Theos-Talk Archives (May 2006 Message tt00810)

Ken - 

Theosophy must look at all life. I am glad to see you made a bridge between theosophical Philosophy and social events in the last 100 years. 

Yes, Scott Peck christianized things but that does not prevent him from being a true Thinker  and his work is very much compatible with Theosophy.  His approach about Evil is consistent with the Masters aproach in the Mahatma Letters (especially Letter 10, non-chronological editions, or Letter 88, chronological edition). 

Erich Fromm, of course, was very akin to Theosophy and Buddhism and should be read by more theosophists nowadays...

One important thing, from the point of view of studying scapegoting as a process, is --  to me --  to acknowledge the historical fact that HPB was used as the great scapegoat for Western Society's religious and scientific dogmas.

There is a lot of energy behind the apparent "scholarly" habit of repeating those slanders against her, I accept that.  But it is the energy of the psychological process of scapegoating the remarkable woman who no one could unerstand and who dismantled dogmas around her. 

As to Unamuno, he was a freethinker in Catholic Spain, and his work was also very much in the Master's workplan of delivering West from Dogmas. 

Your interesting posting, see below, adds extra strength to the connection linking the Vatican, Nazi-Fascim, spanish Fascism ("Franquism", and Jesuits/Opus Dei.
Opus Dei was founded by a Spanish Fascist, José Maria Escrivá. 

As to those who despise USA's democracy for its evident failures, they should spend six months in Syria or in the Taliban regions of Afganistan,  to see how wonderful it is to be far from these Western Democracies. 

As W. Churchill said, we must accept that democracy is the worst of political regimes -- with the exception of all others. 

Best regards,    Carlos. 


 






 

De:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com

Para:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com

Cópia:

