What is it makes some of those wacky apostates appear from time to time claiming Russell and the Witnesses were/are all part of some great freemason/illuminati plot? I'll tell you what it is, and it may explain a few other things for you too! People who come up with these theories demonstrate a basic psychological insecurity stemming from their involvement and subsequent disentanglement from the Witnesses. Not willing to accept that they were simply "taken in" for a while by a rather ideosyncratic and somewhat falsifiable ideology, they wish to believe that what actually snared them was something grander and far more sophisticated: a highly organized deception machine bent on knowing exploitation and conspiracy. "After all the Witness organization must be more complicated than it superficially appears, else how could someone as bright as myself have been duped by it?" (the apostate reasons to himself)
However, not many apostates fall into that "illuminati camp" of grand delusion you may protest, and while that may be true it is the same basic delusion which inspires most of the outlandish criticism of the Witnesses that somehow passes for common sense on this forum. Often apostates make such ridiculous claims about the Witness leadership acting in underhanded ways, of being Machiavellian and disingenuous. I am not saying that there may not be a handful of individuals in the organization who don't really believe and are only in it for the power or the money or whatever. But is clearly nonsense to claim, as apostates here often do in a matter-of-fact sort of way that the leadership en masse is simply interested in making money, or that they are purposely trying to lie to people in their publications. Such constructions of the reality take such a dim view of the inner consciences of persons involved in the movement as to be entirely incredible. So why won't apostates simply accept that Witnesses are well-intentioned yet simply misguided? It is because they can apparently take more comfort in taking refuge from a supposedly "evil" organization "out to deceive" than in simply wishing to differ and take their leave from a group who have stong convictions and a faith that they can no longer share. The whole JR Brown interview/UN "scandal"/anti-Jaracz frenzy/outlandish attacks on Rutherford's character/(plus a hundred other allegations) are all symptoms of the same psychologically skewed perspective.
Such perspectives may not have the same stature as the beast that is the "freemason conspiracy" phenomenon, but they are not an entirely different species either...
Slim