Theos-Talk Archives (September 2001 Message tt00317)

Thanks Eldon for your refreshing words. It is clearly obvious that we, who
claim to follow the spiritual lines, must stay away from politics. Politics
is a game of power, who dominates whom, who takes advantage of whom, there
are no good guys, nor bad guys here, America is not the great satan, and
Israel is not the small satan, and Islam and its fanatics are also is not a
satan. There are ignorant people, whose subconscious minds are full of
filth, which was accumulated over eons of wrong activity, of discarding the
Truth, and now clothe themselves under nice flags, in order to justify their
evil minds, but they won't take the necessary steps to purge their own
minds. The true Jihad is the Jihad for purging the lower self, it has never
meant to destroy human beings, people have never understood the Prophet, as
they never understood Christ, nor Moses, nor all the prophets. Where you see
people fighting an external evil, whomsoever, take heed, they are simply
stupid, ignorant humans, they simply don't have the spiritual backbone to
delve within themselves, to tackle their own stench. Let us concentrate on
the real spiritual path, which is taking spiritual responsibility, and
forget all this sad world of illusion, lest we ourselves will be drown as
well in it, and only add to its misery. Love, Etzion

From: Eldon B Tucker <eldon@theosophy.com>


> Michele:
>
> I think this shows us to be careful with our sources
> of information. People will misrepresent things in
> order to manipulate others. Apparently, the truth is
> unimportant. What's important to these people is that
> they evoke the desired emotions and behaviors in their
> audience.
>
> We need to know if our sources of information are
> highly biased. Then we can take into account the
> distortion present in their ideas, as we consider
> what they say. That's why, for instance, it's important
> to know a theosophical author and his or her background.
> When something is presented anonymously and we don't
> know the person writing it, we cannot take into account
> their personal slant and we have a harder time gauging
> what is accurate in what they say.
>
> The bias is something we can be aware of and can
> take into account in honest people. These are
> people who speak what they think, never misrepresenting
> things, lying, and intentionally misleading others in
> order to achieve some monetary, religious, or political
> end. They put truth and openness first. They respect
> the integrity of others, not deceiving and manipulating
> them.
>
> I'd say it's best to avoid anyone that puts their
> personal agenda first, treating others as mere pawns in
> their game. If I'm going to read and study something,
> I want it to be what someone really knows and believes,
> something honestly shared. I don't want to wade through
> untrustworthy materials that are cunningly crafted to
> mislead and manipulate me into someone else's plan of
> action.
>
> From what I've seen in the article you've quoted below,
> I have little trust for Chomsky's rhetoric. All I can
> say about it is that hatred and dark suspicions feed
> upon themselves and grow, cancer-like, without regard
> for how things actually are. Perhaps he's clouded his
> mind in such, and cannot see through the fog?
>
> These suspicions show up in many forms. Fanatical
> Christians may see their devil behind plots to destroy
> their church. Others see communists plotting to take
> over the country, hiding in every corner. Theosophists
> may see evil adepts behind plots to destroy the world
> spiritually. Others see monstrous evil behind the
> American nation and its rulership. And more may see
> the entire western civilization as an enemy to Islam
> that must be totally destroyed, regardless of the loss
> of life.
>
> In all these cases, we may have people not wanting
> actual factual feedback from the people they perceive
> as "bad". Rather, they want events and information
> that reinforces their existing believes. What they're
> doing is painting the world a certain way, the way
> *they want things to be*, and avoiding finding out
> *the way things really are*. That's fine as long as
> people peacefully coexist. It gets to be a problem when
> have kill you, imprison you, take your possessions,
> forcefully indoctrinate you in their ideology, etc.
>
> I'd recommend sticking to honest sources of
> information and staying far away from fanatics
> who'd hurt you. I'd only be for taking action against
> them when they get really dangerous, like when they're
> a threat to the lives of others. In this group, I'd
> see Bin Laden's terrorism. If the death toll has moved
> from 500 to 5000 and is now headed towards 50,000 and
> 500,000, I'd like to see it stop *now*, not after
> something even worse happens. I'd hate to wake up some
> morning to find half of Los Angeles dead, and would
> find little comfort in someone's political claim that
> "America deserved it."
>
>
>