Anarchy, Fractional Reserve Banking and ISKCON

Today I was talking with a very senior devotee; he said that ISKCON is an a state of anarchy. I didn't agree on the description and I offered a different analysis of the situation of ISKCON structure and operation worldwide.

I compared the trust of the devotees in the GBC in the faith that people have in the current banking system, technically and somewhat euphemistically called fractional reserve banking, in which only a small portion of the deposits are actually available for redemption by the clients. In other words the idea that our money is safely stored in impenetrable bank vaults represents a myth, a mere illusion. This psychological phenomenon maintains the modern system afloat.

Similarly in some places the ISKCON system of spiritual/administrative supervision is largely (not entirely) an empty structure of nominal responsibilities, lack of assessment on performances, unclear lines of command, vague checks and balances, missing job descriptions, contradictory legal statuses and plain neglect. The system survives more as a psycho-emotional entity than as an organized organization with short, medium and long term planning in place.

Well... now that I think of it, it does look pretty much like anarchy!

PS - the present situation allows the local manifestations of totalitarianism, autocratic expressions of illegitimate power.

PPS - Thank God, God exists and has a plan. The present inconsistencies could be possibly classified as the growing pain of a divinely inspired movement that expanded too much too quickly, sometimes "running on empty" socially, culturally, economically and even morally.

PPPS - I look forward to the next phase, in which professionalism, maturity and spirituality will likely manifest much more homogeneously throughout the International Society of Krishna Consciousness.