracy theorists would prefer the image of a pyramid, the outer layers are the lowest levels of the movers and shakers of the New World Order and in the center are the Illuminati.

We are sometimes told that this inner core is run by several key families (13 are often cited for effect rather than genealogy) whose “bloodlines” are linked and perhaps manipulated by visitors from another world.

This inner core of people is so secret that the families are named on various websites… Their existence is so shadowy that they insist on leaving symbols of their existence for us mere mortals to discover…

This then is the real Illuminati!

Looks like they’re not doing a good job of keeping their manipulative presence hidden!

I mean stop for a moment to consider some simple ideas.

It is very likely that the lineages of the monarchy and the aristocracy are linked in any case, marriage being the vehicle by which the alliances were made. Such links do not require the organizing agents of ‘secret’ human societies, much less the interference of some passing aliens, or am I missing the point?

Of course, there are “symbols” that seem to survive and repeat themselves from time to time and from place to place. As a species, we are very good at creating symbolic language and meaningful patterns (you’re reading some right now)… And of course some ‘magic symbols’ will become part of our everyday society as they have been part of our psyche. for a long time. To assume that these symbols need to have some other meaning is a bit of a stretch. The ‘Great Seal’ on US currency is often cited as being of Masonic or Illuminati origin and was designed by the Illuminati, or at least high-grade Masons. If you really check out this story (see Skeptoid), there are more than enough questions that serve to challenge key assumptions in the conspiracy theorists’ rhetoric.

What do governments do?

They rule, plan, organize, fight, assert sovereignty!

There is no need to imagine a global conspiracy to explain the actions of governments.

Now this is where there is, perhaps, an element of truth in all the conspiracy theories you’ve ever heard. It seems obvious to me that governments cannot tell us the truth all the time, truth after all is a relative concept, and there are things to be known as needed. More importantly, some major governments have been shown to be involved in somewhat shady dealings, and certainly people within governments are not above corruption, error, and just being wrong.

The simple fact that “the truth comes out” about some of these accidental and not-so-accidental cover-ups seems to belie the existence of the ability to “keep” secrets of any real magnitude.

Perhaps there is a rule of thumb worth exploring: the more people that need to be involved in any form of cover-up or covert action, the LESS likely it is that it will be possible.

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Google returns over 34,000,000 results for a search on Illuminati and only 1,000,000 for a search on Illuminati + Skeptic. Surely that suggests something!