(Be sure to check out my other piece on Doanian philosophy)
Probably not (if my traffic stats are reliable); but it does seem odd that within months of my first post, this horrific piece appeared in California Freemason. In it, he notes the many contributions of Masons to “Progressive” causes, while adeptly side-stepping the negative consequences resulting from 100 years of Progressive government. There is much to dissect here; we will need several posts. In this first one though, let us look at Doan’s philosophy and see if we can identify some foundational elements of it. This is no small task, for he gyrates frequently between Jefferson, Marx, Roosevelt and even the Levelers from the days of yore.
Remember Doan is a lawyer. His attention to the irregularities of the CMC is appreciated. But here, he is both correct and staggeringly wrong in his assessment and benefits of the historic (and troublesome) intertwining of the Craft and Progressivism. While there are many things that came from Progressivism that most would celebrate, Progressivism has a darker side that no one wants to remember. Yet that dark side is inseparable from the shiny, happy platitudes of equality and progress. Doan makes no mention of the personal and progressive income tax, Prohibition (a schoolmarmish act which burdens Masonry to this day), or the Progressive desire to remove the “unfit” from the gene pool (that’s called eugenics kids). You cannot pick and choose. Own your shit Most Worshipful Sir.
Nor is there consideration of the ends vs. the means. This is unsurprising and deliberate, for Progressive policies routinely fail both the ends test and the means test. In other words, the problem we set out to solve isn’t fixed, and the means were immoral, but hey, our motives were pure! For Progressives, the (hoped for) ends always trump the means, and we are encouraged to ignore what Bastiat called “that which is not seen” (meaning the unseen consequences of these policies). Doan has waded into the deep end of philosophy, and lawyers, regrettably, are usually unprepared and ill equipped. They often spend a great deal of time talking about legality, with too little thought given to morality, only what can be done, rather than what should. Can/should, moral/legal: these two are one and the same for most members of the bar.
Here is a secret that your teachers and journalists kept from you: Progressivism, socialism and communism are all branches of the same tree. They represent democracy gone full retard, and burning with fervent desire to remake man. To perfect him and transcend human nature. Masonry challenges men to overcome their base natures, but by choice. The Lodge does not seek to impose its order and harmony on those who do not seek it. Nor should the individual Mason ask an agent of “government” to do so on his behalf. But this is precisely what Doan is celebrating: the victory of the mob, the removal of freedoms through theft and the threat of force, the imposition of his “order” on those who didn’t ask for it.
There is much more to discuss. See you soon.