Theos-Talk Archives (May 2005 Message tt00784)

Hey,

Yesterday I had some time to reflect on the coarsening of discourse 
observable in Theosophical context and in the American cultural context 
over the last dozen years. This was after realizing that my "I know 
just how they must feel under assault from fellow Theosophists" was way 
off base because anachronistic. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s 
we seemed to be experiencing a golden age of comity in the movement, 
with Cranston's book being a point of cooperation among all the 
organizations. The young members promoting the networking movement had 
made a real difference in the quantity and quality of communication 
among various kinds of Theosophists. Lately I have had cause to look 
into the archives of theos-l from the earliest days of cyberspace, and 
one very noticeable difference from the current scene is how much more 
polite and kind people were to one another back then. 

But as an American I see the same thing in spades in our culture. 
People like Bill O'Reilly were unimaginable as respected news 
commentators back then. One could go on and on. The point is, both 
American culture and Theosophical discourse have gotten much more 
aggressive, rude, polarized, vituperative, over the last dozen years. 
I have seen the same trend in Internet discussions of Baha'i issues, 
and in the ARE in the late 90s. It is unrealistic to expect those who 
have encouraged this change to feel any regrets at the result, either 
in these spiritual microcosms or in the cultural macrocosm. They're in 
their element!

What is behind this change? Your guess is as good as mine. But since 
I brought up the question of feelings, let me name some. When I 
consider how I feel in looking at something like FOHAT or the Aquarian 
Theosophist, all the emotions related to surprise are at the fore. 
Astonished, amazed, bewildered, perplexed, dismayed, aghast, etc. 
(Which also applies to the Baha'i inquisition of scholars and so on.) 
Those are far ahead of hurt or anger-- but that is precisely the case 
with my feelings about the Bush era and the cultural atmosphere it has 
ushered in. WTF? is the shorthand for the feeling.

Back in the early 90s three prominent Theosophists warned me that I was 
on a collision course with destructive forces of which I had managed to 
remain ignorant in 17 years of Theosophical activity. Stephan Hoeller, 
Michael Gomes, and Jerry Hejka-Ekins all more or less told me that 
although everything seemed to be going fine for me that it was all 
going to come crashing down, and soon. And damned if they weren't 
right; it was as if a glacier came along and swept away 17 years of my 
existence.

That some people can look at the quality of discourse that now 
prevails, and see it as positive, well there's another source of 
amazement.

Cheers,

Paul