WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.700 You know, it is almost impossible to exist in 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:05.559 the modern world without seeing it. I mean, it 00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:07.860 is everywhere. It's on the back of the United 00:00:07.860 --> 00:00:11.640 States $1 bill. It's in music videos by, like, 00:00:11.740 --> 00:00:14.740 everyone from Jay -Z to Madonna. It's the punchline 00:00:14.740 --> 00:00:16.480 of about a thousand different internet memes. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:18.640 Right. I'm talking, of course, about the eye 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.730 in the pyramid. The all -seeing eye. The symbol 00:00:21.730 --> 00:00:24.030 that supposedly proves there is a shadowy elite 00:00:24.030 --> 00:00:26.469 running the world from behind a curtain. Exactly. 00:00:26.469 --> 00:00:29.690 The Illuminati. It is the grandfather of all 00:00:29.690 --> 00:00:32.329 conspiracy theories. It's the glue that binds 00:00:32.329 --> 00:00:35.009 together everything else. UFOs, the assassination 00:00:35.009 --> 00:00:38.890 of JFK, the fake moon landing, you name it. Pop 00:00:38.890 --> 00:00:42.090 culture is absolutely obsessed with it. But here's 00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:43.649 the thing that always blows my mind, and this 00:00:43.649 --> 00:00:45.289 is the reason we are doing this deep dive today. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:49.299 If you actually peel back the layers of Dan Brown 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:53.100 novels and Reddit threads and centuries of accumulated 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:56.880 myth, you don't find a lizard person. No. You 00:00:56.880 --> 00:00:58.700 don't find a demon. You don't even find a billionaire 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:01.759 banking clan. No. You find a frustrated law professor. 00:01:01.939 --> 00:01:04.379 A boring academic law professor from Bavaria. 00:01:04.579 --> 00:01:06.819 Well, I wouldn't call him boring. I'd say he 00:01:06.819 --> 00:01:10.739 was difficult. He was brilliant. He was obsessive. 00:01:10.739 --> 00:01:13.500 He was definitely dramatic. But yes, he was a 00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:16.379 mortal man. Right. So today we are going on a 00:01:16.379 --> 00:01:19.159 mission. We are taking a stack of history books, 00:01:19.299 --> 00:01:22.859 encyclopedia entries, and crucially, the guy's 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:26.019 own diaries and voluminous letters from exile. 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:28.980 Some words. We are going to strip away the myth. 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:32.379 We are going to meet the actual man behind the 00:01:32.379 --> 00:01:35.280 curtain, Johann Adam Weishaupt. And it really 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:37.980 is a fascinating story. If you ignore the conspiracy 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:40.799 theories for a moment. What you were left with 00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:44.040 is a tragedy. A tragedy? How so? It's a story 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:45.459 about the Enlightenment, about the suppression 00:01:45.459 --> 00:01:48.099 of the Jesuits, and about the absolute paradox 00:01:48.099 --> 00:01:50.640 of trying to force people to be free. Forcing 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:52.859 people to be free. I love that phrasing. We're 00:01:52.859 --> 00:01:55.040 going to unpack that paradox because it seems 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:56.859 to be the fatal flaw in its whole operation. 00:01:57.159 --> 00:01:59.180 It really is. But first, let's orient ourselves. 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:01.060 We aren't looking at YouTube videos for this. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.680 We aren't doing the tinfoil hat thing. No, we 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:06.939 are sticking to the record. We have entries from 00:02:06.939 --> 00:02:09.620 the Catholic Encyclopedia from 1910, which gives 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:13.740 us a very specific, somewhat hostile, but historically 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:16.479 grounded view. We have Collier's Encyclopedia. 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:19.259 We have modern assessments by historians like 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:22.020 Dr. Wolfgang Riedel. And perhaps most importantly, 00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:24.759 we have the writings of Weishaupt himself. The 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:27.360 books he wrote while he was in exile, desperately 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:29.340 trying to explain what he was actually trying 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:31.819 to do. So let's set the scene. Who is this guy? 00:02:32.300 --> 00:02:34.199 Because if you ask most people in the street, 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:36.439 they think the Illuminati has been around since 00:02:36.439 --> 00:02:38.539 the pharaohs of Egypt. Or Atlantis, right. Or 00:02:38.539 --> 00:02:40.780 Atlantis. Which is part of the myth that Weishaupt 00:02:40.780 --> 00:02:43.719 actually helped cultivate in a weird way by using 00:02:43.719 --> 00:02:46.680 ancient symbolism. But the reality is much more 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:48.699 grounded in a specific time and place. Johann 00:02:48.699 --> 00:02:51.860 Adam Weishaupt was born on February 6, 1748. 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:55.550 1748. So we are talking mid -18th century. the 00:02:55.550 --> 00:02:58.669 era of powdered wigs, absolute monarchs, and 00:02:58.669 --> 00:03:01.189 the brewing storms of revolution. Exactly. He 00:03:01.189 --> 00:03:03.569 was born in Ingolstadt, which is in the electorate 00:03:03.569 --> 00:03:07.229 of Bavaria. Now, to understand the context here, 00:03:07.310 --> 00:03:09.650 you have to understand that Bavaria at this time 00:03:09.650 --> 00:03:13.280 was not... the beer -drinking, fun -loving place 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:16.340 we picture today during Oktoberfest? Oh. No. