Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Freedom has suggested something interesting: females were essentially disposable. In a male-dominated, post-feudal Chinese society, they were convenient for the rise, then could be dispensed with. Doyle's biography put it well. "He set himself up with closest "apostolic" coworkers Female A and Female B, with himself supreme." Female A and Female B won't challenge the Alpha Male (Male A) in this cultural setting; they're a firewall against apostolic co-workers Male B and Male C, who might begin to vie with the Alpha Male for supremacy.
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I think that the LC has a very specific agenda with the whole M.E. Barber story. As you have said, the initial precedent of Nee's working with and appreciating female workers has no parallel in the LC today. I have suggested that WN didn't see female coworkers as 'threats' compared to male coworkers, but this doesn't account for Miss Barber.
In her relationship with Nee, M.E. Barber was the master and he was the apprentice. I think that Nee eventually came to see this relationship as his 'credentials' in his own quest for power, and his followers like Lee obviously picked up on what kind of meaning Nee wanted to assign to this relationship. There are two factors I see in why LCers see it beneficial to reference this relationship.
Firstly the relationship is used by LCers to show that Nee himself once submitted to someone, and it was very tough kind of submission at that. Having been under Barber, Nee could tell everyone that he too had submitted to someone in a way that would have been humiliating for most young men in a male-dominated society. I would think that he probably outdid most in being able to submit to someone. As the ultimate 'submitter', Nee could then discuss deputy authority and no one seemed to think twice about it. Since no one could match the standard that Nee had set, it was all too easy for him to set himself up as the shepherd of dump sheep who needed a lesson or two in submission. Apparently he had already paid his dues. I think this made it easy for everyone to let their guards down.
The second purpose that the Barber/Nee relationship has served is that it is viewed as the archetypal master/apprentice relationship in the LC. To go along with the deputy authority teaching and the idea of an unquestioned leader, it was extremely convenient to imply that submission to a leader who was known for humiliation and abuse was just fine. It is even seen as a necessary step to be 'perfected'. What could have been more convenient for Nee than to make reference to this relationship?