# Secret Societies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578 "2003-02-17T04:35:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Madkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Madkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madkins)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/1 "2003-02-17T04:35:37Z")
How would one go about making a secret society? Such as the Skull Bones, Free Masons ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/2 "2003-02-17T04:50:34Z")
Start one and don’t tell anybody? ---
**Author:** ![UnwrittenNocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6de8d8/32.png) [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/3 "2003-02-17T04:54:01Z")
These cannot be secret, we know about them. By definition a secret society is one no-one knows about. Probably even the participants. You might be in one now ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/4 "2003-02-17T04:59:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*Start one and don’t tell anybody? \*\* Yep! And teenagers do it all the time. Younger teens make “tree fort” clubs and “diary” clubs. Older teens sometimes get involved in gangs, which have tenets of secrecy. Having a “secret club” appears to be a cultural universal, and also seems to be tied to the emotional needs of adolescence. Sometimes, such clubs endure, and the members maintain control into adulthood. Thus the Cosa Nostra, Masons, KKK, and E Clampus Vitus. So, your best chance to start one would be if you were a well-to-do adolescent with certain emotional issues… Trinopus ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/5 "2003-02-17T06:03:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UnwrittenNocturne \* > **These cannot be secret, we know about them. By definition a secret society is one no-one knows about.** I disagree with that definition. A secret society can also mean one whose rituals and membership are secret, even if the society itself is known. ---
**Author:** ![Keith\_Berry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/22d042/32.png) [@Keith\_Berry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keith_Berry)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/6 "2003-02-17T08:57:06Z")
I would put in ad online, with promises of kegged beer and the potential to meet single men/women. Seriously though, I agree with Walloon’s definition. After all, the saying “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead” often rings very true, and not many secret societies throughout history have been able to keep the knowledge of their existence secret…and they are only partly successful in keeping the details of their practices, beliefs, agendas, etc. from the general public. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/7 "2003-02-17T09:22:41Z")
My friends and I, after High School, put together a write up on a fictional Secret Society (Knights of the Crimson Star) and were trying to figure out how to drum up membership. Basically, we were trying to figure out how to make the “Talamasca” of Anne Rice fame into a reality. Of course, we were going to cheat right off the bat, and tack on an additional 100+ years of history. We figured that would be the only way a bunch of 18 year old geeks would get respect, is if we said it was something we had been born into and inherited. Sadly, Beavis and Butthead came on, and we lost interest. ---
**Author:** ![Houlihan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Houlihan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Houlihan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/8 "2003-02-17T12:46:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tristan \* > \*\* > Of course, we were going to cheat right off the bat, and tack on an additional 100+ years of history. We figured that would be the only way a bunch of 18 year old geeks would get respect, is if we said it was something we had been born into and inherited. > \*\* The writings of Robert Anton Wilson and the book Focoult’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco would supply plenty of fodder for this undertaking. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/9 "2003-02-17T13:54:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Keith Berry \* > \*\*=and not many secret societies throughout history have been able to keep the knowledge of their existence secret… \*\* Uh, We know there aren’t any secret societies cos we haven’t found any… does anybody else see the flaw in the reasoning? ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-societies/155578/10 "2003-02-17T14:46:36Z")
You can start one any old way you wish. However, I suggest you give it a compelling reason for existence. That motivates people to stay loyal to it. You also need a system for regularly recruiting new members.