Theos-Talk Archives (November 2009 Message tt00172)

When one reads official history of any organization, it is always a
sanitized version to make the organization and the important players
look respectable and good. Most times, one does not get the real
picture until one sees the contemporary personal correspondence of
important players. The real picture has great value in that they
contain lessons from which one can learn.

The series of books about Krotona by Joseph Ross, are based on
contemporary documents, many of which are correspondence between
important players, are very fascinating to read for anyone interested
in the history of TS.

There is some unusual dynamics in the election of the International
President. For whatever reason, the elections do not bring out the
best in  most key players. I was surprised to find that when Annie
Besant ran for the office to succeed Olcott, there was an organized
opposition in the American Section. Even Besant kept her fingers
crossed if she would secure the necessary votes to be elected. What
surprised me was that Fullerton had sent a document to all the lodges
and some leaders have privately commented that they were full of lies.
We do not know if glamour (in the theosophical sense) was behind it.

For anyone who was aware of the above, all the developments that took
place since early last year should not be a surprise at all. However,
one thing that is a surprise is the ultra secret ill fated attempt to
seize control of the President by disenfranchising the members
world-wide. When members saw the players behind it, the timing of the
attempt, super secrecy surrounding it, it did not take a genius to
figure out what was really going on. Internet played a key role in
exposing the attempt and protected the TS from a disastrous
development.

At a future date when the contemporary private correspondence between
key player becomes available, it may tell a very fascinating story for
the TS historians. How many of us would be around at that time, we do
not know.

MKR