A look into the world of 7 secret societies in the West

Alt-right

The recent U.S. elections attracted the attention for the shenanigans of Donald Trump and his twitter outbursts which led to defeat of no less than 14 'political' candidates including the liberal media's favourite Hillary Clinton who was all poised to be crowned the first woman president of the United States. However, in an anti-climax Donald Trump won forcing many a political commentator to eat his/her own words! This surprise defeat brought the limelight on the role of 'alt-right' or alternative right, an obscurantist white supremacist organization described as 'loosely organized' but in touch and whetting the anger of the young white voters angry at being side-lined in the country's affairs. So, what is alt-right? According to some commentators, it is a far-right group which propelled Trump to the presidency with one claim about Trump campaign's chief executive, Stephen Bannon being an avid supporter. The term coined by Richard B. Spencer to describe in his words people 'who recognise the reality of race, and the fact that race matters' leaves nothing to imagination about the group's views on various coloured people minorities, immigrants and other assorted groups that form the USA today. The worry generated around the group's rhetoric about 'White identity' and 'Western civilisation' is generated by the country's difficult past with white supremacist groups especially Ku Klux Klan.

Ku Klux Klan a.k.a. KKK

1st November 1922: Members of American white supremacist secret society, the Ku Klux Klan, ceremonially initiate a new recruit at a meeting—Getty images

Ku Klux Klan, a secret white supremacist group in the U.S.A. has had three avatars so far with violent innings in the country's hinterland against the Blacks both in the post-civil war era and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Ku Klux Klan's first innings began in the 1860s as a grouping of the ex-Confederate veterans with the name, Ku Klux derived from the Greek word Kuklos meaning circle with absurd rituals which initially amused people but soon led to worrying incidents of the Klansmen targeting freedmen and their white supporters. The violence led to the government suppressing the first Klan in 1871 with a drastic act against it. The second clan was born in 1915 aided by a movie, The Birth of a Nation which glorified the first Klan and its activities as being for the Nation. The Second Klan was more formal and soon spread to urban areas of the USA opposing immigrants on the nativism ground, it also opposed Catholics and Jews in addition to the Blacks. This avatar also spread to Canada and boasted of a strength of 4-5 million whites. Its support dwindled after one of the movement's foremost proponents D. C. Stephenson was held guilty of murder of a white woman. The Klan had by this time evolved its own terminology and cult practices.

The third Klan emerged in the 1950s with the emergence of a Black Civil Rights movement using bombings as a way of terrorising Black rights' activists in various states. Post 1970, they regrouped as several independent chapters all over the USA making it more difficult to penetrate their inner circles. Thus, in the twenty-first century, the Ku Klux Klan exists but as a diverse body of white nationalists who back white rights over others along with other shared ultra-right wing beliefs. Current theories abound about the KKK rebranding itself as the alt-right!

Freemasonry – The Cult of Squares and Compasses

The Freemasonry is a cult which evolved fourteenth century onwards on the medieval concept of European masonry workshops where one first enrolled as an apprentice then became a fellowcraft of the guild and finally a Master Mason. The group uses architectural references and symbolism to various tools of the trade to create a moral system based on allegories including that to a supreme deity or God referred to as the Great Architect. A group of Freemasons come under a Lodge which has a fixed calendar of meetings for initiation and graduation of its member to the next level of the Lodge. Each Lodge comes under a Grand Lodge and Grand Lodges are usually based on countries and other territorial jurisdictions. Most Lodges depend on the Masons' charity to continue their activities which are believed to be philanthropic in nature. Freemasonry is free of specific religious associations but is in fact frowned upon by the Catholic Church. There has been opposition to Freemasonry even in Islamic countries as well where it is seen as a Jewish plot to resurrect the Temple of Solomon in Israel as Freemasonry employs the example of Solomon's architect, Hiram Abiff in its allegories. Additionally few conspiracies link the fall of the Caliphate in Turkey and the rise of secularism to the Freemasons. Even the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks is attributed to the Freemasons. One can imagine that even the Arab Spring of the twenty-first century would be attributed by Islamists to Masonic Lodges in the region as the philosophy of Freemasons endorses the most liberal ideas of all time.