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:19.699 It was deeply, deeply conservative and heavily 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:22.479 dominated by the Catholic Church. So not exactly 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:24.740 a breeding ground for radical free thought. Not 00:03:24.740 --> 00:03:26.939 at all. And to understand Weishaupt, we have 00:03:26.939 --> 00:03:28.960 to look at his childhood because it was marked 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:32.139 by tragedy very early on. His father died when 00:03:32.139 --> 00:03:34.300 he was young, right? Yes. His father was Johann 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:37.539 Gorg Weishaupt. He died in 1753. Adam was only 00:03:37.539 --> 00:03:39.960 five years old. Five years old. That is a formative 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:42.780 age to lose a parent. You're just barely becoming 00:03:42.780 --> 00:03:45.680 a person and your main anchor is gone. It is. 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:48.180 But what happened next is really the key to his 00:03:48.180 --> 00:03:50.979 entire intellectual development. After his father 00:03:50.979 --> 00:03:53.879 passed, Adam came under the tutelage of his godfather. 00:03:54.060 --> 00:03:56.219 Okay. And his godfather wasn't just some random 00:03:56.219 --> 00:03:59.240 uncle. This was Johann Adam von Ixtat. Ixtat. 00:03:59.259 --> 00:04:00.759 I've seen that name in the research. He was a 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:04.930 big deal in Bavaria. A huge deal. Like Weisop's 00:04:04.930 --> 00:04:07.409 father, Ikstad was a professor of law at the 00:04:07.409 --> 00:04:09.889 University of Ingolstadt. But more importantly, 00:04:10.090 --> 00:04:12.750 philosophically, Ikstad was a major proponent 00:04:12.750 --> 00:04:15.669 of the Enlightenment, specifically the philosophy 00:04:15.669 --> 00:04:19.009 of a man named Christian Wolff. Okay, let's pause 00:04:19.009 --> 00:04:21.649 there and unpack rationalism and Christian Wolff 00:04:21.649 --> 00:04:23.949 for a second. Because today we use the word rational 00:04:23.949 --> 00:04:27.009 just to mean thinking clearly or being sensible. 00:04:27.129 --> 00:04:29.949 Like, be rational, don't buy that jet ski. Right. 00:04:30.389 --> 00:04:32.949 But in the 1700s, rationalism was a hardcore 00:04:32.949 --> 00:04:35.470 ideology, wasn't it? It was. It was a comprehensive 00:04:35.470 --> 00:04:38.089 belief system. Christian Wolff and his followers 00:04:38.089 --> 00:04:40.730 believe that reason -human logic was the supreme 00:04:40.730 --> 00:04:43.389 authority of the universe. Not the church. Not 00:04:43.389 --> 00:04:45.529 tradition, not the church, not superstition, 00:04:45.550 --> 00:04:47.569 and not even divine revelation in the traditional 00:04:47.569 --> 00:04:50.110 sense. They believe that if you could think it 00:04:50.110 --> 00:04:52.410 through logically, using a mathematical style 00:04:52.410 --> 00:04:54.949 of deduction, that was the truth. So it's almost 00:04:54.949 --> 00:04:57.170 like treating morality and society like a geometry 00:04:57.170 --> 00:05:00.689 problem. If A equals B and B equals C, then A 00:05:00.689 --> 00:05:03.290 must equal C, regardless of what the pope says. 00:05:03.790 --> 00:05:07.110 Precisely. It was about order. logic, and the 00:05:07.110 --> 00:05:09.149 power of the human mind to figure everything 00:05:09.149 --> 00:05:12.529 out. So young Adam Weishaupt is growing up in 00:05:12.529 --> 00:05:14.870 this house with his godfather, where reason is 00:05:14.870 --> 00:05:17.689 king. Wow. He's surrounded by books, by these 00:05:17.689 --> 00:05:20.709 high -minded ideals of logic and order. But, 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:23.889 and here is the first massive irony of his life, 00:05:24.089 --> 00:05:26.750 where does he go to school? This is the part 00:05:26.750 --> 00:05:29.480 that feels like a movie script. He began his 00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:32.139 formal education at age seven at a Jesuit school. 00:05:32.300 --> 00:05:34.660 A Jesuit school. So the future founder of the 00:05:34.660 --> 00:05:36.980 Illuminati, who was famous for wanting to overthrow 00:05:36.980 --> 00:05:39.939 the church's influence, was educated by the Society 00:05:39.939 --> 00:05:42.220 of Jesus. You cannot overstate how important 00:05:42.220 --> 00:05:44.240 this is. You can't understand the Illuminati 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:45.939 without understanding the Jesuits. That's right. 00:05:46.019 --> 00:05:48.180 The Jesuits were the intellectual shock troops 00:05:48.180 --> 00:05:50.420 of the Vatican. They were the masters of organization. 00:05:50.860 --> 00:05:53.480 They had a strict hierarchy. They had rigorous 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:55.660 educational methods. And they had a global network. 00:05:55.899 --> 00:05:57.920 They were incredibly effective at what they did. 00:05:58.120 --> 00:05:59.459 So Weishaupt is sitting in these classrooms, 00:05:59.579 --> 00:06:01.839 probably rolling his eyes at the theology, hating 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:04.939 the religious dogma. But loving the system. He 00:06:04.939 --> 00:06:07.899 absorbed their methods. He saw how effective 00:06:07.899 --> 00:06:10.699 they were at molding minds. He saw how a small 00:06:10.699 --> 00:06:13.500 group of disciplined, educated men could influence 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:16.680 kings and reshape societies. He looked at their 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:18.699 hierarchy and thought, the content is wrong, 00:06:18.759 --> 00:06:21.240 but the container is perfect. It's almost like 00:06:21.240 --> 00:06:24.459 Batman training with the League of Shadows. He 00:06:24.459 --> 00:06:26.240 learns the techniques of the enemy so he can 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:28.939 use them against them later. That is a surprisingly 00:06:28.939 --> 00:06:31.579 accurate analogy. He hated what they taught, 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.480 but he respected how they taught it. And he was 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:37.060 brilliant. We have to give him that. He enrolled 00:06:37.060 --> 00:06:39.220 at the University of Ingolstadt and graduated 00:06:39.220 --> 00:06:44.000 in 1768. Let me do the math. Born in 48, graduated 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.779 in 68. He earned a doctorate of law at age 20. 00:06:46.860 --> 00:06:49.040 20 years old. I was still trying to figure out 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:51.540 how to navigate the dorm cafeteria at 20. He 00:06:51.540 --> 00:06:54.199 has a PhD in law. And his rise didn't stop there. 