Theos-Talk Archives (July 1996 Message tl00022)

At 01:21 PM 7/1/96 -0400, you wrote:

To Paul, Ramadoss et al: You know chuck must be getting very annoyed at me
getting credited with his observations. Alan asked in his posting not if
people agreed with me, but if they agreed with Chuck (he went on to say it
was a given that I did). Now chuck and I essentially agree on our picture of
American history and the American National Character, our views only differ
in emphasis. 

Anyone who is not a poseur, (any american that is) knows that over the
entire scope of American History the political dialog has been what can only
be described as "down and dirty", now Alan can hardly be expected to know
that, nor really can doss, but all one has to do is read some of the charges
leveled at Tom Jefferson by John Adams and visa versa, to see how really
ugly american political diatribes can get, this is even more true in the
election that sent Andrew Jackson to the White House. One needn't go back to
former times, one need only pay attention to the rhetoric in our current
election campaign to see just how "down and dirty" american dialectic can be. 

Paul's discussion of "Virginian Courtliness" is pure myth. The Virginia
countryside is chock a block with Red Necks, and crosses get burned in
Virginia quite as frequently as they do in North Carolina. I was born in the
South and "gentility, civility, and politesse" is simply a cover-up for
hypocrisy. Luckily he lost, but the immense amount of support Oliver North
received says more about the folks in Virginia than most anything I can
think of. As a matter of fact the political successes of people like Pat
Buchanan and Oliver North and Ross Peyote go further towards proving chuck's
point than anything I can think of.

alexis


>Paul: I enjoyed your message. I hope the readers will feel more 
>comfortable to know that they are welcome to post any of their thoughts 
>opinions and experience and many of us will respect them no matter what 
>they are.
>
>	Ramadoss
>
>
>On Mon, 1 Jul 1996, K. Paul Johnson wrote:
>
>> Apologies for the use of names in the header, but it was the
>> only thing that seemed to fit.
>> 
>> Alan, you asked if all Americans are down and dirty, rude,
>> aggressive etc. etc. as depicted by Alexis.  I can assure you
>> that if you ever visit Virginia (not including "Yankee
>> Virginia", the suburbs of Washington, D.C.) you will find us
>> paragons of courtliness.  The most highly esteemed virtue here
>> is gentility, civility, politesse, to give three synonyms.
>> Race relations are the best in the nation, I suspect,
>> and we are the only state to elect an African American
>> governor.  An interesting statistic to illustrate the generally
>> lower level of aggressiveness is that we are #1 in the
>> percentage of drivers who obey speed limits and use seatbelts.
>> As a Brit you can also be assured that Virginians are the most
>> likely of all Americans to fawn over anyone from the Mother
>> Country.  On rare trips north I have found myself shocked to the
>> point of tears (not weeping, but feeling the potential arise) by the abrupt,
>> aggressive rudeness of New Yorkers. 
>> 
>> (Of course, we do have our share of obnoxious rednecks like
>> Jerry Falwell but most Virginians are mortified by such people.)
>> 
>> Jacques, don't let yourself get sucked into a vortex of
>> denunciation.  For you to say that theos-l is generally hostile
>> to theosophical teachings, doesn't deserve the name, and such
>> is to descend to the very level you seem to deplore.  Edgar
>> Cayce says "Criticize others and you will be criticized
>> yourself" (paraphrase).  The best policy, if you wish to
>> elevate the level of discourse around here, is to POST A
>> MESSAGE THAT YOU THINK EXEMPLIFIES THE KIND OF DISCOURSE YOU
>> WANT TO SEE.  There is a tremendous amount of denunciation that
>> goes on here, but there is also room for communications at
>> another level.  Welcome aboard, and here's an invitation: Share
>> something of your ideals and ideas with us.  I promise to
>> respect them; if someone else doesn't-- ignore it.
>> 
>> Namaste
>> Paul
>> 
>
>_______________________________________________________    
>    Peace to all living beings.
>
>    M K Ramadoss
>
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