Theos-Talk Archives (September 1999 Message tl00037)

Dear Jerry, and Alan,
Jerry wrote:
> Perhaps this discussion has tended in the wrong direction. I hope you aren't
 getting the feeling anyone is saying you ought to do
anything. There certainly are a few thousand members still
in the American section, and hundreds in other sections.
And that is just the Adyar organization. A good
 number of people belong without running into any
difficulties at all - but there are all sorts of motives
and expectations for being a member (of any
 organization) ... most folks in Theosophy simply wish to
study topics that interest them, and pay little if any
attention to the way the organization is run. Relatively
few even bother to vote in elections, let alone spend the
 time and energy to examine the minutes of board meetings,
or financial statements, or look at membership figures. And
of those that do, few of *them* do anything other than take
the "official" pronouncements of the leaderships at face
value, or attempt to gain information from any channels
 other than the publications controlled, produced, and
distributed by the leaderships. And no one is saying any
Theosophist *ought* to. >

One question that is asked a lot, and people all over the
world are worrying about, is the membership issue. People
are worrying. And from the bottom up, the internet is
getting into the TS.
> why do you suppose that in an era when
> organizations all over the world are overwhelmingly embracing the Internet
> as a fanatastic means of growing their ranks and communicating with their
> members, that not a single *elected official* of the TS Board has ever
> joined a discussion on this list (though we have it on good authority that
> they *read* it with great interest)?
Yes, I also have that impression (that it is read, I mean)
> By the same token, however, please understand that
others, *MANY* others, have had experiences with the TS
quite different than yours, have witnessed tricks
 and actions by the elected leaderships so low and dirty
that in other organizations they'd get people booted out of
office in disgrace, and that regardless of the fact that
many don't want to hear about these things, and
 will get defensive (and in some cases even attack) when
they do, *I* perceive the TS to be *dying*, due to the
attitudes and activities of its leaderships (both
international and in some national sections). I can point
 to a whole number of variables and characteristics that
are common to any organization on the verge of dissolution
(a great deal of study has gone into the various stages of
organizational lifecycles, and the TS is not
 "special" in any way - if we permit it to die, the
"Masters" aren't gonna come out of the blue and save it ...
in fact several of them - if you believe the Mahatma
Letters - didn't think it had much of a chance in the
 first place). And because the internet is the only place
*ANY* dissenting views can even be voiced (so much for
freedom of thought) I *will* keep periodically stirring the
soup.>
Yes, I appreciate your worries and in fact share a lot of
them, though of course there does not seem to be a way of
checking them. If I have come across differently, I am
sorry about that.
 > And frankly, the fact that speaking such things, raising
dissenting opinions, voicing complaints, pointing at
behaviours on the part of the leadership, at objective
measures that show an organization in a dangerous decline,
and at the connection between the two - the fact that this
is considered everything from "pessimistic" to "evil" is
itself a sign of the decline. *HEALTHY* organizations
(indeed, even healthy governments) not only provide avenues
and forums for their critics, but even see such dissenting
voices as a principle means of *maintaining* their health.
Their leaderships *understand* they will have to be
accountable. Their members *understand* that while they may
disagree with the critics and agree with the leadership at
any particular moment, that it is *profoundly* important
that no voices be silenced ... because at some time down
the road they may *themselves* be the one disagreeing with
a leadership, and they would not want *their* voices
silenced.>
aye. Which is one of the reasons why I am on the net in the
first place. Here I hear more about those things, than
within the TS. And you are right, that is worrysome.

Katinka

NHL Leeuwarden
hesse600@tem.nhl.nl