More grave for Freemasonry are charges linking them to being direct descendants of the older 'extinct' orders from the time of the Crusades, the Knights Templar and the Rosicrucians, two secret orders made of warriors who chose to defend the Christian faith during the Crusades before losing the third war against the Muslims. Conspiracy theorists also state that the Grand Lodges of England and France were set up by surviving members of the Knights Templar and Rosicrucians respectively. They also link the Freemason Lodges of fomenting anti-Islamic forces to dominate Islamic countries which led to the rise of an anti-Masonic Pan-Islamic organization called the Muslim Brotherhood created to fight off the Freemasons' attempt to secularize the politics of the Arab World.

Knights Templar

Circa 1150, Knights of a religious military order known as Knights Templar or Knights of the Temple. The order was founded in 1118 to protect Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem.—Getty images

The Knights Templar were an original group of wealthiest and powerful Western Christian orders created to protect the Christian motifs and structures in the Holy Land. The order played a prominent role in the Crusades but after the Third crusade and the settlement of the pilgrim traffic, the order was disbanded in the fourteenth century. This disbanding of a very influential military order led to strong rumours of its survival. Later in the eighteenth century, a Freemasonry order known as the Knights Templar with a basic need for belief in Christianity was established with own Lodges and Grand Lodges all over Europe. However, this group's claim of connection to the original Knights Templar needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

The Illuminati

—Getty images

The Illuminati were a secret order in Germany created in the eighteenth century in the state of Bavaria and hence the full name, 'Bavarian Illuminati'. They sought to bring in changes similar to the Freemasons with some common members from German Freemasonry Lodges. The group aimed to bring in Enlightenment with opposition to superstition and religious influence over politics which led to their clash with the Catholic Church. The Illuminati were thus outlawed in the 1780s by the Bavarian ruler, Charles Theodore at the biding of the Church officials. However, over centuries, rumours of its survival with the fleeing of Illuminati founder and some officials to the group being responsible for the French Revolution and other international feats which has given rise to many modern orders which claim to be descendants of the original Illuminati. Conspiracies abound about the survival of the Illuminati in the New World (USA) as the Order of Skulls and Bones to create a new world order.

The Order of Skulls and Bones

The Order of Skulls and Bones is a secret society of undergraduate seniors at the Yale University in the USA which selects or 'taps' 15 young members from Yale students as 'Bonesmen' whom the group views as future leaders of promise. Conspiracy theories links the Skulls and Bones group which is largely composed of white males to the Illuminati who came to the New World after their persecution in Germany. Other theories link them to being the base of the C.I.A. which recruits its members from 'Bonesmen' to create a new world order. Among reported prominent members are the two former Presidents of the USA, George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr., John Kerry, Secretary of state, several state governors and judicial officers of the American establishment. The group has its own secret ritual practices akin to Freemasons and its own space in the Yale University known as the 'Tomb' where members meet every Thursday and Sunday. The Society was strictly male till 1992 when females were 'tapped' from the Yale campus for the first time.

The Bilderberg Group

Bilderberg members include CEOs of major corporations, high-ranking politicians, royalty, media and other influential individuals—Getty images

The Bilderberg Group is an informal group of powerful elite from Europe and America meeting every year since 1954 when the group held its first meeting at Bilderberg Hotel in Netherlands. The group is not a secret organization but has evoked conspiracy theories centred on its 'No Press' policy which suppresses the details of this enclave of the world's most powerful politicians, businessmen and media moguls. The most popular theory is that the group tried to steer the direction of public policy, markets and media in their chosen direction toward the creation of a world government. However, the Bilderberg group brushes aside these allegations firmly stating that its policy is to 'promote better global understanding and end of nuclear proliferation.'