Does anyone remember Straight with any fondness?

[Anonymous]

I don't think brainwashing has anything to do with whether or not you have an open mind. It has to do with being, in my case, young, gullible, and in the hands of sadists practiced in the evil arts of behavior modification. Are you saying that if I had had an open mind in Straight, none of their tactics would have worked? Is this a clue for all potential brainwash victims, to just go in there, if they have no choice, and keep an open mind? Should I post that, along with the advice of having a secret bank account and a secret contract with a child's rights lawyer, in every youth shelter in town?

[starry-eyed pirate]

Of course, that's not what i'm sayin.  That would be taken the wrong way. What i'm sayin' is that brainwash is an implanted prejudice.  Do you agree ??  Prejudice can only form in a mind that is no longer open. Prejudice resides in fear.  Intimidation is it's seed. So if i had remained fearless in str8 none of their tactics would have worked.  They would have had no way to land any of their threats or manipulations or intimidations on me.  Authority exploits the fearful, while under the same conditions, the fearless are free. i guess my advice to anyone on front row would be: remain fearless at all costs and don't let them plant their seed.

[Anonymous]

well i am not sure i could even give that advice if, say, i knew that a kid was about to be shipped off to Tranquility Bay. i would say, maybe you should toe the line, kid, because they are so reckless with the physical punishment they could in fact kill you if you try remain fearless and unintimidatable.

maybe you should read up on thought reform before you place the unfair burden on a victim of thought reform practices that if only they had kept an open mind they would not have been brainwashed.

see, one of the tactics is confusion, they confuse people on purpose. another tactic is taking you out of your environment and cutting off your social contacts. this is very powerful. you had been living in a rational world with rational people, so you might expect that from the people you now found yourself with. so you might keep an open mind to what they are saying, have no time to process this information, no space in your mind to keep any insights that might be informing you about the truth. you yourself have mentioned the sleep deprivation. how is anyone going to think clearly in such a situation?

http://http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=10784&forum=7

[starry-eyed pirate]

You are so right in regard to the full on, all out(physical together with the mental)) assault on the victims of brainwash.  Even last night, as i was writing my previous post i was thinking the same thing.  How does one maintain a fearless mind while under the constant threat of violence ??  i was not able to do it myself.  i lost my integrity to str8, lost my mind, lost my confidence, lost my way.  Maybe you are right and i need to study up on thought reform practices.  Then again i have first hand experience in surviving thought reform practice.  i have lived through it.  i was in str8 for 23 months, 10 of which were on 1st phase, and at least 2 of those months were spent under hardcore siege as i "misbehaved".  i know somethin' about it.

At one point while i was "misbehavin" they had to completely isolate me from group.  They had to keep me in an intake room for a week or 10 days.  In the intake room i had crayons to draw with and was allowed to write poetry.  It wasn't so much a punishment to me, as i had alot more freedom in that intake room than would have had in group, but it was an attempt to keep me from influencin' the group.  They were afraid of me.  Afraid of what i knew.  Afraid of my integrity.  This is when i went on consequences.  The sleep deprivation is what finally got to me.  i think i was able to endure that for maybe a week or 10 days(the sleep deprivation and my time in the intake room were concurrent) and that was all i could take, and that is when i lost so much.  i am angry at str8, but i am also angry with myself for not bein' stronger.
 

i don't know if i would ever reccomend anyone ever "toe the line".  i want to know: how do we defend ourselves ??  i'm searchin' for the answer.  For now my best advice to anyone on front row would be: maintain a state of fearlessness, act without re-acting, hold on to your integrity. God is in you.  You are creation.
And of course, run for your life the first chance you get.

Fuck, i don't know. i wish i did. i am still confused.  Believe me, i wish i had an answer.  There is somethin' of value that i am tryin' to express here. i am tired.  God.  This is all i have. Fuck !!  Does anyone have an answer ??  

Fuck str8.  Fuck all authority.  Fuck fear.  Fuck str8.  Fuck all authority.  Fuck fear.  Fuck str8.  Fuck all authority.  Fuck fear.  Fuck str8.  Fuck all authority.  Fuck fear.  Fuck str8.  Fuck all authority.  Fuck fear.  Fuck str8.  Fuck all authority.  Fuck fear. Fuck str8.  Fuck all authority.  Fuck fear.  Fuck str8.  Fuck all authority.  Fuck fear.          

