Theos-Talk Archives (May 1997 Message tl00504)

At 11:11 AM 5/30/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Question for Einar, or anyone who may know:
>
>When was the Warcup article published?  Was anything done in
>response to it?  Seems to me that Doss is right, that the
>top-down pattern is so firmly established in the TS (in the
>movement really) that change can never occur from the bottom
>up-- alas.  For so many years, so many people have devoted so
>much energy into trying to save the TS from itself-- without
>any real progress that I can see.  There was a little blip of
>hope when Coats was president and Dora was section head.  But
>since then...
>
>Unfortunately, creating a new organization from scratch seems
>implausible too.  So few people are interested in/attracted to
>Theosophy, and such a large percentage of them are committed to
>one of the existing organizations, by personal loyalties if
>nothing else, that there's not much potential out there for a
>new group.
>
>Of course, a *really* new group, that doesn't call itself
>Theosophical, but incorporates HPB among others as a precursor,
>is almost bound to develop sooner or later.  Several already
>have, and the Anthroposophists for example seem to have a lot
>more vitality than the Theosophists.  E. C. Prophet's CUT
>in its own way has stolen the Theosophical thunder too.
>But whether or not any such new emergent group would be to one's
>taste is the question.  So far the only postBlavatskian
>movement that appeals to me is the ARE.  Future such groups are
>likely to make M. and K.H. into spacemen, as has already been
>done in one of the major ufology cults.

Let me add some more thoughts.

Internet is here and is here to say whether anyone likes it or not. It is
like transportation move from auto to jetplane sans the cost.

I do not think that TS leadership (at least in the USA) has understood the
nature of the medium and its potential in a forward looking sense. (USA is
at the forefront of Internet technology and its easy and affordable
availability in the world). When you try to use the medium and still want to
do it within the existing framework (=control) which was designed and used
in a non Internet era, you have problems. The problem is simply you cannot
have the cake as well as eat it. What today's Internet medium is doing is to
breakdown the walls of traditional communication channels. Once this
breakdown takes place, since information is power, there is a great
potential for loss of power. Such loss of either real or perceived power, is
hard to swallow by those who use them.

For example, TSA does have a homepage. Some ordinary individuals had home
pages long before TSA had one. What you now have is a relatively static one
with very few links to anywhere else. Also do we have a global strategy to
utilize Internet for communication?. Officially TSA has a single e-mail
address. Have you seen any e-mail addresses of any of the National Officers?
(At least I have not seen anything officially published.) How many times
have anyone seen any National Officers on this (unofficial) list or any
other list or Usenet newsgroup discussing issues relating to Theosophy even
though it costs nothing to subscribe to this or any other list or use Usenet
groups. Is there a plan to get every National Officer on e-mail? Is there a
plan to get all key staff at Olcott with individual addresses? Is there a
plan to induce and educate all the lodges and study centers to get on
e-mail? Is there a plan to educate all lodges and study centers on the
advantages of Internet so that everyone can start using their creativity and
use this new medium for propagating Theosophy? Is there a plan to collect
e-mail address of our members so that communications can be sent quickly and
at almost no cost? At least I have not seen any. Any and all of these can
lead to instantaneous communications cutting across the formal lines of
communication.


So it looks like we have a long way to go and hope we have enough time so
that we do not miss the boat.

YMDMV

.................doss