“Democracy and Its Ignorance” Lecture

Can democracy exist in a country where most citizens are not knowledgeable enough to confront the complex issues of society? The answer is no. Democracy is ruled by the people. If democracy is made up of people and the people are the ones who make the decisions, how can ignorance exist in a space where the true benefit is supposed to be harmony, freedom, and justice for all?

Notwithstanding, having an uninformed people wouldn’t benefit democracy because such an act would put the power player (the people) in a victim role (to the elites). Democracies elect officials to represent ideas of the culture to therefore move policies that would benefit the greater good.

When few checks and balances exist, knowledge has halted and therefore leads to the destruction of a healthy society based on the principle of morality, as explained in the Fellowcraft degree. Ignorance cannot prevail if democracy is going to work.

The 10th-degree talks about ignorance being the ultimate hindrance to human freedoms as it leads to death. The late Grand Master Hiram Abiff was slain at the hands of an assassin who was willing to do anything for his own self-righteousness.

When we let our primal nature rule, we give in to all the vices and superfluities of life, thereby being unable to fit our minds as living stones for that spiritual building, that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.

Simply, we cannot remain ignorant and want to elevate as a people. It will not run a democracy and it will not guide our temple in the manner in which we should live.

The Grand Architect of the Universe is not ignorant. And, if we are made in his image, we should not operate out of our own ignorance either. We have to seek education and knowledge to be able to combat our minds from succumbing to our lower Selves. Albeit a lifelong journey, it is the only journey we have to fight in our time here on this earth.

This concludes this lecture.■