Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt01805)

Hi John, 

Thanks for your suggestions.

What I meant by political backlash, was the kind of thing I got in the early 
60's when I was setting up the animated production of Finian's Rainbow, that 
taught equality and human rights very directly. (We already had a half million 
dollar sound track with Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, etc., 
among other top drawer talents.) The McCarthy era establishment took 
advantage of the "Hollywood Communist Black List" to kill the production by 
threatening the big production/distribution companies from Disney, Warner Bros., Fox 
and MGM on down with tax audits if they touched my picture -- which had our 
animation director (who did "Snow White" BTW) as well as the composer/authors of 
the show on their "fellow travelers" list. BTW, that's how the government 
enforced the Hollywood blacklist and harassed anyone who professed any liberal 
opinions in any medium. It's not much different today, although a bit more subtle 

So, since the HPB story I envision would have to be completely against the 
present establishment of ultra rightists and political religionists as well as 
the Catholic Popery, we would have to be very careful not to overtly antagonize 
them... Since they are extremely powerful and can be ruthless in their 
response. That's why I suggested that the teachings have to be metaphorical or 
subliminal. And, also, why I intend to keep this production secret after (and if) 
I get a useful script -- until its actual completion and release.

Anyway, between us, I can't see how far this can go on this forum, so from 
now on all correspondence about the picture should be sent to me directly.

Best regards,

Lenny


In a message dated 04/19/05 5:14:22 PM, compiler@wisdomworld.org writes:

>
>Hi Lenny,
>
>Based on this one particular thing
>that you said in the below message:
>
>====================================
>Problem is maintaining an underlying
>pure theosophical philosophical basis
>that would "entertain," "teach"
>subliminally or metaphorically, and
>awaken interest in theosophy -- without
>an obvious New Age "message" that would
>trigger a religious or political backlash.
>==========================================
>
>...I'm only throwing this out in order
>for you folks to consider the good and bad
>that would come from actually tactically
>wanting to "trigger a religious or
>political backlash." My reasons for
>wanting this to least be considered
>are the following: Look what such a
>worldwide uproar that the "Passion Of
>The Christ" picture created, along with
>the very huge money flow that it all
>generated. And besides the political
>and religious backlash, if wanted, and
>if presented correctly, an additional
>backlash would come from the vast
>"New Age" community itself.
>
>John DeSantis
>(Compiler)