         :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull: :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:  

Om-Shanti



_________________
If you would have justice in this world, then begin to see that a human being is not a means to some end.  People are not commodities.  When human beings are just to one another government becomes obsolete and real freedom is born; SPIRITUAL ANARCHY.

[Woof-a-Doof]

On 2005-08-16 13:04:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Were there any good things about Straight?

I went to the Seed and I have some really good memories..."

Perhaps I am caught up in the semantics of the question, and further left to wonder if there is confusion of memories and qualities or rather "good things about Straight".

My memories are separate from qualities/tactics of Straight.

In thinking about the post, I felt it to be a legitimate question, one worth exploring. My memories of my adolescence all revolve around Straight, how could they not. Surely there is a mix of memories, some horrible, some dramatic, some shocking, some depressing, some capable of evoking intense rage some 27 years after the fact. But that is not a complete assessment or accurate representation of my ?memories?.

It is not difficult to search my memories and recall faces and sometimes names that bring about a smile or a chuckle. There are incidents that I hold as ?classic? moments of defiance, civil and non-civil disobedience.

My first ?love? (ahem) was a ?graduate? of the program, my first ?affair? was with a staff member, my first acid trip was with another former staff member. I still pull a joke on people that I learned from another former staff member, Dave McAdams (who was one of my new-comers) He would start having a conversation and then slowly lower his voice to a whisper, all the while still mouthing the words?Silly, I know?but works every time.

The incongruence, of my ?memories?, often make it difficult to have a solidified opinion on my ?memories? as classifying the entire experience as totally horrid or simply a bizarre experience that I had. If I were pressed into an answer, it would be that it is a mixture of both. Not always equal nor do they always carry the same weight. Each memory is about as important to me as the value I attach to it at any given time?which is subject to change, depending.

I certainly understand the rage expressed towards our imprisonment, I have experienced that myself. Tactics used by Straight, what was what Straight was all about, there were no clearly defined objectives or goals. Although the rules were explicit and subject to change, they were always for the more restrictive/punitive measure. The rules/tactics, seldom (if ever) were relaxed enough to allow any sense of possible freedom, physical or otherwise. This made it very difficult to devise a method of release from the program. So soon helplessness and profound hopelessness descended like a wet moldy blanket. This will leave a lasting impression and truthfully, it is difficult to remember those ?good memories?. It is not that those ?good memories? are not there or that they didn?t occur. But they are few and far between. They are obscured by other memories as a result of ?things about Straight?.

I doubt I am alone in my opinion and in the same breath I know others may find my view absurd. Either way, just my two cents.

In Peace

[Anonymous]

I'm not completely disagreeing with your assessment Woof, as I think there is some merit to what you are saying, that the bad memories vastly outwiegh any "good ones." But I would go further and add....the only real "good memories" were those shining moments of defiance and disobedience, however, those defiant moments resulted in severe consequences. So I cant see how they can really be "good memories."

But I got to thinking about what you were saying and this is what I came up with....about "good memories" I may have had in Straight, such as a 4th or 5th phase outing for example....they were completely warped, and not of my own free will. I mean...how is it possible that a good outing could be a good memory when its tained by Straight's lies...Seriously, any "fun" that we may have had....was "fun" by Straight's twisted definition, not our own individual definition of "fun." In those "fun" moments, we had to be obeying Straight's strictrules, and twisted sense of "applying our program" while having "fun," or else there was hell to pay.

So I guess its hard for me to see how there could be good memories when those memories were a just a manifestation of complying with Straights rules, out of fear of the consequences if we didn't have "fun" Straight's way. And the moments of defiance which could by some be considered a good memory is completely negated by the consequences that those defiant ones endured as a result. I hope I am making sense...

