Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl01061)

Alexis:

[writing to Martin]


>>Actually, GdeP says that the black race is a young and promising race
>>and will mix completely with the white race and other races.
>>So, I don't think it would be a regression.

>>Jinarajadasa and Leadbeater on the other hand state that the black race
>>is an old race and in the latter days of their evolution.

>But Jinarajadasa and Leadbeater were racists plain and simple, and probably
>anti-semites to boot.

If you substitute terms like "the Roman Empire was aging and in decay,"
would that be equally racist, and would it imply that someone born into
that Empire in its last years is inferior to someone born into a
different, more advanced and powerful society? Certainly not, I'd hope.

>>GdeP remarks that anyone who observes black people can see that the
>>black race is a very vital one and thus *must* be younger than the
>>more sober minded white race. It seems to make sense, but again, I'm not
>>too comfortable with race-theories and do not think these to be very
>>fruitful to our understanding of the spiritual, at least not in this
>>current era. Of course there will be many individuals in the black race
>>who are more advanced spiritually than most in the white race are and
>>vice versa. That's in the scheme of things.

>This kind of totally untrue sweeping generalization can only be the result
>of almost no experience with individual human beings. To even contemplate
>the idea that Africans are less sober-minded or philosophically oriented
>than Caucasians (or visa versa) is simply racism, or ignorance, or both!

You seem to be dismissing sociology, psychology of groups, much of history,
and science and statistics where it deals with the behavior and characteristics
of groups. And at the same time, you are writing off group karma, the
evolutionary drama with periods of evolution, much of the nature of cycles, etc.

There is nothing tabu about the study of societies, about groups, about
cultures, their values, education, ways of life, and contribution to the
world. You're wrong here. We can describe and understand the characteristics
of, say, Eskimos from Alaska, Irish potatoe farmers, or Chinese rice farmers.

But what are we describing? We're describing the characteristics of a
*group*, not of any particular *individual*. The same holds true of anything
to do with statistics. It's possible to know with a high degree of accuracy
that the households in a city have 2.1 children. Does any particular family
have 2.1 children? Of course not. But this does not invalidate group
parameters nor the study of sociology, psychology, economics, or occult
teachings dealing with cycles and the evolution of cultures.

>I would rate Nelson Mandela as much more spiritually advanced than most people
>on this planet. He is, I am personally sure, an Adept of high degree.  I
>would definitely rate him as higher than G de P because Nelson Mandela has
>actually made the world a better place for millions of human beings.

Here I'd again disagree. Perhaps your definition of "adept" is farther from
the theosophical one than I'd thought.

Jerry>>If the "Fifth Root Race" is Homo-Sapiens, then
>>I agree.  But I would still consider discussions about any
>>"remnants of the Fourth Root Race" as racist because every
>>single person on Earth today is a Homo-Sapien.

>That is true and I personally believe the "Root Race Theories" to be the
>most harmful and totally negative Theosophical Core Doctrine.

Again, I see a considerable misunderstanding of the idea of Root Races.
Apparently a change in terminology and modern politics has obscured more
of the meaning that I had thought. Perhaps it is in need of a major
rewrite, since there is so much misunderstanding, even from long-time
students.

There are many remnants of past societies surrounding us. We even see
discussion of this in New Age terms, where some people are called
"clinging to the Piscean era" and others as "pioneers of the Aquarian
age," as though that actually meant something! (It does, of course, but
it's fairly minor in terms of cycles.) Calling someone "Piscean" would,
I'd assume, be equally offensive as calling them "fourth root race".
Both would be wrong, of course.

>>Yes, and there are always people who like to get rid of those old remnants-
>>laggards- that's the inherent danger with this kind of ideas.
>
>And that's the reason, the holocaust!

Actually, not ... Where we see the attempt to rid the world of
remnants is where people resort to manipulation and thought control
to change the behavior of others according to their ideal of a
better society. This happens a lot in politics. The problem is in
an arrogance, a belief that one's favorite culture, society, way of
doing things, is better than others in the world, and where one wants
to force his views on others, without regard to their needs or desires.

-- Eldon