DHARMA: THE DWIGHT STUFF

So since I'm stuck here in my "offices" of Toobworld Central (actually, my bedroom), now's as good a time as any to clear out some posts I always meant to write up, as well as a few nuggets gleaned from the last week.....

This past season of 'The Office', Dwight eagerly jumped at the chance to serve as Obi-Wan Kenobi to mentor Ryan as his young padiwan. At one point, while they were out in a radish field, he peppered Ryan with a series of questions that were supposed to be dealing with the business of selling paper. But then he threw this curveball:

"What is the DHARMA Initiative?"

For the viewing audience, it was a funny reference to 'Lost'. But within the reality of Toobworld, 'The Office' and 'Lost' share the same universe. (Although 'Lost' is taking place in 2004 and 'The Office' is current.)

Here's what we know about the DHARMA Initiative from an excellent wiki site, LostPedia:

The DHARMA Initiative (Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications Initiative) is a mysterious research project, which has a large presence on the Island. Most information on the project is derived from the orientation film found at the Swan DHARMA Initiative station and the ARG The LOST Experience.

The initiative was allegedly founded in 1970 by Gerald and Karen DeGroot, two doctoral candidates at the University of Michigan. It was or is financially backed by the mysterious Danish industrialist and munitions magnate, Alvar Hanso and his Hanso Foundation. The alleged purpose of the Initiative was to create "a large-scale communal research compound where scientists and free-thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and utopian social-"

Note: The last research subject of the initiative was not fully made clear in the Swan Orientation film and is unknown (some have suggested Utopian Social Engineering or Utopian Socialism).

It all seems super-secretive and begs the question, how did Dwight know about it?
He probably didn't really know anything, which is why he was most likely asking Ryan.

Let's face it - Dwight's a dweeb. You look at him and you can see he's the kind of guy who sits in front of his computer late into the night and googles information... information... information about conspiray theories while listening to Art Bell on the radio. (If not Art Bell, who has a televersion thanks to his appearance as himself on 'Millennium', then Dwight probably listens to a Toobworld facsimile.)

In the Toobworld version of Google and other search engines, there are probably hints and clues that can lead to the truth about the Initiative... but nothing substantive even now more than three years after the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. So it must have driven Dwight batty to not have all the answers; to the point where he would ask everyone what they knew in hopes of finding the answer for himself.

Maybe Dwight thought Ryan had inside info because of his "relationship" with Kelly.....

BCnU!
Toby OB