12. Democracy in Crisis.

Democracy is in Crisis.

I, the writer, am concerned about modern democratic governments in the West entering an historical era in which Democracy may be nearing a critical stage in its evolution toward modernity, since its beginnings with the French Revolution, the American Constitution, the separation between State and Church, etc.

Templars and Reform.

In a following ‘post', I intend to write a short and sketchy history of Democracy in which I shall mention the little remembered historical fact that the British/Norman Barons actually began building the foundations of modern Democracy when, challenging the absolute power of Monarchs and of the Church, they, led by Earls De Quincy ( His Arms where adopted by the second baronial branch of the Ferres de Groby after the loss of the Earldom of Derby, forfeited to the Crown after the rebellion of Robert Ferrers the 8th and last Earl of Derby. ), De Mandeville, De Ferrers Lord Tutbury, Earl of Derby and others, extracted Magna Carta from King John ( 1199-1216 ) and later on, under the great Simon De Montfort who finally lost his life and titles at the Battle of Evesham, the ‘ Dispensations of Oxford and Westminster ‘ from the Kings, Henry III (1216-1272 ) and Edward I (1272-1307 ). Incidentally, the Order of the Knights-Templar was attacked and disbanded, in ca. 1303, by the King of France Philippe le Bel and his puppet, Pope Clement V, but not destroyed, as it survived in Scotland and Portugal under different names even to this day. However all French monarchic dynasties ended badly as if punished by God, following the curse of the dying Templar's Master de Molay.

In September 2001, an italian researcher by the name of Barbara Frale discovered a parchment described as the " Chinon Bull" ( see Sir Laurence Gardner's writings and photograph in Article " I Segreti dei Templari ", in Focus July 2005 ) which had been misplaced ( by error or intent?) in the archives of Vatican-held-documents in 1600 in which Clement V and his nephew Berenger Fredol, who had acted at the fortress of Chinon as the final and conclusive interrogator of Master De Molay, had exhonerated the leaders of the Templars from the accusation of heresy which alone carried the death penalty by the ordeal of fire. When King Philippe heard about this he had De Molay and de Charny illegally removed from Chinon and executed with the connivance of the Pope ( who was located then at Avignon in Provence), before the Bull became published and sent to all European Courts. Only the accusation of blasphemy that was related to the practice the Templars had of ordering their initiates or recruits to spit and step onto the crucifix at the time of their testing and training-exercises remained valid, however it did not carry the death penalty, especially since it was part of the psychological toughening, checking and searching for true motivation and character, the Templar-trainees had to survive in which the Templar was required to find a balance in the mental agony resulting from the crucial vow of obedience and his veneration and respect for the crucifix. Pope Clement had understood the purpose of this practice but had been under the evil influence of the King of France.

These were in fact also the times when the Ferrers lost their Earldom of Derby. However, as one of their Mottoes " Splendeo Tritus." aptly claims, the more they were trodden, the brighter they shone. They were present at every major Battle, i.e., the mythical Agincourt, Crecy, Poitiers, etc. when Englishmen fought 1 against 10. A Devereux-Ferrers died with his three sons defending Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth which ended the rule of the Plantagenets ( Which vindicates Robert's motives when rebelling against corrupt Plantagenets ). They were righteous men, fighting and dying for principles. Later, Devereux-Ferrers supported Cromwell against a Monarchy which aimed at absolutism. The newly created Earldom of Ferrers in 1700, granted to the Shirley-Ferrers was a recognition of the Ferrers' outstanding historical worth by all succeeding dynasties, including the Hanoverians'. Of course no one has pointed out until this writing except a Filmer-Ferrers ( ca. 1700 ), the connection between the struggles for justice and freedom and the unjust punishment meted out on the valiant heroes of the noble beginnings of our modern Democracy. This honour has been usurped at each succeeding generation by petty men stealing the fame of those forgotten giants, self-prostituting politicians, bred by a corrupt democracy, through the self-seeking votes of capricious masses, seeking a diversion from their pettiness through political toys.

Since this ‘blog' is about Sir Laurence Gardner's utterances, some of which refer to the Knights-Templar as the guardians of the Sacred Line of the Holy Grail Kings ( which I shall refer to as the S.L.H.G.K. ), I wish to also emphasize the unknown and secreted fact that most British/Norman Barons, certainly the leaders among them of the challenge to monarchic absolute rule, were members of the Order of the Knight -Templars, while Simon De Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, was also a lay-member of the Franciscan Order of Friar Minor ( read Mattew Paris's writings ), which had been announced by St. Francis of Assisi at the Cathedral of Vezelay, built by the inspirer and supporter of the Templars, St. Bernard De Clairveaux, the reformer of the Benedictine and Cistercian Orders.

These are fundamental bits of information westerners should never forget, since they show that even within a devious and infiltrated Church, there were already reformers at work. In fact, history shows that every institution having human membership requires constant reformation if it has to remain healthy and active. In a way, Gardner and I are both writing to remind our fellow-westerners of this necessity, however, in spite of how grateful I feel about Gardner's contributions, I wish to point out some understandable errors he makes in his conclusions, resulting from his loyalties to the necessarily closed circle to which he has a duty to belong. Gardner remains nevertheless the heights from which I am trying to talk.