00:06:54.620 --> 00:06:57.879 By 1772, at age 24, he was already a professor 00:06:57.879 --> 00:07:01.279 of law. He was a prodigy. But he was also arrogant, 00:07:01.459 --> 00:07:03.680 difficult, and surrounded by enemies because 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:05.879 of his radical, rationalist views. I can imagine. 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:09.360 But then, in 1773, a massive geopolitical event 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:12.000 happens that changes his life forever. This is 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.939 the suppression of the Jesuits. Yes. Pope Clement 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:18.420 IV issued a decree suppressing the Society of 00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:21.459 Jesus. He effectively banned the order. That 00:07:21.459 --> 00:07:22.800 must have been an earthquake in the academic 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:25.899 world. It was a vacuum. the jesuits had dominated 00:07:25.899 --> 00:07:28.819 education in catholic europe for nearly two centuries 00:07:28.819 --> 00:07:32.199 suddenly they're gone this created a massive 00:07:32.199 --> 00:07:34.500 power vacuum at the universities particularly 00:07:34.500 --> 00:07:37.600 in ingolstadt so suddenly their job openings 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:40.959 precisely and weishaupt steps right into one 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:42.579 of the biggest ones he becomes the professor 00:07:42.579 --> 00:07:45.639 of canon law canon law that's religious law right 00:07:45.639 --> 00:07:49.550 church law it is and until that moment That position 00:07:49.550 --> 00:07:52.529 had been held exclusively by Jesuits for generations. 00:07:52.649 --> 00:07:56.370 Wow. For a secular rationalist professor who 00:07:56.370 --> 00:07:58.790 had actually toyed with converting to Protestantism 00:07:58.790 --> 00:08:02.209 to take that chair, it was a massive statement. 00:08:02.350 --> 00:08:04.610 He was occupying a seat of institutional power 00:08:04.610 --> 00:08:06.829 that had been religiously gatekept. It's like 00:08:06.829 --> 00:08:08.810 a strict atheist becoming the head of a theology 00:08:08.810 --> 00:08:11.449 department today. And he didn't handle it quietly. 00:08:11.709 --> 00:08:14.850 He used the position to push his rationalist 00:08:14.850 --> 00:08:17.529 agenda. He felt he was constantly under attack 00:08:17.529 --> 00:08:20.829 by the crypto -Jesuits, the former Jesuits who 00:08:20.829 --> 00:08:22.430 were still hanging around the university trying 00:08:22.430 --> 00:08:25.689 to sabotage him. This paranoia and combativeness 00:08:25.689 --> 00:08:29.449 fueled his desire for a counterforce. So he's 00:08:29.449 --> 00:08:32.269 in his mid -20s. He's brilliant. He's arrogant. 00:08:32.370 --> 00:08:34.970 He's holding a powerful position. And he's looking 00:08:34.970 --> 00:08:37.350 around at the world and thinking, I can fix this. 00:08:37.870 --> 00:08:41.129 That's the mindset. And in 1775, he gets another 00:08:41.129 --> 00:08:43.570 piece of the puzzle. He is introduced to the 00:08:43.570 --> 00:08:46.649 empirical philosophy of a man named Johann Gord 00:08:46.649 --> 00:08:49.409 Heinrich Fader from the University of Göttingen. 00:08:49.509 --> 00:08:51.350 Why is Fader important? I haven't heard much 00:08:51.350 --> 00:08:53.429 about him. Fader is important because he helps 00:08:53.429 --> 00:08:56.250 solidify Weishaupt's opposition to another rising 00:08:56.250 --> 00:08:59.850 philosophical star, Immanuel Kant. Ah, Kant. 00:09:00.409 --> 00:09:03.090 The heavy hitter. The critique of pure reason. 00:09:03.250 --> 00:09:05.129 The heavyweight champion. Now, we're getting 00:09:05.129 --> 00:09:07.250 into the weeds of philosophy here, but it's crucial. 00:09:07.490 --> 00:09:10.539 Let's do it. Kant was all about idealism. The 00:09:10.539 --> 00:09:13.659 idea that our mind shapes reality and that there 00:09:13.659 --> 00:09:16.639 are limits to what we can know. Fetter and Weishaupt 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.960 were empiricists. They hated Kant's abstract, 00:09:20.179 --> 00:09:23.320 cloudy thinking. They wanted practical, tangible 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:25.399 control of society. They didn't want to just 00:09:25.399 --> 00:09:26.860 think about the world. They wanted to engineer 00:09:26.860 --> 00:09:29.759 it. Exactly. And this opposition to Kant explains 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:32.740 the weird authoritarian streak in the Illuminati 00:09:32.740 --> 00:09:35.470 we will see later. Kant was all about... Dare 00:09:35.470 --> 00:09:38.450 to know. Think for yourself. Weishaupt, as we 00:09:38.450 --> 00:09:40.549 will see, was more about think what I tell you 00:09:40.549 --> 00:09:43.169 to think because I'm right. OK, so the stage 00:09:43.169 --> 00:09:46.490 is set. We've got the motive. Fight the religious 00:09:46.490 --> 00:09:49.070 conservatives. We've got the opportunity. The 00:09:49.070 --> 00:09:51.509 Jesuit vacuum. Let's talk about the birth of 00:09:51.509 --> 00:09:54.029 the order. This is the moment conspiracy theorists 00:09:54.029 --> 00:09:58.350 dream about. May 1st, 1776. A date that lives 00:09:58.350 --> 00:10:01.129 in infamy. But the motivation wasn't let's worship 00:10:01.129 --> 00:10:03.350 the devil. Weishaupt actually wrote about why 00:10:03.350 --> 00:10:05.690 he started it. He said, At a time, however, when 00:10:05.690 --> 00:10:07.889 there was no end of making game of and abusing 00:10:07.889 --> 00:10:10.210 secret societies, I plan to make use of this 00:10:10.210 --> 00:10:12.850 human foible for a real and worthy goal. Human 00:10:12.850 --> 00:10:16.610 foible? That is such a cynical way to put it. 00:10:16.669 --> 00:10:18.730 He's basically saying, look, people are obsessed 00:10:18.730 --> 00:10:21.269 with secrets and mystery. They love secret clubs, 00:10:21.429 --> 00:10:23.730 so I'm going to trick them. Exactly. He's hacking 00:10:23.730 --> 00:10:26.200 human psychology. He recognized that if he just 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:28.299 gave a lecture on rationalism, people would fall 00:10:28.299 --> 00:10:31.179 asleep. But if he said, I have a secret that 00:10:31.179 --> 00:10:34.299 only the initiated can know, people would break 00:10:34.299 --> 00:10:37.080 down the door to get in. It's marketing. It is. 00:10:37.139 --> 00:10:39.980 He says in his writings, I wish to do what the 00:10:39.980 --> 00:10:42.480 heads of the ecclesiastical and secular authorities 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:44.600 ought to have done by virtue of their offices. 