Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00326)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, MKR<ramadoss@g...> wrote:
> It looks like we are at an age of transition from print media to
internet 
> based publishing, dissemination and exchange of views.
> 
> Any vehicle which is funded by any organization is likely to control
the 
> kind of material that vehicle deals with. This is so because of the 
> built-in organization's interests and those in the bureaucracy of the 
> organization.
> 
> So we now have unmoderated mail lists which is a place where fellow 
> students can exchange an extreme range of ideas - many of which an 
> organization may be opposed to.
> 
> If course the organization followers are free and are likely to adopt 
> "osterich" attitude and boycott unmoderated mail lists. It is the true 
> independents with an open mind are likely to participate in the
unmoderated 
> lists.
> 
> mkr
> 
Hi Doss,

All that you say is correct, and I will add simply that at the dawn of
the Internet age, organizational leaderships were especially
threatened by this new medium of exchange. My experience in Baha'i
discussion groups in the mid-90s was especially illustrative of this,
when a number of respected Baha'i scholars were persecuted/expelled by
the organization simply for discussing ideas on small e-lists. My own
experience with TS-Adyar might be another such example, in which
arguing ideas with a few dozen individuals online was perceived as
some kind of coup attempt by organizational interests who were freaked
out by this new medium. 

KPJ