Theos-Talk Archives (July 1996 Message tl00260)

Maxim Osinovsky writes:
>The ongoing information revolution plus the rising grass-roots 
>theosophical groups and individuals will make all this 
>organizational stuff completely obsolete in several years and
>will help redefine the very concept of what shape a theosophical
>organization is going to take. There are at least two healthier
>models for a theosophical organization:
 
JHE
I think you are right on target here.  This "Organizational
stuff" took a dive in the 1960's and has never recovered.  The TS
either needs to radically change its organization.  A month or so
ago I suggested some definite changes the TS would have to make. 
First on the list is the permanent closure of the ES, since it
lies at the heart of the organizational power brokering. 
However, I don't see the TS dying.  It has had a long history of
making the needed changes.  Though the changes are always minimal
and about twenty years too late, it is always enough change to
keep the organization alive.  
 
MO
>Unfortunately, T.S. will not be easy to change, since it has 
>accumulated a lot of lousy karma initiated by two of its
>co-founders, HPB and Olcott, who issued orders on behals of the
>Masters, encouraged unquestioning obedience, etc., etc., so the
>subsequent leaders just perpetuated that tradition--without
>being initiates like HPB. This karma got built in the very
>structure of the Society, so there is little hope for T.S. to
>survive.  
 
JHE
I can find endless examples of the later leaders issuing orders
on "behalf of the Masters" and encouraging "unquestioning
obedience," but where do you find this with HPB and HSO?  At
least HSO before 1891.  My own inquiry suggests that this kind of
nonsense began right after Olcott's death in 1907 and escalated
until 1930 when everything began to fall into chaos.  After
Arundale's death in 1945, this kind of speaking on behalf of the
Masters and encouraging unquestioning obedience retreated back to
the ES, where it still remains.  But even in the ES of HPB's day,
members took a pledges to their "Higher Self,"  not to the outer
head.  Under Besant, that all changed.  
 
JHE
 
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   |Jerry Hejka-Ekins,                      |                     
      |Member TI, TSA, TSP, ULT                |                  
         |Please reply to: jhe@toto.csustan.edu   |               
            |and CC to jhejkaekins@igc.apc.org       |            
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