How much world wide power and influence do Secret Societies currently maintain? Is the power of Secret Societies just the ramblings of conspiracy theorists or is there some truth to the fact that historically they have influenced history?
I could tell you, but I am obliged to simply say that “Secret Soceities” do not exist.
Now, exclusive clubs whose membership is limited (otherwise they wouldn’t be exclusive, duh) to graduates of given schools, or practitioners of certain professions do exist. The extent that, say, the Masons have influenced history is more a result of educated men joining the Masons to further their personal careers (you are more likely to buy your insurance from a fellow lodge member or use a brother as your lawyer) than the Masons actively placing their members in influential positions.
The Masons are, of course, hardly secret. With a little effort you can find out everything you wish to know about them, excepting why 32nd degree Masons drive those little cars in parades.
Wide reaching, unleakable, secret societies with agendas that stay secret for decades seems against human nature IMO. Sounds great in theory, but interject the human element into it, and like an empire, they can topple amazingly easy. The only truely secret society has a member count of one. The difficulty of keeping secrets increases expodentually with how many members it has.
Makes for great movies and books though.
No, they really are ruling the world, including this board.
Expect to see this thread rapidly excised from the annals of humanity by the Dark Brotherhood…
My college had secret societies. I realize that college-level organizations are not perfect metaphors for the kind you are asking about, but having experienced the way they work, I’ve got an opinion on this. Some of the organizations were silly, and some were about bonding and togetherness. Some secret societies might thrive on the aura of mystery that surrounds them and the legends that are told about them, but some truly are secret and don’t want to be known about. I knew of at least one that was utterly secret. It was made up of people who had different interests but were seen as “leaders” in various organizations or had clout because of their academic ability. The society identified campus or community problems and needs and strategized how to solve them via its membership. What was the most effective way to get wheels turning? Who was the most credible person to take up the issue? Perhaps a certain member could approach a dean. Maybe someone needed to write a letter to the paper. Maybe someone should ask their club to do something. No one ever revealed their membership or their motivation–they acted as if they were alone, to get change underway and to make things happen.
Given that kind of organization, it isn’t hard for me to believe that other types of secret societies could be far-reaching and effective. If you get powerful people who believe the organization is doing the right thing, it’s a tremendous motivator for loyalty and secrecy. They don’t cultivate the mystery. To do so would compromise the ability of the organization to work. So ultimately, the more effective and powerful the society, the less likely you or I are to ever know about it.
And let’s not forget, one such organization made Steve Guttenburg a star!
Were you a member? If not, it wasn’t much of a secret society eh? Just a society with secrets, like the masons. If you were a member, why are you talking about it? Human element. People like to talk.
Powerful people with powerful agendas. Backbiting, plotting, and power struggles. Plays for power within the structure of the society. People telling family, family telling friends. Powerful people using the leverage of bringing down the whole society if they don’t get the position/prestigue they want. Moral powerful people that feel that the society is doing something bad, so they squeal, tell a psychologist or a priest. When the number of powerful, ambitious people in a society increase, so does the chances of it falling apart or breaking into sects. Look at churches. Look at goverments. Look at any organization. Being a secret society doesn’t automatically exclude people from human qualities. When you get any group of people together, things tend to not work smoothly. Personal politics within an organization can really throw a wrench into things. Etc.
Do Google searches on “Illuminati” and you’ll find more than you’d ever want to know.
There’s also Cecil’s article on Is the Trilateral Commission the secret organization that runs the world?.
The short answer: “No, they don’t run the world.”
If one uses a sufficiently loose definition of “secret society” that the Masons and groups like them can qualify, one would probably find that a very large percentage of people are members of such groups. So, for example, everything I do is completely controlled by a member of a “secret society”, since I myself am that member. But that’s not the organization itself exerting control, just a member of the organization.
fnord
Feh. We prefer to let our power speak for itself. We have no fear of such petty questions. 
Are these rhetorical questions? Because yes, I was. And I think it’s a technicality to call it a “society with secrets” just because people know the name of the organization. We called them secret societies, a blanket term that included the ones people knew existed (which had visible insignia, say) and those that were rumored or unknown. I knew of some that existed without knowing who was a member, what the purpose was, where they met, etc.
My decision to talk about a few now is based on the fact that I have left the campus, and when I talk about them I never name them or reveal anything that I think would threaten the secrecy. I don’t mind acknowledging their existence.
On campus, at least, the “People like to talk” thing did not, in fact, come into play. To my knowledge, people did not talk outside of the organizations. I did not even know of the existence of the one I described as being altruistic until the day I was called to join. I suspect its members got their satisfaction from other things, not bragging about membership–which would also work for a powerful organization like “The Illuminati” (if it exists) or the Skulls at UVA or Skull and bones at one of the Ivies. The list goes on.
You seem to include political aspirations of the secret groups as a criterion in the OP so even though this could be seen as “cheating” I’m saying its not. There are “societies”, whose membership is secret, bent on imposing their will on (probably) your country’s government. Usually we see them as political movements once they reach a certain scale, but sometimes that is not how they started out.
I can think of several examples of secret political organizations usually working on a country-wide level to overthrow the government. Organized into cells, often only a few members have full knowledge of the overall plans and/or methods of the entire society. Members are often secret from each other. Many such groups, most obviously nascent communist movements, but also nationalist, militia/fascist, Christian, & if I understand correctly (& I may not) Falun Gong & some Islamicists.
Most obviously this was in the 20th Century, but there have been such “societies” in the past: If you believe King Phillip the Templars were up to something like it in France, & certainly in Ireland there were very real rural rebels organized into secret societies in the 18th century bent on overthrow of the (then) current order
Yes.
True though, that any society like that is a secret society. However, when you start talking about wide reaching “secret” societies like the Illuminati and such, that is where I am talking about problems arising. Are you aware of how much political dissent is in the UN? Do you know how powerful people with their own agendas tend to be? A secret society that is supposedly in control of so much cannot exit.
Sure, political organizations aside. I am refering to the wingnut assumption that societies like the freemasons (though not them) exist out there, killing off people that are about to squeal, are uniting the world secretly under a one world goverment, and have control of every possible aspect of life, hand in the local police, the CIA, the president, etc.
Or claims that the freemasons have agendas that only the top few people know about. (I.e world domination) As if they were military and every member of the freemasons did what they were told unquestionly, and never, ever came out of the closet with their secrets.
College students with idealistic outlooks on life is one thing, the Illuminati existing and having cops cover up murder (to keep people from talking about something or blackmailing the upper managment) is another thing.
Minor nitpick: The little cars are driven by Shriners. Shriners are 32nd Degree Masons, but not all 32nd Degree Masons are Shriners.