PARRHESIA

How I asked myself, does the idea of speaking the truth to those in power, generalize and apply in masonry?  Fearing reprisals from the villagers, immediately I pulled down the shades and retired into the night hoping to avoid discovery. Such was my experience as a mason that I felt the presence of an unpleasant menace at my elbow.  But let me pull back a step to explain a context for you. In a thoughtful company, disagreement is a means to reveal the truth and clarify the murk of ideas.  I even understood how the Socratic method would be employed, or I thought I did.  Once upon a time, I believed masonry provided an opportunity to be part of the thoughtful discussion.  I took seriously the idea that masonry was a meritocracy, where instruction was provided by well informed, sensible mentors.  By now you can see my dilemma.  Where did such a place ever exist except in the recesses of naive thinking? But unlike those who might be discouraged by the initiatory experience, I had capable support from my sponsors that carried me through the disappointment that clouded an otherwise unique first set of experiences.

 My crystal ball tells me Masonry was always vulnerable to populist appeal and over time, may have experimented with the intoxifying effect of influencing the thinking of an audience.  If our raison d'etre has mischievously slipped off track, righting it would require a special tool; the willingness to speak truthfully- what the ancient Greeks knew as parrhesia. How horrible for me. Was this sophistry, using rhetoric to persuade an audience or Plato and Socrates practicing the dialectic, using discussion to break apart complex issues to find essential truth or knowledge?  Habit being what it is, I brace myself to the pushback and the isolation what will inevitably happen unless the practice is itself welcomed.  Good or animus.