Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00401)

Dear Katinka,
Of course we don't want isolationism, we've tried that in the past and it got us into war. We are not isolationist now either, but sometimes we treat other countries as ones to be manipulated and used for our own selfish needs. We have to respect every countries sovereignty, and get along with them with mutual respect, no matter if we agree with there politics, societal life or religion. We have to create an atmosphere of mutual respect amongst all countries. A lot of 2nd and 3rd world countries look at us in very imperialist terms, we need to rectify that. We have to show the world we want peace, respect and brotherhood among nations. Just by improving our standing at the U.N. won't cut it. We have to meet and get along with these countries on a one on one basis. The U.N. is not always the best avenue for creating relationships. We can improve the world by example, and that doesn't mean we have to be isolationist, it means we respect all countries sovereignty, and create relationships of mutual respect, without seeming imperialist. This relationship building will take time, but it's worth it in the name of world peace. Daniel


----- Original Message -----
From: Katinka Hesselink
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 1:05 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Theos-World Re: forcing democracy upon other countries

Hi Eldon,

In my view the tendency towards isolationism is not just
about fighting countries where democracy does not prevail.
Though I suppose with the threats going on right now,
military action is the only possible action left. But I do
think that if there is one good thing that could come from
this whole mess it is that the isolationist tendency in the
US could become less.

Already the US has finally, after all these years, chosen
to pay its dept to the UN.

Also, I am reminded that when the first news of anthrax
came out, the dutch newspapers reported that this was
ironic, because the US had boycotted the creating of an
international body which would monitor the creation of
biological weapons. Seems like that boycotting just came
back to haunt the country. Of course the motivation for not
supporting that international body had been economical. Not
strange, because the US is probably the country with the
most knowledge of biological processes - which could be
used in creating biological weapons. Still, it is to the
good of the whole world if biological weapons are kept in
check. And it is things like this that have me (perhaps a
bit loudly) shouting that the US certainly had this coming,
even if nothing the country did could have been enough to
deserve it.

The US has, in short, been reminded of its relationships to
the world around it, its responsibilities there etc. Hope
that consciousness will last when this particular war is
over.

Katinka
> From: Eldon B Tucker <eldon@theosophy.com>
> Subject: forcing democracy upon other countries
> > What do you think HPB would of thought?
>
> I'm not sure it matters what she might have thought.
> It matters what we think. I think we may have drifted
> away from trying to remake the work in our image.
> It's always a problem when we decide what to do when
> another country suffers under a malevolent government.
> Do we leave them alone? Do we deal with the government
> and not interfere in its internal affairs? Or do we
> try to help along the process of change where it'll
> eventually fall to something hopefully better? I thing
> our tendency has been do turn and look the other way.
> I'm not sure it's always the right thing to do. Some
> countries are too big to do anything about, like China.
>
> I see our current refocus on world affairs being driven
> by the current world threat -- that of potential use
> of weapons of mass destruction against western civilian
> populations. This is so dangerous that any tendency
> towards isolationism has to be put aside, literally under
> the threat of death. Apart from hopefully rare situations
> like this, I'd agree that we don't meddle in other
> countries governments, but only provide general
> assistance,
> helping the countries improve to the point where there
> will be a natural political evolution from within.


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