Theosophy Adyar:- Does the Society need a President or General Council?

The Future? of the Adyar Theosophical Society

ABOLISH

The International President

ABOLISH

The General Council

An idea for consideration

Just look at the current nonsense and waste of energy in conducting an election with a choice of two silent candidates, who by their compliance with the General Council’s request to remain silent, demonstrate their inability to assert any authority over anything if elected. Why not choose two dummies out of Burton’s window? At least if you buy something unsatisfactory from Burton you can take it back and get a refund.

Candidates who say nothing about their policies, for whatever reason, should be treated with extreme suspicion. Have both candidates agreed that if elected they will continue to carry out the wishes of the General Council as they are doing at the moment? Certainly keeping important issues beyond discussion has been the policy of the President and General Council for decades and there is no indication that this will change. What gives the General Council the right to keep the paying members, that they are supposed to represent, in the dark? The General Council members evidently see themselves as having a divine right to rule.

All this presents a good case for abolishing the office of International President. What is the point in retaining a person to head the organisation who is just a puppet of the General Council, and ultimately under the sway of the Adyar controllers? In theory the President should have authority over the governing echelons of the Society but both candidates are advertising the fact that they don’t have this. The main duty of the International President will be no more than to perform a public relations exercise for the ruling elite. This reflects an organisational power structure that has managed promotion from within and kept those who were unacceptable to the elite, out of the running for any senior position. The paying members are not in the reckoning of either the President or General Council and get no benefit from the system.

Abolishing the office of International President leads to a further question. What is the use of a General Council that serves no other function than to be a self-perpetuating power elite at the expense of the Society’s members? The General Council could be abolished and replaced by Liaison Secretaries for each national section who could keep in touch and liaise as required without holding conventions, which most of them may not be able to attend. Liaison Secretary would be a purely functionary role and not for someone with international power and swanning about aspirations. Adyar would no longer be funded by the Society but it gives nothing in return for the money it drains from the members anyway. The Adyar controllers could nevertheless canvass national sections and make a case for funding. The reformed organisation could be called something on the lines of the “The International Theosophical Society” or even “Theosophy International”.

So here is a proposal that dispenses with a cumbersome, elitist and self serving control system at a stroke, and gives the current Adyar Theosophical Society a new structure and identity. The Society would also continue as a unified body. I am sure there will be other proposals as it becomes increasingly obvious that the current Adyar Theosophical Society cannot continue. It will be better to have an organisation with no ruling elite than the situation of a ruling elite with no organisation, that is rapidly developing.