Consider, if you will, the Shriners.  They have a reputation as amiable, charitable, middle-aged businessmen who nonetheless retain a certain impish frat-boy streak that comes out during their conventions.  They are, collectively, subsumed under the archetype of Someone's Dad - maybe not yours or mine, but someone's.

I wish to offer an alternative picture of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.  Here are some generally uncontroversial points:

1. They have a curious fascination with Middle-Eastern culture and aesthetics.
2. As members of a secret society, they presumably have at least one secret.
3. They are known to enjoy a tipple now and again - which is to say, they like to party.
4. They are often seen in parades, driving miniature cars, wearing fezzes and sashes, waving to passersby and grinning widely and amiably.
5. In general, they display a remarkable degree of easy-going good cheer.  They are happy-go-lucky men of goodwill.
   
6. Hashish has been widely available to Westerners, principally via Middle-Eastern trade routes, since the Nineteenth Century.
7. The Shrine was founded in 1870.  Around the same time, a similar group was founded, named the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm.  I am not making this up.
8. For fuck's sake, they wear fezzes in public while driving toy cars.

I submit that the Shriners are venerable heshers - vipers of the first fucking water.  They are manifestly and royally baked.

Check out this dude, then just try and tell me that I'm wrong.   Oh, and by the way, he's the "Imperial Potentate".  Other Shrine titles are at least as florid as that.  He is also a member of the Royal Order of Jesters.  Apparently "Dad" isn't so square after all!

 

Tags: Stoners ; Shriners ; Crowley ; Freemasonry ; Dagga