Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All The Religions And Governments

2009 Book. Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All The Religions And Governments of Europe, Carried On in The Secret Meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati and Reading Societies, Collected From Good Authorities. Written by John Robison in 1798 and attempts to credit (or discredit) social societies with everything from the establishment of more sinister organizations to the outright plan for total world domination. The author is well learned and promotes an idea very popular in 1798. We, in the present, have the benefit of history and the facts which resulted in that history. We now know that these organizations were not striving for world domination per se but rather were a gathering place for the more liberal thinkers of Europe. At the time, however, Robison’s ideas and hypothesis were not only accepted but also promoted. Throughout this book the reader will find themselves transported through time to the late 18th Century especially near the time of the French Revolution. It is important to read this volume with that historical lens, lest the important lessons be lost in the translation of time. It is obvious to many that some of the historical problems which have plagued social groups have survived time, while others have been dealt with in such a way as to eliminate them from the cares of the modern social gentleman. Throughout this volume the reader will be asked, either directly or indirectly, to suppose that there is a necessity for the existence of these organizations. I suggest that the reader read this volume with an open mind and accept the bias which should become obvious. The author is attempting to make a point; or perhaps, to suggest a particular school of thought. As with any historical document, this book was fitting for its time. It made suggestions and suppositions relevant to 1798 as do modern books and movies do to our current day. The book is broken into sections to allow the reader to digest the depth of information suggested in each section; this also allows the objective reader to perceive the bias while understanding that this volume has served its purpose. Although Robison was very much an advocate of science and rationalism, in later life, disillusioned by the French Revolution, he became an ardent monarchist. In this work, Proofs of a Conspiracy, Robison laid the groundwork for modern conspiracy theorists by implicating the Bavarian Illuminati as responsible for the excesses of the French Revolution. The Bavarian Illuminati, a rationalist secret society, was founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776 in what is today Germany. They had an inner core of true believers, who secretly held radical atheist, anti-monarchist and possibly proto-feminist views, at that time considered beyond the pale. They recruited by infiltrating the numerous (and otherwise benign) Freemasonic groups which were active at the time on the continent. Necessarily they had a clandestine, compartmentalized, hierarchical organizational form, which has led some modern conspiracy theorists to identify them as the original Marxist-Leninist group. However, this is most likely simply a case of parallel evolution.