Posted by Ginger (199.227.99.230) on April 04, 2000 at 10:06:57:
In Reply to: Re: Visitation posted by Alex on April 04, 2000 at 08:24:43:
I want to thank you all for the oportunity to gain some insights from your points of view. And I wanted to also offer mine.
Although I'm becomeing more inclined to believe that some of the people behind these programs are quite complicitly evil, I'm still not 100% convinced that every last one is not acting on what they view as high ideals. Himler, in a note to a collegue, described the Final Solution in clowing terms. He said something along the lines that it was an heroic act to complete this task and still remain decent and that it was one of Germany's greatest moments that history would probably never record. There's no telling his motive behind these words. He might have been being candid or manipulative.
But we're not dealing directly with the Himlers in this scenario. We're dealing with faithful devotees to a cause. And we were all among them, to one degree or another, at one time. My mother still is.
I make it my business _not_ to know the particulars of her involvement, but I know that she went from Straight Sarasota into a militant anti abortion organization. I don't know what happened next, only that she's still devoted to the cause. Knowing her as well as I do, I guess I'll always be a little angry with her for her cowardice and how it has effected our family. The Seed was not the beginning of her madness, it was just an ideal growth medium.
Haveing been on both sides of the wire, I find it much easier to walk in my skin knowing some of my errors than it was trying to justify outrageous acts. Far, far more than anger, I feel sympathy and empathy for the whole lot of them.
If there is one bit of pragmatic advice that I could give, it would be to draw attention to the successes outside the cult rather than the horrors inside. The program relies heavily on maintaining a very negative image of outsiders but that doesn't stand the light of day.
"Speak gently! 't is a little thing Dropp'd in the heart's deep well; The good, the joy, that it may bring Eternity shall tell." -- G. W. Langford: Speak gently.