Initiation: Behold a Pale Horse pg. 74-75

A problem that I keep having with these super-conspiracy theories is that they are logistically problematic. I mentioned this in the last book but it bears repeating: the day-to-day operations of a conspiracy group is important. With the Robison book, I mentioned the problem was in the bookkeeping. The Illuminati also ran the German Union and they placed all the money collected in the same pool distributed based on need. While most organizations operate like that they also have a paper trail. There is an actual book where the accounts are kept and someone is in charge of that. There are receipts and an actual flow of literal money back in the 18th century. 

Cooper highlights a different issue. Cooper's issue is one that I bring up frequently in my course on conspiracy theories. I've touched on the issue already in the beginning of the previous chapter. The absurdity of handing out chapter 1 to new recruits and, if what Cooper is claiming was true, these people just nodding along--yes, I will help subvert the global system by tracking money and destroying the concept of "family" and no, I don't have a problem with any of this. 

The issue is recruiting. When Flat Earth was big, I used to ask my class, "How much money would it take to have you guard the ice wall? According to the conspiracy theory, there's a wall and guards to prevent people from taking pictures of the wall. So how much? Where to do they recruit? Is there a job fair? These are all problems that conspiracy theorists never answer but they are also problems that already have solutions if the theory is true. 

Last week Cooper talked about boot camp. How the misery and struggle brought the unit together. Today he is going to tell us how the Brotherhood of the Snake initiates the membership. In reality, the initiation of people into groups is often a formal event with rites and ceremonies designed to add a sense of importance to the entire affair. Sometimes, these ceremonies are holdovers from tradition, like a graduation ceremony where the tassel is moved from the right to the left (or whatever) signifying the graduates' initiation into the world of the learned. I've discussed the initiation process with some Freemasons that I know and they laughed at the entire thing. They said that it's a big deal, but no one knows why they do the things that they do. Of course, some historian knows, and some member of the Masons knows, but to these two men: it was just a silly ritual followed by drinks. Of course, that could be just what they wanted me to know...but probably not. 

Cooper gives us his information, sadly uncited and unreferenced of course, "A method of deciding exactly who is to become an adept may be decided during initiation by asking the candidate to spit upon the Christian cross."

First, we have to ignore the "may be" which is just Cooper weaseling out of making direct claims. Secondly, this action of spitting on the cross is likely taken from the accusations made against the Knights Templar and then eventually confessed to under torture by grandmaster Jacques de Molay in 1314.  You might be tempted to think that Cooper has some kind of interesting historical knowledge on a medieval group of crusaders. I'll absolve you of that thought, you're not a good conspiracy theorist if you don't know the story of the Templars. The group is kind of a foundation stone for a lot of the super-conspiracy theories. Cooper is doing a good job in making an off-handed reference to them though; I do like that. 

The point of spitting on the cross is to make the initiates cross a line that they cannot go back from. The legend of the Skull and Bones society claims that initiates have to lay in a coffin and confess all of their secrets. The Pies Gaveston Society at Oxford allegedly has a ritual where initiates were supposed to insert a part of their anatomy into a dead pig, infamously this included former British PM David Cameron who denied the accusation. The point of initiation is to bind the applicants together and if each of them knows a secret about the other it forms a detente of sorts. Now the question we have to ask is, "Is any of this true?" 

The confessions of the Templars were made under torture because the French King at the time, Phillip the IV, needed their money and a reason to confiscate it. Accusing the Templars of criminal behavior would not have been enough. Skull and Bones, the Piers Gaveston society...? I honestly can't say because the reporting is all anecdotal and none of it confessional. 

Cooper lists the reasons that these groups exist. Fascist secret societies will exist in countries where such a group is outlawed. Nazi groups and the Ku Klux Klan are secret in the US because the population regards them as socially abhorrent. Early Christians were secret in the Roman empire, according to Cooper, because the Romans regarded them as dangerous to imperial rule. Cooper's view of the Roman perspective is historically incorrect, but we'll push past it unless it comes up in the future as it is a minor point. 

An interesting facet of Cooper's diatribe is that he almost becomes self-aware here, "Undesirably effects of secret societies and their aura of mystery has sometimes given them the reputation for being abnormal associations or, at the very least, strange groups of people. Whenever their beliefs are those of the majority they are no longer considered antisocial...In fact, the "Open Friendly Secret Society" (the Vatican) actually rules most, if not all, of the known world at one time."

He's so close. The first sentence is exactly why people are suspicious of these groups--because they aren't allowed into them. The Templars were demonized because it was easy to exploit the public's ignorance of the group and their oath of secrecy. Without a counterargument a person can make up anything and claim it is true--and it will almost always be nefarious. Who is going to say otherwise? Real members of the groups will scoff at the accusations as nothing more than sour grapes and any defense they will give is going to be framed in terms of a lie anyway. Secret societies, as we have seen from the Robison book, are a scapegoat simply because the public isn't a member. Cooper sees this and then says, "Sure but my accusations are different." 

They're not though. The only real difference is that the secret society he is talking about is completely made up. 

PS: I have never heard the Vatican called "the open friendly secret society."