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:46.919 He's saying the government and the church are 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:49.059 failing to make people good. They are failing 00:10:49.059 --> 00:10:52.919 to create a society. So I, Adam Weishaupt, am 00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:55.990 going to do it for them. Yes. He founded it in 00:10:55.990 --> 00:10:58.429 the electorate of Bavaria. The original name 00:10:58.429 --> 00:11:01.269 wasn't actually the Illuminati. He first toyed 00:11:01.269 --> 00:11:04.110 with the name perfectibilists. Perfectibilists. 00:11:04.110 --> 00:11:06.190 It sounds like a modern self -help group. Join 00:11:06.190 --> 00:11:08.250 the perfectibilists and get your best life now. 00:11:08.470 --> 00:11:11.269 It does. It implies that human nature isn't fixed, 00:11:11.429 --> 00:11:13.950 that it can be perfected. But they settled on 00:11:13.950 --> 00:11:16.110 Illuminati pretty quickly. It comes from the 00:11:16.110 --> 00:11:19.090 Latin Illuminatis. meaning enlightened enlightened 00:11:19.090 --> 00:11:21.509 ones and within the order they didn't use their 00:11:21.509 --> 00:11:23.669 real names this was part of the game and the 00:11:23.669 --> 00:11:27.009 security they used classical names weishaupt 00:11:27.009 --> 00:11:30.889 chose the name brother spartacus spartacus the 00:11:30.889 --> 00:11:33.399 leader of the roman slave revolt That is not 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:35.820 a subtle choice. It's not subtle at all. It tells 00:11:35.820 --> 00:11:38.600 you exactly what he thought he was doing. He 00:11:38.600 --> 00:11:43.019 saw humanity as enslaved, enslaved by superstition, 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:45.879 enslaved by corrupt governments, enslaved by 00:11:45.879 --> 00:11:49.059 the church. And he, Spartacus, was going to lead 00:11:49.059 --> 00:11:51.820 the rebellion to break those chains. But unlike 00:11:51.820 --> 00:11:54.279 the real Spartacus, he wasn't handing out swords. 00:11:54.659 --> 00:11:57.580 He was handing out reading lists. Correct. But 00:11:57.580 --> 00:11:59.500 the reading lists were designed to be just as 00:11:59.500 --> 00:12:01.899 dangerous as swords in the long run. He believed 00:12:01.899 --> 00:12:04.000 that... that ideas were weapons. So what was 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:05.919 the actual objective? Because depending on who 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:08.340 you ask, you get different answers. It varies. 00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:10.620 If you look at the Catholic Encyclopedia from 00:12:10.620 --> 00:12:13.559 1910, they note that the order wasn't democratic 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:15.759 internally. It was actually quite a dictatorship. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:18.799 But its goal was to promote equality and freedom 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:22.120 throughout society. So a dictatorship to create 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:24.799 democracy. That sounds familiar in history, and 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:27.240 it usually ends badly. That is the core contradiction 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:30.059 we will keep coming back to. Collier's Encyclopedia 00:12:30.059 --> 00:12:34.700 puts it a bit more bluntly. The aim was to combat 00:12:34.700 --> 00:12:37.500 religion and foster rationalism in its place. 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:40.799 And liberate humans from religious bondage. Right. 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:43.379 The general consensus among historians is that 00:12:43.379 --> 00:12:46.200 the vision was to perfect human nature. They 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:48.279 wanted to undermine what they saw as corrupted 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:51.100 governments and create a new world order, not 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:54.590 of lizards, but of reason. They wanted a society 00:12:54.590 --> 00:12:57.049 where men govern themselves through reason, making 00:12:57.049 --> 00:12:59.870 kings and priests obsolete. Okay, so how do you 00:12:59.870 --> 00:13:01.649 do that? You don't just put up flyers in the 00:13:01.649 --> 00:13:03.690 town square saying, join my revolution to overthrow 00:13:03.690 --> 00:13:06.370 the church. No, especially not in Bavaria in 00:13:06.370 --> 00:13:08.769 1776. That would get you arrested, imprisoned, 00:13:08.950 --> 00:13:12.070 or worse, immediately. So Weishaupt designed 00:13:12.070 --> 00:13:14.289 a structure that was incredibly sophisticated. 00:13:14.409 --> 00:13:16.730 It wasn't just a philosophy club. It was, as 00:13:16.730 --> 00:13:18.990 the sources describe it, an elaborate network 00:13:18.990 --> 00:13:22.029 of spies and counter -spies. Spies and counter 00:13:22.029 --> 00:13:24.399 -spies. This is where it starts to sound less 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:26.620 like a university faculty meeting and more like 00:13:26.620 --> 00:13:30.259 the CIA. It was. Weishaupt adopted a cell structure. 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:33.100 This is something we see in modern espionage 00:13:33.100 --> 00:13:35.539 or even terrorist organizations, but Weishaupt 00:13:35.539 --> 00:13:38.320 was pioneering it here. Explain the cell structure 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:40.559 for us. How did it work for the average member? 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:43.299 Basically, you have a small group of initiates, 00:13:43.299 --> 00:13:46.399 a cell. They report to a superior. But here's 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:49.519 the kicker. They don't know who their superior 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:52.000 reports to. They don't know the identity of the 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.659 people above their immediate handler. So if you 00:13:54.659 --> 00:13:57.320 get caught, you can't rat out the whole organization 00:13:57.320 --> 00:13:59.700 because you literally don't know who runs it. 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:02.360 Exactly. It compartmentalizes information. It 00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:05.320 protects the unknown superiors at the top. And 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:08.080 Weishaupt instituted a system called the quibus 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:11.240 licit. Quibus licit. To whom it is permitted. 