Reasons for & Observations about the Crisis of Democracy.

I am not denying the improvements and social gains Democracies have contributed to the general well-being of societies in the western world, however, it seems to me that the bulk of modern democratic societies ( i.e., The poorly educated, hard working, consumerist, capricious, often mercenary masses ) has lost an historical awareness or memory of the dangers that any type of governing system faces, especially one of the democratic type. This danger can be summed up, in the series of short articles such as the ones I am proposing to write, in the set of words, ideas and scenarios-:

1. Infiltration ( i.e., By outsiders not willing to adopt the traditions, values and goals of the host-civilization, often only interested in benefiting from its material achievements and high living standards, possibly reluctant to defend it ).

2. Corruption of values and aims, massive brainwashing ( i.e., By politicians elected and influenced by votes of outsiders ).

3. Loss of civilizing identity and values (i.e., Resulting from a lack of historical education that alone can maintain ties and links with the past of the civilization, or even worse, the absorption of biased presentations of history, either because of discontinuities, or a lack of analysis, synthesis, integration, correlation and normalization, or a distorted view of the world resulting from various sectarian, partisan, ideological causes ).

4. Loss of cultural values.

5 Loss of moral and ethical values.

6. General ‘bastardization ‘.

7. Fragmentation.

8. Decadence.

9. Degradation.

10. De-stabilisation.

11. Chaos and Anarchy.

12. Infiltration at all levels by local and/or foreign criminal Asssociations ( i.e., Mafiosi ).

13. Civil-War ( see Franco in Spain ). Revolution.

14. Banana Republic and Military Rule

15. End of Civilisation.



I do not think I am being pessimistic or alarmistic since newspapers from various European nations are clear about the fact that highly organised groups of criminal associations are actively and illegally accumulating enormous wealth

( estimated to amount to approximately five times the yearly Budget of Switzerland ), which they intend using to buy legal businesses, weakening in the process the Structures of Law and Order. These criminal elements are clearly going to try to infiltrate government structures and change the traditional world-view of our western civilization.



Sir Laurence Gardner & the Beginnings of the Western Civilisation.

My interest in Gardner is based on the fact that many of his statements in the series of books I mentioned are about our civilization, its beginnings, and its hidden, proscribed and neglected original, traditionally held world-view. In order to understand why I am talking about neglect, it would suffice to wonder why so much favour has been extended by western readers to totally fictitious and fantastic works such as Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter, etc. This favour clearly points to a present hunger for stories, legends and myth about fictional characters used by a skilled and inspired writer to represent worthy referential witnesses about right behaviour, ethics and morality, in the face of the ongoing struggles between the bad and the good..

I am not saying these should not be read, on the contrary, I believe they are offering educational benefices similar to those which I am inviting everyone in the West who cares for the western civilization to seek in Gardner's works. I believe in fact that Sir Laurence Gardner actually devotes a book in the series of the Holy Grail to these works, i.e., Realm of the Ring Lords which I have not yet read. What I am trying to say is that, the concrete and virtual realities represented by facts, stories, myth and legends in the series of the Holy Grail and of the canonical and non-canonical Scriptures are more primary and factual as regards sources than the characters and scenarios of the fiction mentioned. In other words, one can build a world-view on these facts, stories, myths and legends. On the other hand, science, logic, and reason alone cannot build a humane civilization, but only a neurotic and psychotic one.

The Scriptures, i.e., The Old and the New Testaments, have had a civilizing influence for centuries, in spite of the range of the possible interpretations, however, Gardner warns us that there may have been interferences with the criteria of selection of the canonical sources. This requires our attention since an increase in the number of the facts, stories, legends and myth, resulting from the newly discovered documents, even when differing from previously held ones, increases the size of the information-sample which , can ensure a closer reach to truth with a higher degree of probability. There should not be a need to criminalise those who may have been involved in the discriminations and rejections of documents, who may have had acceptable reasons ( for their times ) for carrying out their censorship, if one tries to enter the scenario in which they acted. Unfortunately, but understandably, Sir Gardner can only look at history and draw conclusions with the tunnel-vision of the collective to which he has an hereditary duty to belong as a guardian and transmitter of information.

In fact, although modern Democracy has been partially modelled on ancient Greek and Roman patterns, it has been enhanced and enabled for our modern times by foundations laid by the Templars, and is now falling in a crisis due to the abuses and corruption of the ideal of freedom/rights ( which have become separated from their corresponding and complementary ideal of service/duties ) thus endangering those of equality ( equity in justice ) and fraternity ( sorority ).

It is obvious then that we should go back in time, analyse history and the beginnings of Democracy to seek to correct what has gone wrong, by normalizing our findings in the present, checking for continuity with the past in the search for sanity. Sir Gardner and his collective appear to descend from people who claim to have been the guardians of Templars' knowledge, of a knowledge that goes back to the beginnings of western civilization which has its roots in the Mesopotamic one, a fact which Emperor Constantine might have objected about.

