Re: Theos-World Re: TS Membership Trend
May 15, 2008 08:20 AM
by Drpsionic
It also depends on how folks have reacted to her.? Now, I'll admit to a being a bit prejudiced in my judgement because my first experience with Radha was very funny and very embarrassing for Olcott.
She gave a talk, and like all such talks I have no memory of what it was about because I never pay attention to such things but went to be among friends.? So as I sat in the audience, bored out of my mind and being kept awake only by the rather conspicuous snoring of one of the other people in the audience, I noticed that Radha had a little problem with idiomatic American.? She was repeating the phrase "Eternal Verities" using the proto-American meaning which is "eternal truths" but in American idiom it means "Old Wives' Tales" or "Outright Lies."? And she kept repeating it, over and over and over again.
The audience, as a result, was experiencing a profound cognitive disconnect, not quite being able to figure out what that strange creature on the platform was trying to say!? After the talk, everyone was very polite and did not laugh at her, where she would hear it, but out of her earshot the consensus was that in that election we had a choice between a lunatic and a moron and we had voted for the moron.? Dora Kunz, who was the US National President at the time and not known for keeping her opinions to herself, was wondering aloud how she could keep Radha from speaking in public again and repeating the word "dreadful" over and over again.? I, on the other hand, was so enjoying the unintended comedy that I was rather hoping for a repeat performance.
And for years afterwards Radha was referred to around Olcott as "our less-than-esteemed international President."
Chuck the Heretic
http://www.geocities.com/c_cosimano
-----Original Message-----
From: kpauljohnson <kpauljohnson@yahoo.com>
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 15 May 2008 6:23 am
Subject: Theos-World Re: TS Membership Trend
Dear Pedro,
I grant your point that Radha has been no slacker at nurturing the
grassroots with visits around the world. Which is why I wondered if the
events in Canada, Denmark, and Yugoslavia account for the overall
loss. Why so much shrinkage outside India and so much growth within it?
Can you give us more perspective on the South American membership trend
which runs counter to the rest of the world outside India, if I'm not
mistaken? Some years ago I did a google trends search on Blavatsky and
found Brazil at the top of the list-- here's where it stands now:
http://google.com/trends?q=blavatsky
Did something happen in SA in early 2007 to cause a huge spike of
interest in HPB?
Paul
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