I can't help noticing -- and in fact have commented on it today -- that most of
the responses to the pundit riot furor have been pretty much standard cult
fare, primarily consisting of Shoot the messenger and trying to demonize
critics.
And this coming from people who specialize in shouting Oooopsie anytime
someone they're not fond of makes what they think is an error, and demanding
that they own up to it and apologize profusely. Seems to me that the TM
movement just made a pretty fucking big Oooopsie. Shouldn't they be held to the
same standards these people apply to their enemies?
Well, this thread offers them an opportunity to do something different,
something a tad more positive:
If you believe that the TM Pundit Program is valuable, please explain to us
WHY you believe this.
Hopefully you will be able to present some credible arguments to back up your
belief, something more than, Well...it must be good because Maharishi said it
was. We'll wait.
In the meantime, I'll explain my beliefs about the whole pundit thang, pointing
out at the outset that these are *only* my beliefs, and suspicions.
I believe that the pundit project -- in particular the recruitment of young
(as young as 6-8 years old) boys -- to turn them into Maharishi pundits is
and always was a cynical scam dreamed up by Girish Varma and Maharishi's other
relatives in India. It's a cash cow to get suckers to donate big bucks for
something they know nothing about and support only because of Maharishisez,
but will continue to support anyway with their money because Maharishiseddit.
I suspect that Girish Varma and his ilk thought up this scam and then either
blackmailed Maharishi into supporting it, or took advantage of his end-of-life
dementia and vanity (he *did* spend his last days focusing on and applauding
mainly efforts to build monuments to his memory, after all) to get him to throw
his support behind it. This succeeded, and forced the TM movement to *also*
support it, again because of the all-powerful Maharishisez.
After he died, the cash cow continued on its own, still raking in money from
supporters eager to do something to honor Maharishi's memory and (in their
minds, at least) help to create world peace. And yet in all of the years the
program has been in existence, I don't remember ANY evidence being presented
that it has accomplished anything at all *except* being an effective cash cow
to sucker donations from TM practitioners. It's in my opinion a cynical scam
that takes advantage of poverty and ignorance to convince poor parents into
selling their children into indentured servitude, all for the profit of Girish
Varma and his Indian mafia.
That's my honest opinion. Here's your opportunity to provide yours. If you feel
you can make a case for the pundit program providing benefit, and thus being
continued, please do so.
