Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00728)

Hi Eldon,

Thank you very much for the article. It was interesting diving into 
the American President's election system. It would be probably very 
interesting to experiment with the idea to have in the TS an 
electoral college consisting out of individual lodges (as fundamental 
units) as districts. 

I think that major defect in the American system is that election 
campaign is governed by money and that an independent candidate has 
no chance against parties' candidates which are supported by big 
money. So, the great problem is how to give equal chance to all 
candidates and reduce to the minimum influence of corporate financial 
interests.

While in American system the outcome depends of the financial 
background in the TS it seems that depends of the tradition. Namely, 
in the past it was quite usual to have only one candidate running. In 
instances when we had two candidates, as in last elections, and the 
Society was really confronted with the democratic process and its own 
Rules and Regulations it came to the surface all its incapability do 
decently cope with them. 

It seems that now all officers would like to let us forget that past 
elections were actually won by "NO THANKS" candidate. There are 
voices who try to convince us that the TS is in fact democratic 
organization although its Rules and Regulations are constantly 
misinterpreted and violated in that or another way. They try to 
convince us that we have to forget the indecent election process 
which revealed the actual shameful state of affairs and go back to 
the business and sweep all under the carpet.

Well, probably it will not work that way. We have to change our 
behavior, we have to collaborate and find solutions for change and 
stop scapegoating.

Warmest regards,
Anton


--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, MKR <mkr777@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks Eldon.
> 
> It is the timing (soon after election defeat), super secrecy and 
speed with
> which the Quartet wanted to revamp everything is seen as trying 
pull a fast
> one on the members.
> 
> I wish if the whole range of problems were thrown open to member 
and got the
> members behind them would have had a good chance of some reform. 
Today, in
> my opinion, many members have lost their trust in the leaders and 
until that
> is rebuilt (which cannot be done overnight), we cannot expect 
members'
> support for any change. This is because of the continuing secrecy 
and non
> transparency of the process of the GC makes one wonder what else is 
cooking
> behind closed doors.
> 
> mkr
> 
> 
> 
> On 10/21/08, Eldon B Tucker <write001@...> wrote:
> >
> >   Some of the ongoing debate about the T.S. election and proposals
> > subsequently circulating made me think of an article I read in
> > DISCOVER MAGAZINE many years ago. It discusses the mathematics 
behind
> > and the reasons for the electoral college in the U.S. presidential
> > elections. It makes a good case that such a system preserves the
> > rights of minority groups much better than a direct national 
election
> > would.
> >
> > There are many copies of the article on the internet. One link to 
it I
> > found has some interesting discussion attached. It's worth 
reading and
> > may contribute some ideas to the current discussion.
> >
> > http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1234409/posts
> >
> > -- Eldon
> >
> > 
> >
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>