Would you want to be a Freemason?

The BBC seems to have shifted away from craftaphobia, as this recent article demonstrates:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17272611

It is fairly balanced in the sense that it offers both sides of the argument. However some craftaphobic cliches do persist. In the first instance is our dear old friend Martin Short, still getting column inches out of a 1989 publication. Excuse me, that was a generation ago. I tried reading his book once, unfortunately I could have written a book ten times bigger pointing out the inaccuracies, so I had to abandon the project after ten pages. Indeed, if jumping to conclusions was an Olympic event, Mr Short would have no problems at London 2012. In fact I would award him the Gold Medal.

I enjoyed Nick Cohen's comments about Freemasonry being the 'whipping boys' of conspiracy theorists. This is because myths are more compelling than reality. When it comes to belief systems people prefer to reinforce their prejudices and world view rather than 'assimilate and accommodate' different perspectives. Thus:

Elvis faked his death: tgr.ph/vmelvis
Marilyn Monroe was murdered: bit.ly/celebtheories
Jay-Z is part of the Illuminati: slate.me/vmjayz (Jay-Z is too cool to do anything than be Jay-Z)

The work by James McConnachie are new to me. Author of "A Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories" James informs the readers that Freemasonry offers a progression to a higher level of knowledge (eh?) . As an afterthought he concludes it is alluring and cultish. I offer two observations:

1. Doesn't anybody else find it strange that people outside the organisation seem to know more about what goes on than those inside the organisation?
2. Any cultural group will seem 'unusual' from the outside.

I am currently reading The Ritual Process by Victor Turner. It is a classical anthropological study of the Ndembu of northwestern Zambia.  Victor Turner is a legend in this field, and it is a fascinating read.   Ndembu  customs, tradition and culture are completely alien to me a westerner. I haven't even been to Africa.

However, in the same sense Freemasonry is alien to non-masons, we do need to point out that to 250,000 of us in England and Wales and 6 million Freemasons around the world it is not strange or cultish. It is part of our everyday lives. As someone who writes Rough Guides from around the world, I would have thought Mr McConnachie might appreciate this comparison :-)