Conor MacDari was a Mason but his Masonry deplored the British 'alehouse and tavern denizens'. Jim Shaw and many other top Masons have written as much truth as they know. There are many heads or names in the 'octopus' of Freemasonry and we have only touched upon a few of them including the Bilderbergs. Barrett gives us the beginning of a glimpse into the influence of Masons on the founding of America, albeit a misleading one that he could be excused for not knowing in any one specific instance (such as Paine's Druidic involvement) but when taken together seems to be a 'damage control' exercise of the 'stonewalling' nature.

To return to both influences 'on' Freemasonry, and the influence 'of' Freemasonry, Martin Short {Author of a weak but influential early book in the effort to expose what is going on, called 'The Brotherhood'.} spends pages showing how much Freemasons had infiltrated nineteenth-century society; it was Masons, for example, who 'succeeded in erecting Cleopatra's Needle' on Victoria Embankment in London in 1878; when its twin was raised in New York in 1880, the celebration was 'a brazenly Masonic affair'; while the Washington monument was dedicated in another dose of fraternal self-congratulation.' (1) It may well be that Freemasons had a particular interest in Egyptology at the time, and were involved in the erection of the monuments; but this was more likely because, first, they simply reflected one of the intellectual fascinations of their age and, second, at that time many men of importance were Freemasons - again, a societal reflection. Like many similar critics, however, Short is confusing cause and effect.

The words spoken in 1992 {As he quotes promotional literature and videos put out by Masons he is avoiding details and truth. He is also showing his own 'roots' are not far removed from what he admitted, which we quoted earlier about the British Secret Service and the Masonic 'club' nature of it and the whole establishment there.} by Edgar Darling, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, apply even more strongly to the Masons of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: 'Masons are movers and shakers, dreamers and builders, and above all we are free-thinkers.