Theos-Talk Archives (February 1998 Message tt00343)

--------------FAB847DFB9E96D817D695F5E

Dear David,

I'm sorry that you feel that I have insulted you, or have been
condescending.  This has not been my intention.  However, I must admit that
my failure to communicate with you has been frustrating to me and hurtful to
others.  Instead of asking me what is the problem, and accusing me of
insulting you, perhaps you ought to take an honest look your behaviors that
I have specifically expressed concern and attempted to get you to change:

1. You have been soliciting the addresses of private individuals who may not
want to be contacted.  Case in point:  I specifically told you that Mr. Goes
is a private individual and does not want his address given out, let alone
have it broadcasted over the internet.  I told you that if you want to
contact him,  I would forward a message for you.  That way it would be up to
Mr. Gomes to decide if he wants to answer your letter. You ignored my
suggestion and found someone who was willing to break Mr. Gomes trust and
send you his address.  Worse yet, in trying to help you, this person
published the address on theos-talk for everyone to see.  Several people
were hurt as a result of your careless behavior, including Mr. Gomes.
Apparently you learned nothing from that incident because you more recently
publicly solicited Ms. Eklund's email address.  Did it ever occur to you
that she may also be a private individual?

2. You have on several occasions solicited students on this discussion group
to send you Judge documents under the pretext that you are thinking of doing
a thesis on the subject.  I applaud your four or five months study of
Judge's writings, and encourage you to keep going.  But evidently it hasn't
occurred to you that the serious students you have been soliciting have
sacrificed many years in the collecting and studying these documents.
Through many decades (not months) of hard researching and pondering, these
students have achieved their own understanding of these materials.  But you
post documents to a public site, materials generously given to you that you
have not taken the time to understand yourself.  What is your point of doing
this?  IMO, this is a very distasteful and an inappropriate use of those
documents.  Further, it is not by any stretch of the imagination the
behavior of someone who is doing serious research.

3. Your above actions leave me to guess that your behavior is essentially
motivated by the expectation that others are to do your research for you.
Do you tell your Professors to give you all the documents they have on a
subject when they ask you to research it?  Of course not.  They will tell
you to do your own research and find your own documents, because it is in
the research and writing processes that you really begin to learn about the
subject.   Case in point:  someone generously sent you a document from the
O.E. Library Critic.  Your post lacked any surrounding information
concerning the document.  In fact, you knew so little about the document and
the publication that you had to ask the meaning of the initials "O.E."
What is your point of publishing documents you know nothing about, unless it
is with the expectation that others will explain them to you.  i.e. to do
your research for you.

4. Regarding my "new accusation" that you are trying to manipulate me into a
debate with someone unknown to me: since you evidently don't understand what
I'm saying, I will spell it out again.  Friday, you posted on theos-talk a
portion of a private letter written to you suggesting that I don't know what
I'm talking about.  What am I to make of  your making public a private
letter sent to you that criticizes me?  My only two guesses are that you
either posted it to passive aggressively lash out at me for for calling you
on your shit, or because you want to manipulate me into a debate with this
person.  I told you that I will not be suckered into your games.  They are
not constructive.  They are not friendly, and I assure you that in the long
run, you will not benefit from them.

Regarding my library and archives--yes we have some 15,000 volumes of rare
theosophical books and journals here and another 50,000 pages of unpublished
documents, most of which are not available anywhere else.  I have announced
the existence of this resource on the various Theosophical discussion groups
and advertised its existence in Theosophical History.  I have also made it
known that the materials and books are available to any student who wishes
to see them.  As a matter of fact, we receive several researchers a
year from all over the world who make use of this material.  Some of them are
working on their Ph.D. Thesis.  One frequent visitor is a university
professor who is engaged in writing a book.  I am yet to deny access to this
material to anyone who has inquired.  The rules for using this material are
exactly the same as the rules that you would follow if you were to visit any
University special collection.  This collection exists because I personally
collected, housed and preserved this material, at a tremendous personal
cost  in time (thirty-five years) and money (many tens of thousands of
dollars).  Over the years, I have made this material freely available to ALL
students whether they share my beliefs or not. Further, my wife and I have
been in the process of  taking legal steps to make this collection a public
trust so that it will continue to be preserved and be available to students
after our deaths.  This is being done at the cost of our entire personal
estate.  Considering the above, I suggest that your accusation that I have
not been generous to you or to others might be a bit misguided..

I hope this clarifies and brings an end to this conversation.

JHE


David Green wrote:

> JHE,
> What is problem?  Since last
> fall I've been reading & studying W
> Judge.  I've purchased books, recd
> material thru inter-library sharing,
> & yes, I've asked for help
> in locating material
> on this forum. Persons senting
> public & private messages to me
> have been helpful.  Some extremely
> generous.  But you are exception.
> You dislike my questions
> & accuse me of wanting
> you to do my research. Now you
> give new accusation. If you
> dont want to share info then
> DONT SHARE. But why do you write
> what appears to me as insulting &
> condescending comments.
> Several theosophists have copied
> rare books on W Judge for me.
> No charge. They
> didn't lecture me but helped.
> One man emailed me you have library &
> archives of Judge material.  I
> wonder how open & accessible your
> material is when you can write such
> unfriendly postings?
>
> I close unpleasant subject.I thank
> everyone who's given info &
> material & I'll continue to
> post documents as I find & rec. them.
> I also plan to create web site
> when I learn HTML.  Any recommendations
> on good web site provider?
>
> D Green