Now, completely apart from the fact that the office is headed by John “I Lied to Congress About Iran-Contra And Got Away With It” Poindexter, Parson’s seems dead-on in his assessment of the seal as “the Illuminati [catching] the planet in an evil tractor beam.” Let’s face it, the seal–depicting the truncated-pyramid-and-eye from the Great Seal of the US casting a yellow light upon the Earth–is freaky, and I find it fairly ominous.
But, of course, it’s just an extension of the symbolism found on the Great Seal, as well as every dollar bill out there. There’s little doubt (as far as I know) that the pyramid and eye come straight out of Freemasonry. The pyramid represents the unfinished Temple of Solomon, and the eye the Grand Architect of the Universe. They were Masonic symbols well before the adoption of the Seal, and certainly numerous Founding Fathers were Masons.
Now, I’m not interested in debating Freemasonry. I’ve got no beef with it. And the symbols have moved beyond being purely Masonic and now are pretty much generic US symbols, I suppose. But if they no longer represent what they originally did, what do they now represent? Answer: not a damn thing, to Joe Sixpack at least.
So anyway–am I way off base for being continually creeped out by the GSotUS? Am I off-base for being similarly creeped out by the new seal of the IAO? Should the pyramid-and-eye be replaced with someting a little more, well, meaningful and less mystical?
While where at it let’s lose all references to religion on the money. We could just put Calvin & Hobbes comics on instead. Then maybe I could relate a little better.
“Biologically inspired algorithms for agent control”?!? OK, I think I actually have some idea of what that means, but combined with the seal, it’s enough to cause a run on tin foil at supermarkets across America.
Sure, guys, go ahead and laugh. You’ll think diffently when jack booted Shriners ride up on thier tiny black cars to take your guns! Don’t say you weren’t warned, I’ve been saying this stuff for years, and…'scuse, someone at the door.
There was only one Freemason on the committee that designed the Great Seal of the U.S., Ben Franklin. It is just a coincidence that both the Freemasons and the United States both use an eye on a pyramid to represent a higher power.
The logo of IAO looks like God is trying to destroy Europe and most of Africa by making them melt. What that means, I don’t know.
I don’t care much about the logo, but this department would scare the bejeezus out of me if I were American. Especially the database correlation project.
Can you expand on that, mobo85? 'Cos I think the argument that it’s just a coincidence simply because only one member of the comittee was a Mason doesn’t necessarily hold water.
An eye wasn’t the first choice for the Seal. William Barton’s blazon, or written description, of his Seal design originally read “A pyramid of thirteen Strata and on the summit of it a Palm Tree, proper.”
And according to The Eagle and the Shield: A History of the Great Seal of the United States, published in 1976 by the U.S. Department of State,
Also, according to the Masonic Service Assoc. of the U.S., the Freemasons have never used an unfinished pyramid as a symbol. An eye, yes. A pyramid, no.
regarding the IAO seal: Someone at DARPA must have been leafing through a copy of the Book of the SubGenius. Goodness. What will Jack Chick think of this.
As to the obverse-and-reverse of the Great Seal, it’s kinda quaint, really. (Though used to wonder how come a seal had an obverse-and-reverse. After all, you imprint it ON the surface of the sealing wax or the paper itself). Anyway just the side with the Arms of the US (the more familiar device of the escutcheon of the colors of the US, on the breast of a bald eagle clutching arrows and olive brances, crowned with stars) would be fine.
And I don’t care if they have Barney the Dinosaur on their letterhead, I’d rather have it be more clear what the agency is doing. “Knowledge is Power” indeed…
Well I hate to burst your bubble, but the Symbols on the Great Seal (Thus the dollar bill backing), are not Masonic, nor was a Mason on the comittee that drew the Great Seal.
The Comittee that was chosen for the Great Seal, was not Ben Franklin’s.
There were three committees only one “won” the contest, Ben Franklin’s lost miserably with his idea of a Turkey being the nation’s bird.
Reading about how the symbols came to be, and the Latin which is directly taken from Virgil the Poet, and you will see that most of this is just coincidence.
