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Theosophy and Nationalism
PGA Weblog ^

Posted on 01/03/2016 8:24:59 AM PST by ProgressingAmerica

In "The Key to Theosophy: Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science, and Philosophy for the Study of which the Theosophical Society Has Been Founded", Helena Petrovna Blavatsky wrote the following: (page 44)

The organization of Society, depicted by Edward Bellamy, in his magnificent work "Looking Backwards," admirably represents the Theosophical idea of what should be the first great step towards the full realization of universal brotherhood. The state of things he depicts falls short of perfection, because selfishness still exists and operates in the hearts of men. But in the main, selfishness and individualism have been overcome by the feeling of solidarity and mutual brotherhood; and the scheme of life there described reduces the causes tending to create and foster selfishness to a minimum.

Madame Blavatsky was a noted member of the British Fabian Society, and the founder of the Theosophical Society. Her glowing endorsement of Bellamy's book Looking Backward is quite interesting. Like Blavatsky, Annie Besant, another Fabian and top leader within the Theosophical Society, wrote this: (The Changing World and Lectures to Theosophical Students, page 40)

If you are going to make the men who should give better work to the country than the weeding of paths weed their own paths for themselves, then you are putting a check on the whole of the higher kinds of labour on which the nobler national life depends, for it is as true now as it ever was that man does not live by bread alone. If you are going to make every man do manual labour, you can get nothing more than the kind of paradise that you find in "Looking Backward," which is more a paradise for the respectable suburb than for a nation that needs art and beauty, music and literature. Those things want leisure to produce and time to perfect.

After Bellamy passed away, other Fabians cheered the fact that under the guise and title of "Nationalism",(which is the name that Bellamy gave his socialist ideas) Bellamy was the first to successfully(in a major way) foster socialist ideas in the United States.

When Bellamy talked about "Nationalism", what he meant was the other meaning of the word - the nationalization of all industry in the hands of government. That's a large part of what Blavatsky and Besant like so much about his work.


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: nationalism; progressingamerica; theosophy
Progressives of all stripes, on all continents, cannot get past their obsession with the "organization of society".
1 posted on 01/03/2016 8:24:59 AM PST by ProgressingAmerica
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To: celmak; SvenMagnussen; miss marmelstein; conservatism_IS_compassion; Loud Mime; Grampa Dave; ...
If anybody wants on/off the revolutionary progressivism ping list, send me a message

Progressives do not want to discuss their own history. I want to discuss their history.

Summary: There is a huge difference between nationalism and Nationalism.

2 posted on 01/03/2016 8:28:09 AM PST by ProgressingAmerica (We cannot leave history to the historians anymore.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

Apparently no relation to Christian socialist Francis Bellamy who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance which was saluted with the Bellamy salute till the nazis started using it.


3 posted on 01/03/2016 8:34:09 AM PST by cripplecreek (Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.)
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To: cripplecreek

I think they were cousins(Edward and Francis) but I’m not sure.


4 posted on 01/03/2016 8:40:40 AM PST by ProgressingAmerica (We cannot leave history to the historians anymore.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

The fallacy of composition of Theosophy is that all souls are equal in importance, but evolve at different rates over lifetimes. For development of the soul there needs to be a landscape of temptations and tribulations to stimulate and decimate the evolution of souls. Welcome to Earth.

Socialists focus on the equality of souls, and ignore the attendant evolution that requires strife in the lives of persons attached to any given soul in any given lifetime.

Saints and sinners. One defines the other. Both are necessary for evolution.


5 posted on 01/03/2016 8:41:25 AM PST by RideForever (OldMainframer)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

Hegelian crackpots.


6 posted on 01/03/2016 8:45:46 AM PST by Misterioso (Jihadists are driven by the Prophet motive.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica
But the key phrase was

you are putting a check on the whole of the higher kinds of labour on which the nobler national life depends

He wanted different people doing different things, or so he said. What he really wanted was a whole lot of other people who "labor" so he could have the nobler national life. He needed"leisure to produce and time to perfect.", and they needed to work to give him those benefits.

The progressives ALWAYS believe they are the entitled ones, the more equal ones, to make a jest.
7 posted on 01/03/2016 9:08:11 AM PST by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica
selfishness still exists and operates in the hearts of men. But in the main, selfishness and individualism have been overcome by the feeling of solidarity and mutual brotherhood; and the scheme of life there described reduces the causes tending to create and foster selfishness to a minimum.

Rational selfishness is to be concerned about one's own life, survival, and interests. Whether one studies the nature of life, of value, of virtue, or of cognition, the conclusion is the same. To be, for a rational being, is to be selfish - by an act of choice.

As for individualism, reason and rationality are attributes of the individual, and there is no such thing as a collective mind or brain.

8 posted on 01/03/2016 9:14:31 AM PST by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: ProgressingAmerica

Blavatsky - Crowley - Muslim Brotherhood - Alinksky - Clinton - Obama...

So that’s why that photograph of Obama wearing a Aleister Crowly t-shirt IMHO needs another look. This is the “70+ million dollar vacation president” who proclaimed he was not going to take any vacations during his term in office. Gun control is flack necessary to obscure the view. We “bitter clingers” mustn’t see what mayhem these adherents have caused the rest of the world. So a crisis emerges out of whole cloth to distract the nation under siege. The connection between them all is fascism and its ancient technique is called propaganda. Magicians anyone? It is part of “political occultism.” The Italian experience has been mentioned recently in comparison with Obama in fact. We can adjust the “lens” a little here, and fill in the list with linked entities hidden, from the distracted victims, because certainly there are other adherents who could be added.


9 posted on 01/03/2016 10:08:39 AM PST by DustyBowl (ShazzamObama?)
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To: DustyBowl

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, “ 1 Timothy 4:1


10 posted on 01/03/2016 2:41:43 PM PST by captmar-vell
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To: captmar-vell

Says also essentially not to bother with those kinds of people because you’d be wasting time. It sure does seem that is the case today. There’s a bit of false historicism built from promises and dreams from the ancient world that has always been hi-jacked repeatedly to appear we’re all “progressing” toward a vague utopia from some dim past. I think it is an impossible task to defeat these ideas. It is better handled by Jesus frankly. Those alternative schemes ultimately fail; there’s no path to enlightenment and the Truth is probably a little confusing for them - for we know actually the Bible means little else to those who’ve not been touched or saved by Jesus. How can we few overcome a couple thousand years of adulation toward Plato’s totalitarian schemes? Ignore it? Write dense critiques like Karl Popper? I’m sure glad the author wants to talk about “progressive” history; because it is as much a faith as any other comparable framework such as Scientology. Thanks for the reminder Captain.


11 posted on 01/03/2016 6:29:23 PM PST by DustyBowl (who has time to sit around and grouse about Theosophy anyway?)
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