|
The great
thing about a well-crafted conspiracy theory is that it finds
clues everywhere. It can make for a blend of delicious intrigue
and disconcerting paranoia. It can also debunk any attempts
to debunk it, usually with the trump card, "That's what They
want you to think."
Mark
Booth's new book, The Secret History of the World as Laid
Down by the Secret Societies, tackles the greatest granddaddy
of all conspiracy theories: Life as We Know It (or don't know
it, as the case may be). "[T]he basic facts of history can
be interpreted in a way which is almost completely opposite
of the way we normally understand them," he says.
Just
as physicists struggle to find an elusive grand unified theory
that unites all the forces of the universe, Booth's book could
serve as a grand unified theory of all the world's mythologies
and religions. Every one of them has a piece or two of the
big puzzle. Some of those puzzle pieces are actively suppressed,
others are secretly encoded, others are "dumbed down." And
yet it's also everywhere around us, plain to see if only a
person knows what to look for. The codes are hidden in art,
architecture, iconography, and even our money.
Booth's
narrative starts with, literally, The Beginning and includes
ancient mythology, Eastern mysticism, philosophy, and organized
religion. For good measure, he throws in alchemy, the occult,
mystical-sexuality, and a variety of conspiracy theories.
"There
was remarkable unanimity among the initiate priests of the
ancient world. Their secret teachings are encoded in the sacred
texts of the world's great religions," Booth writes, even
contending that "a secret history of creation is encoded in
Genesis."
Booth
gives fair warning early on that his text will be controversial.
"Conventionally minded Christians may wish to stop reading
now," he warns by Chapter Three. Indeed, the book challenges
nearly every precept of Christianity, but what's particularly
fascinating about Booth's research is his contention that
the Catholic Church itself has been in on the ruse. The Church
promotes "radical monotheism" as a way to hide deep truths,
such as the Church's "astrological origins."
Booth
spends the first part of the book establishing the philosophy
and theology that underlies the secret history. The world
used to be a mind-before-matter kind of place. He then shifts
gears to tell the history's historiography—that is, the
history of the history. He explains how the secret history
was taught by and influenced by the Mystery Schools of the
ancients, the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, the Illuminati,
and Catholic occultists. He also explains the various infighting
that has gone on between various Secret Societies, drawing
parallels to the same way sects within Islam or Christianity
bicker with one another.
Booth
assumes informed readers know what these Secret Societies
are (or at least know of their existence), so he never bothers
to offer even a brief explanation of each group until their
proper appearance in the historical narrative, making his
early references confusing.
People
who do know what the Societies are and have picked up Booth's
book for a kiss-and-tell account of their secret rites and
objectives will find themselves disappointed. Perhaps Booth
avoids that approach to avoid the appearance of sensationalism,
but in doing so he misses part of the point: People want to
read about Secret Societies because they want in on the secret.
On this score, Booth disappoints.
The cast
of Booth's secret history is nothing less than all-star: Christopher
Columbus, William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, George Washington,
Benjamin Franklin, Richard Wagner, Teddy Roosevelt, and even
Adolf Hitler. The people Booth implicates reads like a who's-who
of historical geniuses and movers and shakers.
At times,
Booth could use a little direction himself. His narrative
jumps around a lot, and the jumps don't always make sense.
For instance, he tells of an effort by the Freemasons to erect
obelisks in September of 1878 in preparation for "a war-torn
age that would soon be dawning." But then Booth jumps backwards
for a hundred years and never ties up the story of the Masonic
obelisks. Such jumps, while not common, add unnecessary confusion
to a tale confusing enough on its own.
Still,
Booth tries to make The Secret History of the World
accessible to the average reader without sacrificing his own
scholarly integrity. He draws on a wide, eclectic variety
of resources, including alternative translations, ancient
texts, and insider information from modern-day secret societies.
At times, he writes with the voice of an impartial scholar;
however, at other times, Booth writes with the voice of a
believer trying to convert his reader.
That
inconsistency proves to be one of the book's greatest weaknesses
because a reader can never quite tell what agenda Booth might
be trying to forward. As a work of scholarship, the book has
plenty in it to pique the curiosity of any open-minded reader.
As an argument in favor of esoteric thought, the book has
plenty in it to uncomfortably challenge—and scare off—a
good portion of its potential readers. However, Booth's prose
never quite transports readers there, never sweeps
them into the worlds of the Secret Societies. The Secret
History of the World proves to be intellectually interesting
but emotionally unfulfilling. For a conspiracy theory about
everything, it could've given more.
(January,
2008)
|