Data:Fri, 26 May 2006 02:17:26 -0400

Assunto:Theos-World scapegoating - conscience

> Carlos -
> 
> 
> I have also found Scott Pecks' writings useful. His chapters on community
> building and process in his book "A Different Drummer" were aways available
> during the 12 year period I was involved in engaging in a cooperative
> living household and provide good guidelines for group and community
> dynamics. The 'People of the Lie' becomes even more insightful when
> reframed in a theosophical context (as Peck had somewhat Christianized it)
> As you note Peck gives very clear examples and desciption of the
> narcissistic inflation that goes with the psychological type that is
> perpetually scapegoating and projecting their 'shadow' content (see Jung's
> varous writings also Robert Bly's short book) onto others. Eric Fromm's
> large 500 page volume "The Anatomy of Human Destruction" is one of the
> more comprehensive studies of the psychological type of 'Malignant
> agression' which carries this study into more detail. Fromm uses examples
> from Astray, Stalin to Himler and Hitler as case studies which is very
> revealing. One historic incident he quotes is when the Spanish fascist
> General Millan Astray was giving a speech at the University of Salamanaca
> in 1936. The Generals favorite motto was 'Viva la muerte!' 'Long Live
> Death!'. The great Spansh philosopher Miguel de Unamuno who was the rector
> at the university was in the audience. Though very elderly, Unamuno rose
> and challenged the General: "Just now I heard a necrophilous and senseless
> cry: "Long live death!" And I who have spent my life shaping
> paradoxes....must tell you as an expert authority, that this outlandish
> paradox is repellent to me. General Millan Astray is a cripple. Let it be
> said without any slighting undertone. He is a war invalid." (here in the US
> Rumsfeld at a press conference last fall was praising the psychological
> benefits for solidiers on the battlefield that 'war brought out the best in
> one' !) Unamuno was arrested and put under house arrest and died a few
> months later. In Spain during the fascist period Theosophy and related
> thoughts and movements were greatly suppressed or even illegal. --
> Regarding conscience, my understanding is that it would be the passive
> reflection of the Buddhic principle. Buddhi becoming active as HPB says
> when galvanized with the essence of Manas (Voice of the Silence) or as she
> describes in the 'Key' a centripetal force, bodhicitta or the 'vow to save
> all sentient beings' in Buddhism when activated would become a directive
> insight/compassion.......
> 
> Ken
> 
> Dear Friends,
> 
> 
> The process of "scapegoating" is an important element to understand the
> connection between Nazism and the Vatican. A link which, in a way, the
> movie
> "The Da Vinci Code" helps to explore.
> 
> Both Nazism and the Vatican used Jews (and for some time Communists) as 
> scapegoats. Jews were scapegoats to Vatican for some 15 centuries.
> 
> But scapegoating can be used by Communists as they fight Capitalism, or by
> New
> Age groups against rival institutions, and by Christians and Moslems
> against
> each other.
> 
> It is used within any unbalanced family. In fact, scapegoating is a
> possibility everywhere, any time, for lower selves.
> 
> Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, author of the best-seller “The Road Less
> Traveled”,
> wrote a book about human evil called “The People of The Lie”, in which he
> examines the process of scapegoating which produces the sense of “enemies”.
> 
> Scott Peck writes:
> 
> “Scapegoating works through a mechanism psychiatrists call projection.
> Since the
> evil [ persons ], deep down, feel themselves to be faultless, it is
> inevitable
> that when they are in conflict with the world they will invariably perceive
> the
> conflict as the world’s fault. Since they must deny their own badness, they
> must perceive others as bad. They ‘project’ their own evil into the world.
> They never think of themselves as evil; on the other hand, they
> consequently see
> much evil on others. (...)”
> 
> “(...) Strangely enough, evil people are often destructive because they are
> attempting to destroy evil. The problem is that they mistake the locus of
> the 
> evil. Instead of destroying others they should be destroying the sickness
> within themselves. As life often threatens their image of self-perfection,
> they
> are often busily engaged in hating and destroying that life – usually in
> the
> name of righteousness. The fault, however, may not be so much that they
> hate
> life as that they to NOT hate the sinful part of themselves.”
> 
> Religious structures -- not only the Vatican -- often use scapegoating
> mechanisms in order to produce a sense of collective security, or a
> short-legged
> “relief from evil” among its followers. For centuries, the Vatican had to
> torture and kill innocent people to keep its centralized power.
> 
> In the 19th century, H. P. Blavatsky was also a scapegoat of collective
> ignorance structures. Her “death” was emotional and political, though,
> befo e
> being physical.
> 
> Many an Initiate has had to play this same role, whenever they come out to
> challenge the mechanisms of collective ignorance. The legend of Jesus
> Christ’s
> Crucifixion describes the general lines of such a process, also
> experienced by
> St. Germain, Cagliostro, Giordano Bruno, St. John of the Cross, etc.
> 
> In the 20 th century, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and other bloody
> dictators
> used Scapegoating as a social and political-military tool which also needed
> the
> persecution and killing of ‘weaker enemies’ to maintain its ‘efficiency’.
> 
> Nazism and the Vatican have several things in common,. One of them is the
> process of ascribing absolute perfection to an absolute leader -- the Pope
> or
> the ‘Fuhrer’. In order to better serve and adore that false “perfect
> being’,
> the Absolute Authority, people develop an utter despise for those who do not
> submit to the centralized power. Then they have a false sense of “sharing
> that
> absolute power” and feel themselves strong by vicarious mechanisms.
> 
> But scapegoating is also a psychological and emotional device used by
> individuals and by smaller groups of individuals. It is an unwillingness to
> fight one’s one faults and shortcomings. It is a spiritual failure.
> 
> Higher self, higher manas, dissolves this kind of dualistic and conflictive
> perception, and true martial arts also go beyond it. The book “The Art of
> War”
> is inspired by Philosophical Taoism, and Bodhidharma is said to have
> invented 
> Kung-fu, the martial art.
> 
> Higher manas develops where there are both contrast and synthesis. It grows
> where we can find diversity in unity, that is, democracy, or
> brotherhood.
> 
> Hence the creation in 1875 of the theosophical movement. It has been
> conceived
> as a “sangha” which is open to diversity and contrast, and not attached to
> uniformity, or to one single authority. It is an universal sangha, a
> universal
> community which shows and studies the unity underlying life’s diversity and
> conflict.
> 
> Best regards, Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
> 
> NOTE:
> 
> (1) “People of the Lie”, M. Scott Peck, M.D., Arrow Edition, 1990, London,
> 309
> pp., see pp. 82-83.
> 
> 
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