Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl01064)

>At 02:37 PM 5/17/96 -0400, you wrote:
>
>>They would reject the name, but I'm afraid they exemplify the
>>phenomenon.  However, as these scholars have been pointing out,
>>the theocratic way Baha'i has developed is not necessarily
>>implicit in the original writings, which in many cases extol
>>liberal democratic reforms.  Like Theosophy, something that had
>>multiple possible paths of development seems to have taken the
>>steepest available downhill path.  Illustrates some principle,
>>I reckon-- but that's rather cold comfort.
>>
>>Cheers
>>Paul
>>
>>Well considering that the founder of that movvement was murdered by the
>Mullahs, he personally may have been a liberal reformer. If History is any
>guide he in all liklihood was.
>
>That downhill path seems endemic in religious movements when the founder
>dies, as to the steepest possible downhill path I'm working on some research
>that will turn steep into perpendicular. But it is not for this venue.
>
>alexis
>
>
>Hi all,

     The downhill path is inevitable as politics/political animals take
hold.  I'm reminded all too, too often of what the great American poet -
e.e. cummings said in his short poem :

      A politician is an arse upon which everyone has rode but a man.

John Antonio Proietti