Truthfully I have no real problem with them. I know a bit about their philsophy but it never really convinced me it was right spiritually speaking, especially given that I have my own beliefs.
The Freemasons do an incredibly amount of Charity work, and sort of demonstrate the positive side of faith.
As far as them being an organization seeking power and authority for their members, well join the club, a lot of other groups do exactly that and just because this group is more successful than most I can't really criticize them.
You join some fraternities in College (either as a pledge or a legacy) and you can wind up with some very similar benefits.
Really the biggest critique I have of the whole thing is more a problem with society in general than one specific group. Right now it's possible for any organized or even ethnic group to effectively lock out others with little that anyone can do about it. This is especially true of minorities.
For example a Chinese guy only willing to sell property in Chinatown to another Chinese even if they wind up turning down a better offer. You can also see the same behavior within religious groups (muslims, jews, catoholics, and even pagans). Something really needs to be done about that kind of thing, but it's an issue where you can't point at one specific group of people.
With jobs and such, it's also difficult to prove, and even if you DO prove it there is the question about what you can practically do about it. Force a company to hire someone and not be able to fire them (to remove the threat of retaliation)? That just causes more problems by creating groups who are above the law within any substantial company and then they of course exploit things (it's human nature).
One of the reasons why a lot of people hate affirmitive action for example is not only losing jobs due to competition, but the fact that for every hard working minority you get 2-3 that like to live in the employee cafeteria and not do their job because management can't do much about them without getting in trouble when they start screaming racism. The problem also becomes more pronounced if those people are promoted due to requirements and then start hiring mor minorities like themselves (friends, family, etc...) creating nepotism and what amount to ethnic gangs within the work enviroment.
At the worst it's the same with the Freemasons except there is a religious organizatinal aspect to it, and it's not as overt, but really you can't do anything about it under the current system. Really to solve any problems of this type involves some massive changes to current regulation that will effectively solve all of the interconnected problems. You can't single one group out.
>>>----Therumancer--->
>>>----Therumancer--->
*looks around for daedalus* and contrary to popular belief, i am not a member of the freemasons or the illuminati. or the CIA...