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:14.340 Yes. It was a reporting system. Members were 00:14:14.340 --> 00:14:16.500 expected to keep detailed diaries about themselves. 00:14:16.679 --> 00:14:18.980 their thoughts their sins but also about the 00:14:18.980 --> 00:14:20.799 people around them they were spying on each other 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:22.919 they were spying on each other these reports 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:25.539 traveled up the chain of command but the feedback 00:14:25.539 --> 00:14:28.120 only came down from these invisible superiors 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:31.240 that sounds incredibly paranoid you're joining 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:33.879 a club to be free But you're being surveilled 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:36.559 constantly. Weishaupt argued it was for their 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:38.600 moral development. He needed to know their true 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:40.840 character to help them perfect themselves. But 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:43.480 in reality, it gave him immense leverage and 00:14:43.480 --> 00:14:45.960 control over his members. And Weishaupt needed 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:48.379 recruits. He couldn't just recruit students forever. 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:51.129 So where did he go? He went to the place where 00:14:51.129 --> 00:14:53.610 men who like secrets, rituals, and networking 00:14:53.610 --> 00:14:56.490 were already hanging out, the Freemasons. This 00:14:56.490 --> 00:14:58.750 is a crucial distinction, right? Because people 00:14:58.750 --> 00:15:00.830 often confuse the Illuminati and the Freemasons. 00:15:00.870 --> 00:15:02.690 They think they are the same thing. They are 00:15:02.690 --> 00:15:04.370 not. They are totally different organizations. 00:15:05.450 --> 00:15:08.230 Freemasonry is a fraternity with a focus on moral 00:15:08.230 --> 00:15:11.570 instruction and brotherhood. It's vast and generally 00:15:11.570 --> 00:15:15.500 not political. Right. But in 1777, Weishaupt 00:15:15.500 --> 00:15:17.960 was initiated into a Masonic lodge in Munich 00:15:17.960 --> 00:15:21.850 called Theodor zum Gutenrath. But he didn't join 00:15:21.850 --> 00:15:24.769 because he wanted to be a regular mason. He joined 00:15:24.769 --> 00:15:27.230 to infiltrate it. He was headhunting. He was. 00:15:27.309 --> 00:15:29.850 He looked at Freemasonry and thought, these guys 00:15:29.850 --> 00:15:31.809 have the organization, they have the lodges, 00:15:31.809 --> 00:15:33.950 they have the wealthy members, but they lack 00:15:33.950 --> 00:15:36.429 the true knowledge. He considered his system 00:15:36.429 --> 00:15:39.769 to be pure masonry. So he used their lodges as 00:15:39.769 --> 00:15:42.129 a recruiting ground. He would find the smartest, 00:15:42.149 --> 00:15:44.730 most promising masons, the ones who seemed bored 00:15:44.730 --> 00:15:47.009 with the standard rituals, and whisper, hey, 00:15:47.070 --> 00:15:48.909 this is kid stuff. You want to see the real light? 00:15:49.070 --> 00:15:51.980 That is incredible. manipulative. It was brilliant. 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:55.779 It gave him access to a pre -vetted pool of candidates. 00:15:56.019 --> 00:15:57.740 And he had help, right? He wasn't doing this 00:15:57.740 --> 00:15:59.419 all alone. Right. He had a partner eventually. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:01.580 Yes. And honestly, the Illuminati might have 00:16:01.580 --> 00:16:04.840 stayed a tiny local club if not for a man named 00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:08.080 Adolf Freiherr Nigg. Nigg. He was a nobleman. 00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:11.379 Yes. A baron. Very well connected, charming, 00:16:11.500 --> 00:16:14.679 and a master organizer. He joined forces with 00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:17.769 Weishaupt around 1780. Nick is the one who really 00:16:17.769 --> 00:16:20.149 built out the structure, the degrees, the rituals, 00:16:20.350 --> 00:16:23.250 the costumes. He made it appealing to the nobility. 00:16:23.389 --> 00:16:25.850 So Weishaupt is the brains, the grumpy ideologue, 00:16:25.870 --> 00:16:28.570 and Nick is the operations guy, the salesman. 00:16:29.029 --> 00:16:31.570 Precisely. Together, they expanded the secret 00:16:31.570 --> 00:16:34.149 organization significantly. They had members 00:16:34.149 --> 00:16:37.909 all over Germany, into France, Switzerland. We 00:16:37.909 --> 00:16:41.850 are talking about... Dukes, princes, intellectuals 00:16:41.850 --> 00:16:44.289 like Goethe and Herder were rumored to be involved 00:16:44.289 --> 00:16:47.070 or at least adjacent. And the goal was? The goal 00:16:47.070 --> 00:16:50.149 was a communal state with nature, freedom of 00:16:50.149 --> 00:16:52.970 government and organized religion. But this brings 00:16:52.970 --> 00:16:54.870 us back to that philosophical beef you mentioned 00:16:54.870 --> 00:16:57.590 earlier, the one with Immanuel Kant, because 00:16:57.590 --> 00:16:59.509 this is where the deep dive really gets deep. 00:16:59.690 --> 00:17:03.409 Why does a disagreement about philosophy? matter 00:17:03.409 --> 00:17:06.410 for a secret society? It matters because it defines 00:17:06.410 --> 00:17:08.970 what enlightenment actually means. Immanuel Kant 00:17:08.970 --> 00:17:10.849 had this famous definition of enlightenment. 00:17:11.069 --> 00:17:14.109 He said, it is man's release from his self -incurred 00:17:14.109 --> 00:17:16.869 tutelage. Tutelage, meaning meeting a babysitter. 00:17:16.990 --> 00:17:19.569 Basically. Kant said the motto of the Enlightenment 00:17:19.569 --> 00:17:23.410 should be, super odd, dare to know. Dare to use 00:17:23.410 --> 00:17:25.309 your own reason without the guidance of another. 00:17:25.529 --> 00:17:27.769 For Kant, if you are doing what someone else 00:17:27.769 --> 00:17:30.049 tells you is smart, you aren't actually enlightened 00:17:30.049 --> 00:17:32.690 yet. You're just following orders. True Enlightenment 00:17:32.690 --> 00:17:35.289 is individual independence. Okay, so Kant is 00:17:35.289 --> 00:17:37.190 all about individual intellectual sovereignty. 00:17:37.990 --> 00:17:40.849 Open the door and walk out yourself. Right. Now 00:17:40.849 --> 00:17:43.970 look at Weishaupt. Weishaupt's order prescribed 00:17:43.970 --> 00:17:46.309 in great detail exactly what the members had 00:17:46.309 --> 00:17:48.430 to read. It told them exactly what they had to 00:17:48.430 --> 00:17:51.230 think about religion, about politics, about morality. 