AS MASONIC CULTURE EVOLVES

Not so very long ago, students enrolled in university were taught rhetoric.  That was of a time when the skill of persuasion was highly valued.  It taught the difference between argument and debate.  To do this, the student learned how to control their emotion. When an opponent approached the topic with temper, his effectiveness was lost- lose of such control was a vulnerability- the poker player with an obvious 'tell'.  Why bring this up Graham? Why now? Good questions that deserve good answers.   Today, we are on the cusp of a masonic cultural event. We don't need to doubt whether change is coming. It's already begun. We never have developed a narrative.  How do we know?   What is masonry? Ask ten masons that question and we get eleven opinions.  Why?  Because we work without a narrative that describes and operationalizes our philosophy.  One of the rules of engagement for our fellows is to avoid controversy. If you have witnessed  what happens when such matters are discussed, you know what I mean.   Emotion uncontrolled burdens the topic and attempts to stifle discussion of the merit of all sides of the issues. Our narrative may be in fragments simply because we have not promoted the artfulness of rhetoric.  Do you think it is stunning that we have a culture hundreds of years old, rich in lessons of ethics, principles, values, purpose, science and the arts and have yet to learn how to debate?  Without a form to deal with controversial findings and opinions, we make difficult the capacity to acknowledge the evolution of masonic-culture.   Yesterday I sat with a very earnest young mason- young only in years but not judgment. He responded to something said at the table with the muscularity that is typical of a group of men.  BUT- after he had let us know he held serious opinions, he was gratefully receptive to debate- restore rhetoric I say!