Constantine, although being a fully qualified member of the S.L.H.G.K. from his mother's side, who was a british Princess of Desposyni's ancestry, preferred in fact to focus on the Roman Empire, rather than on a band of competing, bibulous, devious, somehow morally defective and ‘bastardised' ( still immature ) members of the S.L.H.G.K. I cannot blame Constantine, when I consider the scenario in which he lived and I believe Gardner may be too harsh and unfair with him..



Who does really know the ways of the Father's Plan for humanity?

Why is it God appears to repeatedly frustrate the S.L.H.G.K.' attempts at determining the course of History?

Like David in the Psalms, one is bound to ask-: When shall I oh Lord make my will to conform with Yours so that You may free me from Our enemies, the opposetrs of Thy Holy Will ?



In a way, the Templars and the ancient Monastic Orders represented, in relatively more mature times, an attempt to stop European Civilisation from retrogressing into the darkness resulting in the Middle Ages from the tyranny of a multitude of generally well-meaning Warlords, struggling against either the Holy Roman Emperors or the Popes or both, each holding his dream in an era of barbarism, while being gradually replaced by a reduced number of absolute Monarchs, similarly well meaning, although misguided.

The Templars and the Monks eventually failed and Europe had to wait for the Ages of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, before the democratic ideal could be revived.

The Mesopotamic Civilisations are the foundations of the Western Civilisation.

It is to-day clear that the Mesopotamic, the Chinese and the South American civilizations are the earliest and the most influential. Of these, the Mesopotamic appears to be the most consequential, since, even Chinese scholars accept to-day that the Han-component of the Chinese population which is considered to be the founder of the Chinese civilization, resulted from the intermarriage of Scythians ( indo-european ) and the local tribes ( Then still primitive ) along the northern rivers, crossing the Chinese territories below Mongolia from west to east toward the sea of China. We know also that the Scythians had already entered the Bronze Age and knew about chariot-building-and-driving at the time of their migrations toward the Far East ( ca. 5000 B.C. ).

Fragmentation & Divisions in relation to Worl-View.

The soundness and truth of a world-view depends on an historical analysis, integration, synthesis, correlation and normalization of the past in relation to the present, while also checking the projected continuity of a possible trend

( Theists are always looking for God's Plan in History ) in the future, carried out with as little as possible discontinuity over the largest possible span of time.

There is no need to demonstrate that, to-day, the negative and abusive effects of undisciplined, untutored democratic rule have resulted in a fragmentation and division of world-view in our western societies. A typical example from Australia-: While the opponents' Party struggles for leadership, critical solutions to life-and-death-issues, have to wait, and the mercenary masses are bribed by all parties by promises to devote money to secondary ( In relation to first priorities, of life-and-death importance, such as Energy and New Water ) problems. At present, Australia's critical issues are in fact Energy ( There is no way that even the totality of all sources without the nuclear, which are alternatives to the diminishing fossil ones, can support industrial growth, being it even doubtful whether these, without the nuclear, shall be able to supply existing levels of industrial output . Moreover, we have to make sure we reduce our dependency on fossil fuel sources from nations which are becoming increasingly inimical to the West) and New Water ( This is urgently required to even maintain presently achieved agricultural levels of production and present Urban-requirements). However, given required Energy and New Water, Australia can then solve any other problem, including Global Warming. On the other hand, if the treasury is emptied on secondary-level- ( In relation to Energy and New Water ) priorities we may reach a point when the solution to energy-and-water-problems becomes unaffordable, in turn causing the frustration and failure of all other secondary-level-priorities.

The Study of History.

I believe an historian should be able to remove himself/herself to the times he/she needs considering to analyze, integrate the findings with the scenarios ( i.e., In the history of Europe for example, one should never forget to consider, among many other outside-forces, the existence of the Islamic and the Russian steppe- behemoths ) influencing and affecting the people and events under research. One should then synthesize the past further correlating it to the present. Finally, if one does not wish to cause damage and waste through civil-wars and revolutions, one should normalize the findings from the past with relation to the present. In this respect, although Sir Laurence Gardner's presentation of facts and information ( Some of which may be stories, legends and myth not in any way different from or less valuable than similar tracts in the Scriptures, the Q'uran or other sacred texts ) is superb, outstanding and most welcome, he does not appear to be able to adequately integrate, synthetise, correlate and normalize his conclusions for to-day, for obvious, understandable, partisan and sectarian reasons.

The Writer's Aims.

1. To present some of Laurence's findings in relation to traditional world-views, discussing the nature of and the struggles about religious beliefs and dogmas which are actually bordering on the mythological ( Not intended in a derogative or sarcastic sense as the writer has great respect for stories, legends, myths and symbols ) thus allowing normalization and unification ( Since myths have universal application and value within a given civilization ) of world-views.

2. Explain how and why even mythological beliefs can be and should be accepted by the modern mind if and when beneficial to and fulfilling an ethically acceptable purpose, such as the existence and survival of a viable, ethical, reformable civilization.

3. To analyze, integrate, synthesize, correlate and normalize some of the key-statements, in relation to their relevance to the reformation and survival of our civilization.