All the blue lodges I have attended are comprised of a bunch of old guys who hang out.
Some of the lodges are extremely nice but most blue lodges are run down
There is a lot of money raised in the lodges and it all goes somewhere.
Most southern politicians are masons and most are top level masons as with most department heads.
The initiations arnt very emotionally binding however the atmosphere is one of completely loyalty to your brother. A strong trust.
Also I believe that other Masonic based organizations use the free masons blue lodge as a recruitment pool and perhaps those have more binding initiations