Theos-Talk Archives (May 2008 Message tt00419)

May 11, 2008

To: General Secretaries and other TS members

Dear Brother:

Political electioneering is not new to TS. Only we have not seen it in
several recent decades.

On researching, I found that intense electioneering took place when Bishop
George Arundale ran for the office. All the electioneering was done in the
background by his surrogates and supporters, Arundale declined to say
anything ? just like the stance we see today. Typical tactics were used to
present an appearance of non-involvement of the candidate in the election.
Also, in that election, the ballots contained just the candidates' names and
nothing else. No background information at all. No nominators list either.

Ernest Wood, the author of the famous book ? "Seven Rays", was the other
candidate. Ernest Wood was a highly regarded theosophist, who came to Adyar
as a young man in his twenties and gave prime of his life to the
theosophical society and theosophy. He commented that the election
degenerated into something worse than any political election he had ever
known.

In the current election, when there was no other valid ground to challenge
the re-electibility of the sitting President, Radha Burnier, a strategy
seems to have been developed to present her to be in a poor mental and
physical health, which we now know is totally false. This is pure politics.

What the long and short time outcomes of the election and its effects on TS
and Theosophy, who can forsee?

I hope the General Council urgently take some decisive action now, before
events go out of control of everyone.

Thanking you,

Fraternally yours,




M K Ramadoss
Member TS, San Antonio, Texas, USA


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