When the 18th century German thinker Adam Weishaupt, started a radical secret society to oppose the growing influence of religion on daily public lives and excessive abuse of state power, he would have never thought the kind of stronghold the society would have even in the 21st century. Adam as he has written and he has written enough, he was not against religion but the way it was imposed on the general public and implemented. Due to their radical belief system and explosive ideas, they gained ground in various government departments and key positions. Due to rising popularity and subjects of dissent among the members, the secret society, popularly known today as the ‘Bavarian Illuminati’, was exposed and the names of important members became public knowledge. The high and mighty positions of some of the Illuminati members became a thorn for the government. The organisation suffered a huge blow in 1785, the organisation was banned and Adam had to flee and all documents were seized.
As per historians, the original Illuminati had limited success in their end goal- world domination. With their exposure to the world and subsequent banning, the organisation fell to their doom. But this is where Conspiracy theories come up. And there are too many. It is said that with the public fall of illumiati, the organisation kept working in secret. A letter from the founding father of United States, George Washington about a considerably ignored threat of the Illuminati gave wind to the theories. Even Thomas Jefferson was accused of being a member of the society. So many conspiracy theorists, believe even today that Illuminati controls the world. But the question remains, if they did exist and had the capability to control the entire world, we would have a little more evidence than we theorise about, isn’t it?
To the public, the organisation disappeared, but it has always been burbling in the background of the world. Several accounts bring back the question to popular culture with their literary works. For example a book Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, named The Illuminatus Trilogy depicted the illuminate with fantasy stories still operating in the 1975. Another extremely popular book about the Illuminati that has achieved cult status is by Dan Brown named Angles and Demons. The book was so popular that it was made into a feature film featuring Tom Hanks.
Many popular personalities have been rumoured to be member of the society. From Leonardo Da Vinci, Issac Newton, Thomas Jefferson and even celebrities like Kanye and JayZ have been rumoured to be a part of the secret group. Some of the notable events of the 20th century like the French revolution, assisination of JF Kennedy, Battle of Waterloo have been attributed to them. With such serious allegations on a probably hypothetical organisation has sure attracted a lot of attention in terms of media and popular culture. The big names associated with them also add up the hype. But the question remains, if they are so powerful in today’s world and really control the entire world around us, what is stopping them to come into the Spotlight?