00:17:51.690 --> 00:17:55.410 So, you are free to think as long as you think 00:17:55.410 --> 00:17:57.970 exactly what we tell you. That is the paradox. 00:17:58.349 --> 00:18:00.849 Dr. Wolfgang Riedel, a scholar on this, commented 00:18:00.849 --> 00:18:03.190 that Weishaupt's approach was a degradation and 00:18:03.190 --> 00:18:06.289 twisting of the Kantian principle. Riedel wrote 00:18:06.289 --> 00:18:08.920 that in the Illuminati, Enlightenment takes place 00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:11.960 here, if it takes place at all, precisely under 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:14.460 the direction of another, namely under that of 00:18:14.460 --> 00:18:17.779 the superiors. It's paternalistic. It's father 00:18:17.779 --> 00:18:20.660 knows best, but father is brother Spartacus. 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:23.359 And that is the fatal flaw. You are trying to 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:25.380 manufacture freedom through strict obedience. 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:27.380 It's a contradiction that was bound to cause 00:18:27.380 --> 00:18:29.460 friction. I'll bet. And it did. Weishaupt and 00:18:29.460 --> 00:18:31.460 Nigg eventually had a massive falling out because 00:18:31.460 --> 00:18:34.240 Weishaupt couldn't stop micromanaging. Nigg basically 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:37.440 said, you are a tyrant and quit. And friction 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:39.799 wasn't the only problem. This organization didn't 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:42.119 last for hundreds of years. It didn't even last 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:44.839 a decade, really. No. The downfall was rapid 00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:47.920 and brutal. We are talking about 1784. The order 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:51.220 was founded in 1776. So we are looking at an 00:18:51.220 --> 00:18:53.559 eight -year run. What happened? Did they get 00:18:53.559 --> 00:18:57.259 too big? Too loud? A bit of both. Weishaupt's 00:18:57.259 --> 00:18:59.799 radical rationalism and his aggressive vocabulary 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:02.420 started to clash with the very conservative environment 00:19:02.420 --> 00:19:05.980 of Bavaria. Remember, Bavaria was ruled by an 00:19:05.980 --> 00:19:08.759 elector, Carl Theodore. And Carl Theodore was 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:11.779 not a fan of people trying to overthrow the church 00:19:11.779 --> 00:19:13.740 and state. Definitely not. There were rumors 00:19:13.740 --> 00:19:16.519 swirling. Former members who were disgruntled 00:19:16.519 --> 00:19:19.130 started leaking information. The Duchess Maria 00:19:19.130 --> 00:19:22.049 Anna of Bavaria was warned by a former Illuminatis 00:19:22.049 --> 00:19:24.910 that the order was dangerous. Oh. And then you 00:19:24.910 --> 00:19:26.970 have the famous story of the interception. The 00:19:26.970 --> 00:19:30.990 smoking gun. In 1784 and 1785, writings from 00:19:30.990 --> 00:19:32.589 the group were intercepted by the authorities. 00:19:32.950 --> 00:19:35.490 Some stories say a courier was struck by lightning 00:19:35.490 --> 00:19:37.589 and the papers were found on his body, but that's 00:19:37.589 --> 00:19:39.950 likely a myth. Probably, yeah. The reality is 00:19:39.950 --> 00:19:42.450 mundane police work and defectors handing over 00:19:42.450 --> 00:19:45.109 documents, but the content of those documents. 00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:47.740 That was the problem. What did they find? They 00:19:47.740 --> 00:19:50.819 found plans for invisible ink. They found recipes 00:19:50.819 --> 00:19:53.640 for poison or at least medical abortifacients, 00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:55.279 which looked like poison to the authorities. 00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:58.519 They found essays mocking religion. They found 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:01.359 the quibus licit report spying on noble families. 00:20:01.500 --> 00:20:04.539 Oh, wow. It was interpreted. correctly, to be 00:20:04.539 --> 00:20:06.779 honest, as seditious. So government steps in. 00:20:06.859 --> 00:20:08.700 The government of Carl Theodore banned the society 00:20:08.700 --> 00:20:12.339 in 1784. They didn't just say stop it. They made 00:20:12.339 --> 00:20:15.819 it illegal. In 1785, they issued a second edict 00:20:15.819 --> 00:20:18.380 explicitly naming the Illuminati and threatening 00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:21.099 severe punishment. And what happens to Weishaupt? 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:23.519 Does he fight? Does he go down swinging like 00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:26.220 Spartacus? He runs. He lost his position at the 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:28.279 University of Ingolstadt. Obviously, you can't 00:20:28.279 --> 00:20:30.059 be a professor of law when you are an enemy of 00:20:30.059 --> 00:20:32.839 the state. And he fled Bavaria in the dead of 00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:36.339 night to avoid persecution. And the order. The 00:20:36.339 --> 00:20:39.970 network of spies. The dukes and princes. It collapsed. 00:20:40.009 --> 00:20:42.910 The members dispersed. Some were arrested. Some 00:20:42.910 --> 00:20:45.750 lost their jobs. But most just denied everything 00:20:45.750 --> 00:20:47.710 and went back to their lives. Just like that. 00:20:47.829 --> 00:20:50.869 As the sources say. It left behind no enduring 00:20:50.869 --> 00:20:54.150 traces of influence, not even on its own erstwhile 00:20:54.150 --> 00:20:56.789 members, who went on to develop in quite different 00:20:56.789 --> 00:21:00.009 directions. Ouch. So history says they broke 00:21:00.009 --> 00:21:03.089 up and everyone moved on. Pretty much. But while 00:21:03.089 --> 00:21:05.470 the organization died, the man was still alive. 00:21:05.750 --> 00:21:08.369 And he had a long life ahead of him. This is 00:21:08.369 --> 00:21:09.829 the part of the story no one talks about, the 00:21:09.829 --> 00:21:12.170 exile. Where does a banned Illuminati leader 00:21:12.170 --> 00:21:15.210 go? He went to Gotha. He received assistance 00:21:15.210 --> 00:21:19.289 from Duke Ernest II of Saxgotha Altenburg. The 00:21:19.289 --> 00:21:21.349 Duke was sympathetic to the Enlightenment, perhaps 00:21:21.349 --> 00:21:24.069 a bit amused by Weishaupt, and he gave him refuge. 