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
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