Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00310)

On Sun, 5 May 1996, Eldon B. Tucker wrote:
>
> >But Eldon -- was your remark meant to allude to the Chinese
> >situation? Or yet another case of mistaken identity and
> >resultant personal offence?
>
> I was thinking in terms of what seemed to be a funny
> caricature, and it was take as such by most of the people
> reading it. As I was writing phrase to comment on how
> Alexis and three others were fighting for a particular
> position on 'theos-l', I thought, here were four people
> in China that had power and had their way for a time, but
> were later overthrown and fell into disfavor. From this
> angle, it would say, "enjoy your power while you have it,
> for all things come to an end."
	I guess since I was named as one of the "gang" I
should say something, though I've hesitated to respond up
to now - presuming (hoping) the remark was simply a jest
(though in really bad taste). But a bit of history might be
illuminating. The "Gang of Four" never really had power.
Chiang Ching (Mao's wife) did effectively lead the
"Cultural Revolution", and others of the gang seperately
had various sorts of power, but it was only after Mao's
death when Chiang Chang and the three others made a play
for power - just a month after Mao's death she claimed
the chairmanship for herself, and the positions of Premier
and head of the National People's Congress for two of the
others (Chang Chun-chiao and Wang). They were immediately
taken from the meeting to prison.
	The interesting thing is that they based their
claims on scraps of paper they said Mao had written - and
claimed they had the authority to rule based on his
wishes. If there is any analog to the "Gang of Four" in
Theosophical circles, it would probably not be four people
who a century after HPB's death make a little ruckus on a
small Internet list, but those who *did* claim the right to
lead, and have imposed their wills on the TS ever since. In
the TS the "Gang of Four" was not taken immediately to
prison, they were successful in their siezure of power.
Fact is, Rahda and Algeo are behaving a *lot* more like
the members of the Chinese Gang of Four actually behaved
than the four on this list are - during the Cultural
Revolution she dominated Chinese Culture ... imposing one
particular view on the "masses" (which she claimed were
undisciplined idiots), siezing control over newspapers and
magazines (what person attempting to impose power doesn't
sieze control over the avenues of communication), and
determining what was to be studied in schools - appearing
often with Kang Sheng (the chief of the secret police),
whose platform she adopted for her speeches ("Do you want
to study the Communique and the Sixteen-Point Directive?
Do you want to study them again and again? Do you want to
learn them thoroughly? Do you want to understand them?").
This does sound uncomfortably like some activity in
Theosophical circles - but its not the activity of those
named the "Gang of Four" - none of whom have any power to
speak of, nor would ever be permitted to (its unlikely any
of us will be published through the TPH, nor see
articles published in the AT ...); most of us have been
(at best) effectively marginalized by the powers that be,
and certainly don't have any more power on this list than
anyone else does ... and that's probably only because the
nature of the medium is such that those with institutional
power can't shut us up - though they can (and do) make sure
our voices and views stay corralled within the confines of
this small list ... and certainly are not given a hearing
through the larger avenues of information dissemination
(none of *my* views on the "intentions" in the Three Objects
are likely to be mailed to the membership, now are they?).
	Probably none of us fear, as you say, being "overthrown
and falling into disfavor", because none of us has ever
had the throne, or even been "favored" in the first place.
	We are not analogous to the Gang of Four - rather,
if anything, to the people who put the Gang on trial,
charging them with the attempt to totally control Theosophical
"culture", and with using institutional force to do so.
	And it is to *this* group that your words might more
profitably be addressed: Enjoy your power while you have it,
for all things come to an end.
						-JRC