Re: [theos-l] Scolding from spiritual organizational leaders
Dec 04, 2008 09:33 PM
by MKR
As all of us who have been around here know that Cyberspace environment is a
totally different leveling one and if facts are not on your side, it is
going to be extremely difficult to defend your position publicly and keep
your credibility and maintain trust of the members.
This is all the more so for the leaders of all organizations especially the
"spiritual" ones because their usual operation is within their comfortable
cocoon. Operating within the cocoon is easy because there are many ways to
influence the folks with whom one has to interact. Usually, incentives are
provided, money or platform or other tangible and intangible benefits or
fear of future positions within or in the so called "unrelated"
organizations. These make those inside the cocoon keep quiet and not to
raise embarrassing issues.
For leaders, it is not easy to re-adjust to life outside the cocoon where
such tools and tricks do not work, especially in the unmoderated free for
all platforms. As time goes on, it is going to be more difficult considering
the way use of Internet is getting intertwined in our day to day
communications. So when one gets frustrated, one blows up. And when that
happens it says more about the person than the targets. It reminds me of my
children's reaction when they lost a game or something.
When facts are on your side, and however unpalatable they are for some, I
see no reason not to keep reminding the audience about the facts lest they
forget. As everyone knows, public memory is very short and only the few
dedicated to the ideals and great ideas presented by organizations such as
TS tend to remember all the recent and old facts that affected or affect the
organization and its members.
In the light of lack of transparency we have seen during the past year when
leaders dealt with the dues paying member and organizational issues, it is
the role of the members to be vigilant and watchful of the doings of the
leaders lest they unbeknownst to themselves harm the organization and its
members under the mistaken and possibly self-serving decisions.
I believe that we are all creating very important history at this time and
let us all get active and vigilant.
MKR
THERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH
On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 5:56 PM, kpauljohnson <kpauljohnson@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hey,
>
> At first I tried to intersperse some comments into Warwick Keys's
> snarky remarks directed at Doss, but decided that was not the way to
> go. So I will just make a general comment about Theosophical
> organizational attitudes. My main point of contrast, when appraising
> the behavior of organizational leaders, is thirty years of
> professional experience, most of it involving regular association
> with boards of trustees. In addition to working with library boards
> as a director or assistant director, I have also served three terms
> on boards of fine arts organizations, two on the board of an
> ecological/recreational group, and just now became a consultant to a
> board of yet another kind of organization with a historical focus.
>
> Never once in more than thirty years of experience with such groups
> have I witnessed the kind of arrogance and scolding that I've seen
> directed at members by organizational leaders in "spiritual groups."
> I saw it a time or two in ARE, that board officers scolded uppity
> rank and file members for asking impertinent questions, or not being
> satisfied with evasive answers. But with the TS, in addition to what
> we just saw from Mr. Keys, I recall a similar scolding from David
> Bruce in the ACT days, and recent defensive remarks from Betty
> Bland. The basic attitude seems to be "how dare you question us or
> suspect us of any dubious motives?" when faced with member complaints
> and concerns. All I can say is that I never have seen such attitudes
> blatantly expressed in any organization that wasn't
> supposedly "spiritual." If this is spirituality, it's overrated.
>
> I suppose it has something to do with feeling that their high
> position in a spiritual organization is a sign of their high
> spiritual status compared to the general membership. This entitles
> them to make spiritual judgments of others. And in an organization
> with a lot of elitist baggage in its history, they even feel
> justified in making blatant displays of this kind of judgmentalism.
> And expect people to keep paying dues!
>
> Paul
>
>
>
>
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