Theos-Talk Archives (February 1998 Message tl00198)

>    The most insidious kind of lie is the one which is 10% innocent truth;
>when one attacks the lie, the attacker can stick by the true part, implying
>that if part of the lie is correct, then the rest must be as well. And if
>the victim ignores the lie, then the victim is tacitly admitting to it.
    Yes! For instance, "The bylaw changes are really only housekeeping
changes".

>You ask why I think I find myself on the defensive so often. I'll tell you:
>because people like you make it so unpleasant for anybody who dares to
>disagree with your own personal view that the theosophical discussion is
not
>worth the agita, and they drop out, so that all that is left are people who
>don't agree with you, people who don't care, and people who delude
>themselves into thinking that there is something worthwhile here, myself
>being the last group.
    Or perhaps because you defend a group of people as being good and kind
and well-intentioned, on a list containing a number of people who have very
personal experience of considerably different behaviour.
    I do, however, like the smooth adoption of the victim role - Wheaton
uses it most effectively as well. It is "unpleasent" on this list for anyone
that dares disagree with one's personal view? *Who* has all the power here?
It may be unpleasent for *you* on *this list* ... but try "disagreeing" with
Wheaton's view of Theosophy ... you don't even get the *unpleasentness* of a
response ... you simply get locked out of all Theosophical publications and
offices ... and then when you complain here ... in one of the few places you
*can't* get locked out of - you're accused of being intolerant of ideas you
don't agree with.
    Good argument - around 10% true I'd say. -JRC