Page 22 - MFM Mar Apl 2021.indd

Pythagoras, Burr, Hamilton, Sumner, Brooks

CIVILITY and MASONS

W. Brother Donald McDougal, Grand Lodge of Maine

I began musing about the causes and sources of Some of the “beliefs” recorded as held by him and
lack of civility within human cultures and its historic the Pythagoreans included:
recurrence within societies. Civility is one of the - New converts were required to spend fi ve years
“higher” attributes of our human psyche. According without speaking.
to Kaja Nordengen in “Your Superstar Brain”, the
Frontal Lobe “Constrains” us and - Even numbers represented women,
helps us maintain Civility and “Self odd numbers men.
Control”. Incivility toward others is - Music could purify us.
controlled by a more primitive part
of our brain. Commonly called the - Beans were sacred and must be
“Reptilian Brain”, the Amygdala protected at all costs and not eaten.
controls our “fi ght or fl ight” responses. - He taught his followers that you
must put the right shoe on fi rst.
I thought of the Mathematician,
Pythagoras; Alexander Hamilton, - He worshiped numbers and prayed
former Secretary of the Treasury; to the number
Aaron Burr, sitting Vice President of 10.”Bless us divine number”.
the United States, Charles Sumner,
Senator from Massachusetts; Preston He taught that our entire life is
Brooks, Representative from South controlled by opposing forces. (Good-
Carolina. And, appallingly, many Evil, Love-Hate, Civility-Contempt
others spring to mind from history. and Rudeness, etc)

Th ere is agreement that his birth
During the 30 years prior to 500 was around 570 BC. Records of his
BC, Pythagoras and his followers had death are varied and contradictory.
marked political infl uence in their Most agree that it occurred between 500 and 470 BC.
society. At one time they held political control of Some say he committed suicide because of attacks on
Kroton but later were ousted by their political rivals. him and his followers. Others say he starved himself
Notwithstanding their mountainous contributions to death. Most seem to agree that he was persecuted by
to mathematics, as political fi gures, (just like today) his political enemies and his death somehow stemmed
they became targets of their political rivals and from violence by his opponents. Some say he died as
encountered widespread animosity, accompanying a result of his refusal to trample a fi eld of beans by
lack of civility, and violence. Most of us have heard running through them to escape. Th ey said he would
of Pythagoras but we cannot have much confi dence rather die than step on a bean so he let those chasing
in the available accounts respecting him and his life. him cut his throat to allow the beans to live. Other
Apparently no records from his time exist. Some say accounts say he was killed by Syracusans when he
that his father was a man of Tyre but the existing became involved in their quarrel with Agrigentum. He
narratives we have were written much later by people might have been killed by the fury of a mob or perhaps
with personal agendas.
he died when the public building he was in was set
on fi re by the crowd outside or maybe it was just one
We can have some certainty that he and the man who burned his house down. He died in Croton
Pythagoreans were extremely secretive. Detractors, or possibly Metapontum. Whatever the circumstances
calling them a cult, say this was because they felt their of his death, a fairly common account includes some
knowledge was only for the limited few elite. Th ey did setting involving his reverence for beans. We will
believe that everything was based on number and never be able to know the actual facts of his death but
that truth plus all reality was in numbers and that all it seems to be universally accepted that they involved
knowledge had a number. mobs, anger, violence, and complete disregard for any
semblance of Civility.

Montana Freemason Page 22 March/April 2021 Volume 97 No. 2