David Stevenson (2) (1942–)

Besproken in Thoth, juni (1990),no.4, pp.189-192:
“…historicus van professie (lector in de Schotse geschiedenis aan de Universiteit van Aberdeen en directeur van het Centrum voor Schotse Studiën) en géén maçon. Die twee factoren vrijwaren dit boek van verwijten van ondeskundigheid en van enigerlei verdenking de ontstaansgeschiedenis der Vrijmetselarij te hebben willen verfraaien. De auteur deelt niet de tot voor kort wijd verbreide opvatting dat de hedendaagse Vrijmetselarij in Engeland zou zijn ontstaan als een geleidelijke evolutie uit de toenmalige vakorganisaties; zijns inziens ontbreekt daarvoor elk bewijs. Zijn beredeneerde stelling is daarentegen dat het ontstaan rond 1600 gesitueerd moet worden in Schotland en als een novum spontaan gebeurde.”
K.Lewin in Thoth, februari (1992), no.1, p.12:
“Van belang lijkt mij dat de conclusie uit Currie’s studie dezelfde is als die van Stevenson: de moderne Vrijmetselarij begon operatief in Schotland, maar Stevensons bewering lijkt mij niet juist dat zij omstreeks 1600 als een novum uit de hemel kwam vallen.”
Besproken in AQC, jrg.104 (1991) 1992, pp.237 en 238:
“…a well-researched and very readable book. The biographical sections on Schaw, Moray and others make excellent use of the available records. Particularly notable is ch.8 on ‘Early Scottish Iodges’, which takes the reader through the surviving membership rolls of the twenty-five lodges which are known to have existed before 1710. Very instructive it is to note that, whilst some were in control of the local trade, others were formed in the main by ‘gentlemen’ and were taken over by operatives in later years…This book can be strongly recommended as essential
reading on a period often neglected by serious masonic students.”… (plus d'informations)

Besproken in Thoth, juni (1990),no.4, pp.189-192:
“…historicus van professie (lector in de Schotse geschiedenis aan de Universiteit van Aberdeen en directeur van het Centrum voor Schotse Studiën) en géén maçon. Die twee factoren vrijwaren dit boek van verwijten van ondeskundigheid en van enigerlei verdenking de ontstaansgeschiedenis der Vrijmetselarij te hebben willen verfraaien. De auteur deelt niet de tot voor kort wijd verbreide opvatting dat de hedendaagse Vrijmetselarij in Engeland zou zijn ontstaan als een geleidelijke evolutie uit de toenmalige vakorganisaties; zijns inziens ontbreekt daarvoor elk bewijs. Zijn beredeneerde stelling is daarentegen dat het ontstaan rond 1600 gesitueerd moet worden in Schotland en als een novum spontaan gebeurde.”
K.Lewin in Thoth, februari (1992), no.1, p.12:
“Van belang lijkt mij dat de conclusie uit Currie’s studie dezelfde is als die van Stevenson: de moderne Vrijmetselarij begon operatief in Schotland, maar Stevensons bewering lijkt mij niet juist dat zij omstreeks 1600 als een novum uit de hemel kwam vallen.”
Besproken in AQC, jrg.104 (1991) 1992, pp.237 en 238:
“…a well-researched and very readable book. The biographical sections on Schaw, Moray and others make excellent use of the available records. Particularly notable is ch.8 on ‘Early Scottish Iodges’, which takes the reader through the surviving membership rolls of the twenty-five lodges which are known to have existed before 1710. Very instructive it is to note that, whilst some were in control of the local trade, others were formed in the main by ‘gentlemen’ and were taken over by operatives in later years…This book can be strongly recommended as essential
reading on a period often neglected by serious masonic students.”… (plus d'informations)

Why should anyone care? Probably some folks have a family connection to Freemasonry. I put this on roughly the same shelf as Swedenborgism. But there are excellent grounds for broader interest beyond such vestiges. For starters, the influence of some now marginal groups is a lot deeper than might first appear. Beyond that, the patterns displayed here may well have occurred elsewhere, indeed may yet occur again. Indeed, cultivating such an occurrence might be a worthwhile project!

I should confess that I know practically nothing about Freemasonry! I have read a bit of Guenon so I have seen some of his references, along with the odd signs alongside those of Kiwanis etc. on town boundaries. Stevenson's book was a good introduction for me. OK and I have heard about Freemasons and the founders of the USA and the pyramid and eye on the dollar bill. Stevenson barely mentions the USA but his overall thesis fits in well enough. His thesis, roughly, is that Freemasonry provided a sort of tunnel by which Renaissance ideas could pass safely through the turmoil of the Reformation, in order to reemerge into the light of the Enlightenment. Since the USA is largely an Enlightenment project, the importance of Freemasonry becomes understandable.

What about us now? Perhaps the age of Enlightenment and Science began its decline with World War 1 and is now entering the intense phase with the Taliban and the Tea Party, with al Qaeda and UKIP. I was stunned to see how 9/11 swept the bookstore shelves clear of Heidegger and Derrida. We need a tunnel if these ideas are to survive in order to reemerge in whatever light our great great grandchildren might manage to bring forth out of the bleakness before us. Might any tunnel building structures lie at hand that could parallel those Stevenson outlines?

Stevenson talks a lot about the parallel structures of Lodge and Incorporation. Look at corporations and professional societies today. Of course that parallel structure has really grown out of the Lodge and Incorporation discussed by Stevenson - it is no mere coincidence! But an intriguing source of possibilities all the same. Take a book like Mathematics and the Roots of Postmodern Thought by Vladimir Tasic. Darwin's Theory of Evolution, Goedel's Theorem. Bell's Theorem in quantum mechanics.... this is the kind of thinking to whose destruction the Taliban and the Tea Party are dedicated. It just might be that societies like the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Physical Society, etc. become the tunnel by which these deep ideas can be kept alive. David Loy, in his book A Buddhist History of the West, portrays modern science as the fragment of Renaissance thinking that survived the brutality of the Thirty Years War. Modern Science has grown and blossomed into a new and different sort of richness. What of that will survive the new brutality?

What is really important to think about is how these professional societies need to adapt to changing circumstances. Of course the political swing, the new Jesuits and Calvinists with their Inquisitions, Iconoclasts, etc., that is part of the change we face. But the broader collapse of the American Empire and of industrial civilization as a whole, that fills out the bigger picture. Science has been spoiled! The time is upon us when science budgets will be slashed, for political reasons and also for economic reasons. The resources just won't be there! And of course too much science budget will be tainted by the interests of the funding sources.

The general approach of most professional societies will be to mimic the usual "deep government" approach, i.e. to abandon their true mission in order to preserve their privileges. Somehow we need to start building small splinter groups that can prepare for the harsh winter coming and preserve seeds from the rich harvest we have enjoyed. Most of the harvest of course will be consumed or left to rot.

There is urgent work to be done! Can recognition of the challenge come in time? Glimmers exist, e.g. a book like Muddling Through: Pursuing Science and Truth in the Twenty-first Century, by Michael Fortun and Herbert Bernstein. Let us fan these sparks and build at least a modest fire to keep lit in a protected space!… (plus d'informations)