Wiehaupt: None Dare...pp. 50

As promised we have a single paragraph to talk about this week. It's a loaded paragraph too, but I can't skip over the subject matter. Let's recap the context: Allen is setting up the idea that COMMUNISM and SOCIALISM are really plans by wealthy elites to conquer the world...or something. The plan that Allen believes isn't really thought out, but let's put that aside. He's claiming thus far that the wealthy elites formed a plan after WW1 (which they orchestrated) to set up the USSR through various funding measures. This was all directed by the Round Table group and Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes, we must remember was a diamond tycoon in an era where the moral problems of diamonds weren't a concern. 

Rhodes, Allen alleges, wanted a secret society (true-ish) to spread control over the globe (again, true--but not for the reasons Allen thinks) and he modeled it after the Illuminati. So without further ado, here is the paragraph: 

"It should be noted that the originator of this type of secret society was Adam Weishaupt, the monster who founded the Order of Illuminati on May 1, 1776, for the purpose of conspiracy to control the world. The role of Weishaupt's Illuminists in such horrors as the Reign of Terror is unquestioned, and the techniques of the Illuminati have long been recognized as models for Communist methodology. Weishaupt also used the structure of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) as his model, and rewrote his Code in Masonic terms."

Currently, I am teaching the history of the Illuminati as a subject in my course. The timing could literally not have been better. I'm going to have to tackle this line by line:

"It should be noted that the originator of this type of secret society was Adam Weishaupt, the monster who founded the Order of the Illuminati on May 1, 1776, for the purpose of conspiracy to control the world."

While Theological doctor Adam Weishaupt did start the Illuminati, this sentence is factually incorrect. First off, if you are going to call the man a monster, maybe point out one of the monstrous things that he did. What he did, was create a secret society and then run it until the Bavarian kingdom declared such groups illegal. Secondly, I take issue with the idea of a "secret society." The problem is that back then this word has a different meaning. A secret society isn't necessarily evil, it is just a group that doesn't make public its beliefs, practices, or membership. Those are things that only members get to know. Unlike say, a trade union, where the public has a good idea about what they do and who is a member. 

Rhodes' secret society would have been much the same as Weishaupt's but that's because all societies that keep their membership private would be doing the same thing. It's neither new or unique to Weishaupt's group. 

One of the problems with researching the Illuminati is that so much of the conspiracy bullshit exists that it is hard to separate it from reality. This makes questions about Weishaupt himself hard to answer, we can assume he didn't practice magic or engage in alchemy--because those aren't real things. What we can know is the purpose of his group--because he wrote a book called "Diogenes' Lamp." The book, argues for a separation of religion from politics, an end to the feudal system, and a concentration on rational thinking. I know that this would make him a monster in people like Allen's eyes. 

The role of Weishaupt's Illuminists in such horrors as the Reign of Terror is unquestioned, and the techniques of the Illuminati have long been recognized as models for Communist methodology.

This sentence is just false. The role of the Illuminati in the French Revolution is non-existent. The group was disbanded by official decree in 1785 and was officially dead by 1787. The French Revolution begins in 1789, and the reign of terror starts in 1793. It's one of those things that is unquestioned because no rational person believes it. This conspiracy theory starts in 1797 when Scottish scientist John Robison publishes a book "Proofs of a Conspiracy..." and Augustine Baurrell publishes "History of Jacobinism" which both allege that this reading society orchestrated the French Revolution from Bavaria. In truth both men were angry about the influx of liberal ideas such as Democracy and secularism into Freemasonry and the European continent. The second claim is barely worth mentioning. Communism as a governmental model and the Illuminati aren't related in any way. The claim that they've been long recognized is only true if we assume that Allen meant COMMUNISM rather than the real thing, and by "long recognized" he means by people like him. 

"Weishaupt also used the structure of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) as his model, and rewrote his Code in Masonic terms."

Weishaupt did not use the Jesuits as a structural model. This is one of those claims that are impossible to refute because the premise that the Illuminati were more than an 18th-century book club for skeptical nerds is false. There's no need to model the structure because the only one that existed was the one that Weishaupt and Knigge had "borrowed" from Freemasonry. Meaning that this last part of the sentence is true. 

There's that at least. This is framed as nefarious but at the time it was no different than slapping a popular term on an already existing product. Freemasonry was like the MCU and the Illuminati were trying to use their appeal to gain members. I describe it as Masonry-lite. Allen ties it to masonry because his readers are going to believe the Masons are just as bad, if not worse, and dig deep enough and the anti-semitism comes out as well. 

Is any of this important? No. Allen gives it exactly one paragraph before moving on. However, he's name-dropping so that his readers can find a familiar enemy. Though in the 1970s the purpose of this is to give the reader an impression that Allen knows so much more than they do. The Illuminati wasn't as popular then but it feels old. This is the point, to dazzle them with obscurity giving the mindless accusations a veneer of authority.