The Loser Syndrome
The Loser syndrome (or The Losing Machine)
Many little men in history have wanted to be the greatest, and fought losing battles over and over again to achieve their mad dreams, until they were finally stopped in their folly and crushed by “normal” people acting decently and with determination.
Posted as “La Machine A Perdre” by Br Anaxagore on Myosotis Brie Champagne,
Friday 18th February. Tr : Arturusrex.
“It was a very strange sort of period.”
That may one day be our conclusive remark, one day when the crisis is behind us and we walk once more in the paths of traditional masonry from which we have been led astray for two years now. That may be the comment we will pass on, still with some emotion, to our future brothers to come.
A very strange sort of period indeed, with a François Stifani who, misreading and misinterpreting the statutory texts and under the hallucination of being a spiritual guide, discovers himself to be a new Montesquieu, but, unlike his famous model, re-inventing the separation of powers not in the interest of a higher ideal but for the sole glory of Himself.
A very strange sort of period indeed, with words that change their meanings: “forfeit” becomes” resignation”, “captain abandoned ship in storm (of his own creation” becomes “a noble act of resistance”, the aim of which was “to avoid spluttering (sic: in French “bafouiller” Tr.) over the Founding Constitutions of our Order”. (Gibberish that has never been explained to us).
A strange period with a constant background litany based on the fashionable theory of the dual brain-hemisphere dichotomy: left hemisphere, reasoning and calculation; right hemisphere, passion and affectations. “I am no more the calculating Chairman of the Association; I am merely the Grand Master whose heart is full of brotherly love for all our Brethren”. He who with one hand reprieves whenever he deems fit so to do, and with the other wages on attacking us in the law courts.
Strange again, this period, with Court judgments not being carried out under the fire of procedural artifacts tactics. “Immediate execution”, the term stipulated and confirmed by Court Order on January 5th, for a General Assembly to be held, has now been in abeyance for seventy five days beyond the Court Order for Immediate Execution.
The General Assembly is dependant on the will of one man, according to the terms of the totally interlocking Statutes. It befalls the sole Good Pleasure of the Grand Master to convene the Sovereign Grand Committee so as to designate a candidate. Persistent rumours have it that, in his perversity, and still considering himself to be the Grand Master, he has no intention of organizing such Designation.
What could be less surprising, from a man who, since March 25th, 2010, has been seeking every artifact possible to escape having to stand before the properly outraged Brethren: the much decried multi-located Assemblies of October 16th, condemned by the Courts, Grand Lodge of December 4th cancelled by forfeiture, resignation as Chairman (President) of the Board of Administration, he has done all it is possible for him to do to evade his responsibilities. All, that is, except face up to honorability.
A strange period, with a Court appointed Administrator to deal with general affairs concerning the GLNF, who anticipates on Regulations by calling for dues to be sent in, whereas she has been appointed to organize a meeting and vote on the amounts to be set. An Administrator who orders that lodge cheques must not be issued for whatever expenditure, only, a few days later, to authorize sums of up to €300. A remarkable initiative, enabling initiation fees to be paid. Rational? Or the profane making insurgencies into the Sacred ?
Whilst we are on the point, let there not be the shadow of a doubt: no dues can be submitted for 2010-11. The most sceptical of you will be convinced by the legal opinion of one of France’s most eminent legal experts,
A murky period, with mutterings that the amounts of money declared to be in GLNF accounts have vanished within a few weeks and that the Association is stony dry. We are talking about 8 million euros. Gone missing? Or has the long demanded audit established a series of truths” or “un-truths” ?
And a difficult period, with the last bastions held by Mr F. Stifani collapsing one after another; his “losing machine” seems to have gone into “Full Ahead”.
The February 5th Gathering demonstrated the patent demand of the Brethren’s for a genuinely new organization. The process for a Re-Foundation now underway must bring us to a serious questioning of the way the GLNF has been functioning and bring it into line with modernity.
Has a reform movement ever been seen to seek or claim its legitimacy in a past that, with the assent or the indifference of those concerned, conceived the legalistic monster the Machiavellic effects of which assail us today?
Who could reasonably consent to a return to the Statutes (Constitutions, Rules and Regulations) of 1997 with vague amendments, other than those who only want a white washed reform, not an in depth R-Foundation?
We state clearly that the old Statutes of 1980, 1985, 1986, 1997 have over staid their time and belong in museums.
We also state, unequivocally the wave on which we are riding, acknowledged by the majority of you, is the idea that at the heart of all is the Lodge. Giving Brethren, members of the lodges, the legitimate right to express themselves in this framework for a Re-Foundation of the GLNF is the only coherent way ahead.
Only be defining the main outlines of tomorrow’s GLNF, using the White Book (link Livre Blanc,) and then putting forward a candidate we all acknowledge, can we consolidate our break away from the present system.
The opposite procedure would be in defiance of your expectations and to continue to support an upside down pyramid hierarchy in total contradiction with your hopes.
A strange sort of period……