00:21:24.410 --> 00:21:27.069 He gave him a pension and a place to live. Weishaupt 00:21:27.069 --> 00:21:29.269 didn't just sit there gardening. He picked up 00:21:29.269 --> 00:21:31.930 his pen. He became obsessed with clearing his 00:21:31.930 --> 00:21:35.930 name. He spent the next 40 years writing book 00:21:35.930 --> 00:21:38.589 after book explaining what he was trying to do. 00:21:39.049 --> 00:21:40.789 Just listen to some of these titles. We have 00:21:40.789 --> 00:21:42.950 a list here. A Complete History of the Persecutions 00:21:42.950 --> 00:21:45.990 of the Illuminati in Bavaria. Written in 1785, 00:21:46.190 --> 00:21:49.089 immediately after the ban. A Picture of Illuminism. 00:21:49.650 --> 00:21:52.829 1786. An Apology for the Illuminati. Also 1786. 00:21:53.289 --> 00:21:56.990 He Was Busy. An improved system of illuminism. 00:21:57.029 --> 00:21:59.849 A brief justification of my intentions. You can 00:21:59.849 --> 00:22:02.410 hear the desperation in the titles. He is screaming 00:22:02.410 --> 00:22:04.730 into the void, saying, I wasn't trying to destroy 00:22:04.730 --> 00:22:06.950 the world, I was trying to improve it. You misunderstood 00:22:06.950 --> 00:22:10.089 me. It paints a picture of a man who is deeply 00:22:10.089 --> 00:22:12.869 misunderstood, or at least feels that way. He's 00:22:12.869 --> 00:22:15.069 watching his reputation turn into this monster, 00:22:15.170 --> 00:22:18.130 and he can't stop it. And that monster, the reputation, 00:22:18.329 --> 00:22:20.819 was being built by other people. While Weishaupt 00:22:20.819 --> 00:22:23.460 was sitting in Gotha writing his apologies, the 00:22:23.460 --> 00:22:25.960 world was deciding he was a villain. This brings 00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:28.400 us to the assessments of character, because there 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:30.759 are two very different versions of Adam Weishaupt 00:22:30.759 --> 00:22:33.119 in history. Right. First, you have the human 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:35.740 devil view. This was popularized by men like 00:22:35.740 --> 00:22:38.680 Augustin Burrell and John Robison. Robison wrote 00:22:38.680 --> 00:22:40.960 proofs of a conspiracy, right? That's like the 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:44.509 Bible of anti -Illuminati theory. It is. Robeson 00:22:44.509 --> 00:22:46.950 was a Scottish physicist who was paranoid about 00:22:46.950 --> 00:22:49.049 the French Revolution. He published his book 00:22:49.049 --> 00:22:53.450 in 1797. He regarded Weishaupt as a human devil. 00:22:53.890 --> 00:22:57.950 He saw Weishaupt's mission as malevolent destructiveness. 00:22:58.329 --> 00:23:00.509 He's the one who claimed they caused the French 00:23:00.509 --> 00:23:02.650 Revolution. He did, which they didn't. They were 00:23:02.650 --> 00:23:05.150 already defunct. And Burrell. Augustin Burrell 00:23:05.150 --> 00:23:08.190 was a French Jesuit priest, so he had a personal 00:23:08.190 --> 00:23:10.980 axe to grind. He looked at Weishaupt's goals, 00:23:11.099 --> 00:23:14.400 equality, liberty, absolute independence. And 00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:16.839 he said, this isn't freedom. This is a dangerous 00:23:16.839 --> 00:23:19.579 substitute for rights and property. They saw 00:23:19.579 --> 00:23:22.119 anarchy. They saw the breakdown of all social 00:23:22.119 --> 00:23:25.119 order. They saw the end of civilization. And 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:27.660 these are the guys who really fueled the conspiracy 00:23:27.660 --> 00:23:30.440 theories that persist today. When you hear about 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:32.859 the Illuminati destroying the family or the church 00:23:32.859 --> 00:23:35.339 or abolishing private property, you are hearing 00:23:35.339 --> 00:23:38.259 echoes of Robeson and Burrell from the 1790s. 00:23:38.259 --> 00:23:40.710 But then. You have a defense witness, and it's 00:23:40.710 --> 00:23:42.289 a pretty high -profile witness, one of the founding 00:23:42.289 --> 00:23:44.309 fathers of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. 00:23:44.450 --> 00:23:47.170 The Thomas Jefferson. I love this part. Jefferson 00:23:47.170 --> 00:23:50.069 actually read Beryl's book. It was sent to him 00:23:50.069 --> 00:23:52.750 by a concerned clergyman, and he wrote a letter 00:23:52.750 --> 00:23:55.869 to James Madison about it in 1800. What did he 00:23:55.869 --> 00:23:58.309 say? He was not impressed by the conspiracy theories. 00:23:58.630 --> 00:24:01.369 He wrote that Beryl's own parts of the book are 00:24:01.369 --> 00:24:04.750 perfectly the ravings of a bedlamite. A Bedlamite. 00:24:04.809 --> 00:24:06.869 For those who don't know, Bedlam was the nickname 00:24:06.869 --> 00:24:09.390 for the Bethlehem Royal Hospital in London, a 00:24:09.390 --> 00:24:11.589 famous insane asylum. He's calling him a lunatic. 00:24:11.670 --> 00:24:14.349 Exactly. Jefferson had a totally different take 00:24:14.349 --> 00:24:16.950 on Weishaupt. He called Weishaupt an enthusiastic 00:24:16.950 --> 00:24:20.049 philanthropist. Oh, philanthropist. That is the 00:24:20.049 --> 00:24:22.130 word we usually associate with, like donating 00:24:22.130 --> 00:24:25.029 to libraries or hospitals. Not secret societies. 00:24:25.450 --> 00:24:27.289 Jefferson believed that Weishaupt thought the 00:24:27.289 --> 00:24:29.410 intention of Jesus Christ was simply to reinstate 00:24:29.410 --> 00:24:31.589 natural religion and teach self -governance. 00:24:31.869 --> 00:24:34.029 Jefferson saw Weishaupt as someone who believed 00:24:34.029 --> 00:24:37.509 in the indefinite perfectibility of man. Okay. 00:24:37.630 --> 00:24:40.390 He thought Weishaupt was just naive, not evil. 00:24:40.609 --> 00:24:43.430 He wrote, Weishaupt believes that to promote 00:24:43.430 --> 00:24:45.529 this perfection of the human character was the 00:24:45.529 --> 00:24:48.509 object of Jesus Christ. His intention was simply 00:24:48.509 --> 00:24:51.470 to reinstate natural religion. That is a fascinating 00:24:51.470 --> 00:24:54.849 distinction. Naive versus evil. Jefferson thinks 00:24:54.849 --> 00:24:56.769 Weishaupt was just a dreamer who got in over 00:24:56.769 --> 00:24:59.029 his head. And modern historians tend to lean 00:24:59.029 --> 00:25:01.529 closer to Jefferson, though with a critical eye. 00:25:02.009 --> 00:25:04.589 Author Tony Page has done a lot of work translating 00:25:04.589 --> 00:25:07.049 Weishaupt's writings. His assessment is that 00:25:07.049 --> 00:25:09.450 Weishaupt's plan was to educate followers in 00:25:09.450 --> 00:25:11.190 the highest levels of humanity and morality. 00:25:11.569 --> 00:25:14.269 The golden rule stuff. Yes, due unto others. 