Anarchistbanjo's World

In one of my last posts I spoke about educational Freedom and how the holy Catholic Church was the sole authorized distributor of knowledge and literacy from the dark ages into the beginning of the modern scientific age. This was true for Western Europe.

The church no longer holds that absolute position thanks to the Protestant rebellion and movements like Rosicrucian-ism and Freemasonry. These organizations taught higher philosophical concepts and universal truths to the common person through a series of dramas or initiations and a type of oral learning. The candidate did not need to be literate to learn.

At its height Freemasonry could claim a lodge in almost every community in the Western world. This held true even when the holy Catholic Church persecuted it as heresy. It offered an alternative voice that offered freedom and personal expression in a restrictive world of orthodoxy. What they created became known as the scientific method and led to our public educational system. These organizations were always strong advocates of public education.

Times have changed and today’s universities and publishing empires hold the power the church once had. In a burst of irony what once brought freedom now strangles freedom and independent thought. Anyone that has tried to succeed in life without a college education or get a book published knows what I mean. Being successful in today’s world has become more about who you know than how good you are or what you have to offer.

Still, throughout history, even as power was accumulated in the hands of the few and became abused, there has always been a frontier of unregulated freedom where the average person could go to seek their fortune.

When Europe became too oppressive America became the place of personal freedom and opportunity for many of those seeking religious and philosophical freedom.

Now big brother tightens his unrelenting technological fist around our personal lives and the Internet has become the alternative. College degrees are becoming increasingly worthless and people are searching for alternatives.

Instead of spending thousands of dollars on college classes and a lifetime of debt people are learning for free on the Internet. Instead of spending $8.50 for a paperback book, people are finding alternative literature for free on the Internet. This is still in a transitional phase but its effects are being felt around the world.

Advocates of a free Internet have become the Rosicrucians and Freemasons of today’s world. They are still largely unorganized but in the process of drawing together under the umbrella of something called “Organic Gnosticism”. Organic Gnosticism offers hard-core reality in a technological world in combination with spiritual values and global ideals.

It’s initiations include surfing the Internet and learning how to create blogs and personal webpages. It’s social element include chat rooms with people of like interests from around the world. This is truly an international community and a political power in the making.