 ::rainbow::

[Nonconformistlaw]

Oops, forgot to login..the previous anon post was me!  ::rainbow::

[Napolean Bonafart]

I got right the Hell outa that place. It was very EVIL from the word GO, on intake and that asshole that died Ken Sikes hovering over me like a damned vulture.Fond memories? Yeah I got out alive and got safe away and hid in Dunedin. After a Christian picked me up hitch-hiking from the sky-way bridge and took me back to Trinity college and we prayed and I accepted Christ.My whole reputation at school was ruined becauase of the brainwashed teachers and I had to finish my diploma in summer school. Only God knows why I showed up at LIFE on my own. I was looking for a wife. :smokin:
"Mine Eyes have seen the Glory of The Coming Of The Lord"[ This Message was edited by: The Root Of Jesse on 2005-08-23 02:02 ]

[dragonfly]

[ex-prisoner]

I don't think I was equipped to be "close" to anyone there. Like this one girl, who had already been there for quite a while, god, like maybe even two years by that point? Holy fuck. So she was sitting in the back in girls' rap, rocking back and forth. It upsets me to think about it now, how she was so obviously in a lot of pain. Then staff stands her up, she says something about her mother, and staff asks if anyone would like to relate to her. Anyone? No one knows what to say. I stood up and said my two-bit whatever, but god. Get the girl her mother, already! Get her out of there! How can humans be so blind? If anyone knows where she is these days, please let me know. That was 1987 Straight VA. Her initials are H.F. I'm crying for you now, girl, sorry I didn't know what the fuck was going on then.

[Anonymous]

Positive things about Striaight. That's a tough one. Yes, I had plenty "fond" memories while I was in there, but whether that was Straight being okay, or whether I made the best of it is hard to tell. It was a truly horrible program and it is weird that it ever existed. It's like it was created just to destroy us very important people. Forget it. This always happens. I start writing and I get confused when it comes to Straight. Abuse. Because Straight was a blend of "positive" things and "negative" things as is most everything in life. It is hard to separate the positvive from the negative because the positive things don't atone for the negative things and child abuse and what not. That's it-good night.

[Anonymous]

:skull: I recall an experment that was done with primates.  They took these monkey babies and they took them from their mothers and they placed them in these cages with these stuffed animal substitutes.  The chimp-babies clung to their substitute 'mothers' for comfort.  The researchers then placed wires on the stuffed animal surrogates and gave the chimp-babies a series of electrical shocks.  Despite repeated shocks, the chimp babies came back for more 'comfort'.  This was some sort of an experiment to try and understand how children of abuse can stay with their abusers and still speak highly of them at time.  I thought of that experiment when I read the above thread.  I think you really have to question the 'fondness' you have for straight given the foundations of its abuse.  I've had conversations with people on the 'was there anything good about Straight' before.  I think people wanted to know if they helped anyone.  My response was that such a question was beside the point.  There was nothing, in my opinion, that corresponded to actual treatment in Straight.  People in concentration camps talk of occassional bright times between killings.  Playing card games on scraps of toilet paper.  Oh those were the good old days huh?  :skull:  :skull:  :skull:

[Gah]

On 2005-08-16 13:04:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Were there any good things about Straight?

I went to the Seed and I have some really good memories..."

I sat and tried to figure out what a fond memory would consist of. I think you know we would all try and analyze it all. What I came up with is......

I think you are FULL OF SHIT!!!!!

[4Reagan2Youth0]

Degenerated

Johnny went out on a Tuesday night
Johnny can't read, Johnny can't write
Johnny just don't understand
Johnny don't care about this world
As long as he can fuck his girl
And prove that he's a man

Johnny waits on stage, eating ludes
He's a teen-age vegetable
Getting high proves that he's cool
Johnny hates to think
He's ignorant
He's a mindless brain washed pig
Ring a bell he starts to drool

Degenerated Degenerated
And your minds have vegetated
Degenerated Degenerated
And your thoughts are constipated
He's got P.C.P in his veins

Got a void in his brain
He's addicted to the TV
And when he's old he'll have a son
He'll rot away in the rotting slums
What's to become of young Johnny?

[Napolean Bonafart]

Ha! Yeah, about as fond as the teachers paddle in middle school. But what the hell?...... I needed someone to kick my ass mentally in the Seed, but Straight? FUCK NO! That was non becoming and abusive mentally and emotionally. Ask Barry. I split after one day. He was there 2 years on his program. He's a broken individual now. I got the blame for all the shit that happened to him, my brother just because he thought I was having a picnic. Screw Straight and Petermann.

That's all marijuana is, after all. It's just a plant, a common and easily grown one at that. In many cultures, its consumption was lawful for millennia. And in all that time, the bond between thugs, mayhem, murder and marijuana that we see today did not exist.

http://www.mapinc.org/author/Dan+Gardner' target='_new'>Dan Gardner, CanWest News Service