Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl01073)

Alan:

>>It's what we carry *inside* that makes us at home in a particular place,
>>not the gender, skin pigment, nor clothes we wear.

>I would not want to be the person who had to explain this idea to the
>widow of an Asian man after thugs had burned down their home.  Get real!
>These are *people* we are talking about.

I don't see the connection. These are people, as you say. But there
will be prejudice and ethnic hatred regardless of whether we try to
understand other cultures, or not. An understanding of Root Races is
an understanding of group karma, cultures, cyclic evolution, and other
experiences available to us.

An understanding of other cultures, rather than a dismissing of all
differences as "racism", is highly important to appreciate and live in
harmony with others. The prejudice that you mention is more likely to
have arisen because people were not more understanding of other ways
of living life.

"racism" is a hate word as ugly as they come, and it's too often thrown
around as a rhetorical device, in order to gain points in a debate
where people are coming from fixed positions, and unwilling to think
further on the subject.

I sometimes wonder, at times, seeing how things are going, if it's not
the T.S. that's so much in trouble, as the public understanding of the
philosophy. I wonder if it'll be totally lost in misunderstandings and
misrepresentation. It's to be expected, I guess, over time, as any
special teachings are lost in exoteric forms or misrepresented in
some monstrous form. <frown> That usually takes several centuries to
happen, but I wonder, at times, it Theosophy will make it into the
next century ... <sigh>

I see a lot of over reaction to the idea of Root Races on theos-l,
with very little attempt to understand, study, or discuss what the
idea actually meant. The whole drift of the discussion seems to be
to see who can take the literal words and put the ugliest interpretation
on them. This is almost the opposite approach to getting at the
actual meanings behind the words, it's an approach geared to burying
the original ideas.

It gets tiresome to keep reading people say that Root Races means
"that a white man is better than a black man"! That's pure nonsense,
and not at all what the doctrine is about. So when people keep
insisting that the doctrine is wrong for that reason, I have to wonder
what is going on.

We can see a politician misrepresent an opponent's ideas in order
to sway public sentiment away from the opponent. The politician may
be afraid of the truth, because the opponent may attract a following.
The politician is intentionally promoting disinformation about the
opponent's ideas, seeking to manipulate people rather than have an
open, truthful exchange of information.

I don't know anything that would lead me to believe that this is
intentionally being done with regard to Theosophy, but sometimes,
like now, I stop and wonder if people may unconsciously act this way?

I can't believe that the idea is so hard to understand, that people
will continue, time after time, to stick to what could only be called
"popular misconceptions" about it. It's almost as though it were
being used as a tool for Theosophy bashing. Let's hope not ...
<another frown>

-- Eldon