i am going to have to disagree with you for once class.....
i have found nothing saying that the freemasons are "just a secretive organization with benifits for its members" and a "society of people with a deep history and connections".
while both those statements are certainly true, there is is much more to it than what you describe.
there has been much that has linked the freemasonry with satanic cults (they use several of the same symbols in certain cases) and the Illuminati- "enlightened ones" which, to my knowledge- is a luciferian cult.
knowledge of the goings on inside freemasonry increases with rank. my understanding is that the 33rd is the highest there is- but apparantly there are even a select few Elects beyond that.
the vast majority of our presidents have been members, and our current president has at least three successive generations in it. bill clinton is a member and (allegedly) he and george w are good friends on the low. (this is part of why i dont vote, incidentaly.) clinton is alleged to be an illegitamate grandchild of Rockafeller-also an illuminati member. (hence his middle name, i am told)
there are simply to many things that have happened involving freemasonry, for me to believe that its simply a social club thats good to its own.