00:25:14.450 --> 00:25:17.049 Page argues that Weishaupt wanted his alumni 00:25:17.049 --> 00:25:20.089 to attain positions of power in education, in 00:25:20.089 --> 00:25:23.150 politics, so they could exert a benevolent and 00:25:23.150 --> 00:25:26.049 uplifting influence upon society. So infiltrate 00:25:26.049 --> 00:25:28.230 the government to make it nicer. Essentially. 00:25:28.759 --> 00:25:31.259 Page's verdict is that the project was utopian 00:25:31.259 --> 00:25:34.380 and naively optimistic. He admits Weishaupt was 00:25:34.380 --> 00:25:36.660 certainly not without flaws of character. He 00:25:36.660 --> 00:25:39.420 was arrogant, he was controlling, he was a bit 00:25:39.420 --> 00:25:42.119 of a tyrant to his subordinates. But Page insists 00:25:42.119 --> 00:25:45.160 that neither he nor his plan was evil or violent 00:25:45.160 --> 00:25:47.940 in and of themselves. Page calls it a deplorable 00:25:47.940 --> 00:25:54.740 and tragic irony. It really is. He writes, That 00:25:54.740 --> 00:26:07.880 really lands, doesn't it? You try to save the 00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:10.160 world by teaching people to be virtuous, and 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:12.779 200 years later, people think you are a demon 00:26:12.779 --> 00:26:15.359 -worshipping overlord. It's the ultimate backfire. 00:26:15.619 --> 00:26:17.579 So let's look at how his story actually ends. 00:26:18.089 --> 00:26:20.009 Because it doesn't end in a bunker or a dungeon. 00:26:20.230 --> 00:26:22.670 It ends very quietly. It does. It ends in domestic 00:26:22.670 --> 00:26:26.029 quiet. Weishaupt had a family. He married Afra 00:26:26.029 --> 00:26:29.109 Sassenhofer back in 1773. And they had children. 00:26:29.309 --> 00:26:31.990 They did. After Afra died, he married Anna Maria. 00:26:32.509 --> 00:26:34.869 He was survived by several children, Nanette, 00:26:34.930 --> 00:26:37.509 Charlotte, Ernst, Carl, Edward, and Alfred. But 00:26:37.509 --> 00:26:39.730 there was tragedy there, too. Yes, his son Wilhelm 00:26:39.730 --> 00:26:42.470 died before him in 1802. That was a heavy blow. 00:26:42.789 --> 00:26:44.750 Weishaupt lived a long time. He died on November 00:26:44.750 --> 00:26:48.349 18, 1830. He was 82 years old. He outlived the 00:26:48.349 --> 00:26:51.410 Illuminati by nearly 50 years. He died in Gotha, 00:26:51.410 --> 00:26:53.390 still under the protection of the Dupes family. 00:26:53.789 --> 00:26:57.809 And where is he buried? Is it some secret pyramid? 00:26:57.869 --> 00:27:01.210 Is it an unmarked grave in the woods? No. He 00:27:01.210 --> 00:27:04.130 is buried next to his son Wilhelm at a Protestant 00:27:04.130 --> 00:27:07.549 cemetery. Friedhoff II der Sofengemeinde Berlin. 00:27:07.829 --> 00:27:10.390 Just a regular grave. And in those final years, 00:27:10.450 --> 00:27:12.690 he wasn't plotting world domination. What was 00:27:12.690 --> 00:27:15.309 he doing? He was writing about economics. Economics. 00:27:15.450 --> 00:27:18.329 Specifically, taxation. He wrote a book called 00:27:18.329 --> 00:27:21.930 Über das Bestuierungssystem on the taxation system. 00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:24.450 That is incredibly dry. And books on philosophy. 00:27:25.150 --> 00:27:29.029 He liked this Diogenes lamp. He lived the life 00:27:29.029 --> 00:27:31.730 of a relatively obscure academic. He watched 00:27:31.730 --> 00:27:33.650 from a distance as the French Revolution tore 00:27:33.650 --> 00:27:36.150 Europe apart. And he watched as people started 00:27:36.150 --> 00:27:37.950 blaming him for it, even though he was just sitting 00:27:37.950 --> 00:27:40.450 in Gotha writing about tax codes. That is the 00:27:40.450 --> 00:27:42.829 final irony. The man who wanted to overthrow 00:27:42.829 --> 00:27:45.329 the structure of the world ended up living a 00:27:45.329 --> 00:27:48.339 quiet, protected life under a duke. writing boring 00:27:48.339 --> 00:27:50.779 books about taxes. It's a very human ending to 00:27:50.779 --> 00:27:53.440 a very mythical story. So as we wrap up this 00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:55.319 deep dive, let's try to summarize the journey 00:27:55.319 --> 00:27:57.700 we've been on. We started with the young prodigy, 00:27:57.720 --> 00:28:00.779 the rationalist, who sees a broken world. He 00:28:00.779 --> 00:28:03.720 tries to fix it by building a machine, a secret 00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:06.799 society, that mimics the very structures he hates. 00:28:07.470 --> 00:28:10.230 He uses the Jesuits' discipline and the Masons' 00:28:10.390 --> 00:28:13.150 secrecy. He becomes Brother Spartacus. He builds 00:28:13.150 --> 00:28:15.930 a spy network. He tries to force -feed enlightenment 00:28:15.930 --> 00:28:18.490 to his followers. And it blows up in his face. 00:28:18.609 --> 00:28:21.750 The state crushes it. He flees. And he spends 00:28:21.750 --> 00:28:23.650 the rest of his life writing, I didn't mean it 00:28:23.650 --> 00:28:26.769 like that, while the world turns him into a boogeyman. 00:28:26.930 --> 00:28:30.849 And today, he is a caricature. A cartoon villain. 00:28:31.160 --> 00:28:33.660 But the real Adam Weishaupt was much more complex. 00:28:33.980 --> 00:28:36.140 He was a man of the Enlightenment who didn't 00:28:36.140 --> 00:28:38.420 quite trust people to be enlightened on their 00:28:38.420 --> 00:28:40.500 own. And that leads us to the big question for 00:28:40.500 --> 00:28:43.380 our listeners today. Weishaupt wanted to use 00:28:43.380 --> 00:28:46.099 tools of control, spying, hierarchy, obedience 00:28:46.099 --> 00:28:48.819 to create freedom. He wanted to force people 00:28:48.819 --> 00:28:52.099 to be free. It raises the question. Can you ever 00:28:52.099 --> 00:28:54.839 do that? Does the method always corrupt the goal? 00:28:55.019 --> 00:28:57.099 If you have to trick people into being good, 00:28:57.240 --> 00:28:59.779 are they actually good? Or do you just end up 00:28:59.779 --> 00:29:01.519 becoming the very thing you were fighting against? 00:29:01.720 --> 00:29:03.839 I think Weishaupt's life suggests the answer 00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:06.519 is yes. You become the monster you fight. Something 00:29:06.519 --> 00:29:08.299 to think about the next time you see that eye 00:29:08.299 --> 00:29:10.940 in the pyramid. It's not just a symbol of power. 00:29:11.460 --> 00:29:14.380 It's a symbol of a failed experiment in forced 00:29:14.380 --> 00:29:17.180 virtue. A tombstone for a bad idea. Exactly. 00:29:17.889 --> 00:29:20.309 Thanks for diving deep with us today. A pleasure 00:29:20.309 --> 00:29:23.289 as always. Keep questioning the narrative. We'll 00:29:23.289 --> 00:29:24.569 see you on the next Deep Dive.