Beneficial to some families.

[Anonymous]

Before you go fucking this post all to hell, just please read it from start to finish. Mkay? I can appreciate some of the more sarcastic replies that are very typical on this forum -- and especially when it comes to dealing with key terms like child abuse here. But please read this all the way out before you judge me. Thanks alot.

Now, I do realize that not every thing about Straight was bad. Right now I'm not talking about anything other than regular childhood development type shits. Some of us were really healthy before we went into Straight actually. And so we got in there and eventually, depending on the phase, we became ourselves for at least a part of some small time. I know I was never the same after Straight, but sometimes there are parts of that history I do miss although I wish I was never there to begin with. I made some friends in there and I probably don't talk to them as a result of the shit that we did to each other in there. Bad memories come with the good I guess.

For others, I think Straight might have helped them. I know that sounds fucking sick and I don't condone child abuse or the take of civil liberties here y'all. Some kids may find that Straight was indeed beneficial to them and their families, those kids got easy street but I can't even believe I'm writing this though it rings true to me.

I shouldn?t have to spell this one out, but I?ll try. Some children really did have the help of their parents. Some parents who weren?t always busy with work, parents who were not content to merely dump off their child in the hands of a kid?s chop shop, they really got involved. These children succeeded and perhaps their family became closer as a result of real effort. These children did not stay in Straight Incorporated for very long because their family, each person, took responsibility for treatment and all that it takes.

However, I believe that there are more statistics that support the children who were not actually drug addicts, children who were dropped off because of single mothers or fathers who were desperate or were looking for a quick date or something to belong to, or a place to dump your child. If around 50,000 children were in all of the Straights, and only about 12,000 graduated or their lives and families were somehow saved (that is only a 24% success rate godfuckingdammit and I hate our government for that), that is an awful low fraction for the money our parents paid along with donations and feeding the other piece of shit children. Motherfuckall.

There were some drug addicted children that really perhaps could use the help, and their families and they really did utilize the program, regardless if their civil rights were taken and they were abused daily. But evidence probably supports those who speak out against abuse and that more abuse did happen. This can be shown in the evidence that convoluted issues of the nuclear family take a whole hell of a lot of counseling divided out over years of patience and talking and noncoercive writing alone with yourself, and it is very intense and seldom probably works. Nothing like this could Straight ever offer with their mere weekend parent meetings, in my opinion.

Also, although I do realize that there were indeed people in Straight that could use that help, wouldn't Straight have been over it's objective head by taking on anything or anyone who did not have anything BUT drug and alcohol addiction? I for one, for example, had no addiction...I was told I was being placed in there because of my older sibling. But from day one I was told that if I didn't say I was addicted and had a drug problem that I would not be able to do anything you know the deal.

You sat next to people you couldn't now be sure whether they were fresh from the clink or juvee, or whether they just came off the fucking boat no joke. Some kids in there wanted nothing more than to fight or lick your ass at the host home at night behind armed doors. Not sure how much fights and asslicking really help with therapy. I would think these kinds of physical therapy are more for adding to the years it takes to bring a family back to a healthy nucleus where no nucleus existed.

[Antigen]

I can well imagine that some people landed up in a better circumstance due to having been put in Straight in just exactly the same way that some people land up better off for having been hit by a bus. Adversity sometimes does build character. Sometimes not, sometimes it just breaks you.

It's impossible to say, though, as we don't know a damned thing about other group member's lives before or after, except the extremely exagerated bullshit we all had to say in group all the time.

But I don't buy that ppl w/ actual drug problems benefited or could benefit from the Program as it was designed. Those people have no concept of any accurate, useful information about drugs, drug use, drug abuse or getting a handle on those things. It's all stepcraft based and highly destructive.

And, in fact, just about everyone I've run accross who went through Straight or other Synanon based programs winds up binging and using to excess for a time afterward. If anything, the Program seems to induce unhealthy drug habits, not correct them.

The law in its majestic equality, forbids all men to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread - the rich as well as the poor

--Anatole France

[dragonfly]

[Antigen]

Dragonfly, I sometimes think that. Like when life turns cruel, I soldier up. It's not heroic or extraordinary or particularly difficult for me to deal w/ shit. I just don't feel a thing. It's like I'm on thorazine or something till later. I know where I learned that and it has come in handy. But I wonder what might have been. I think I was starting to become a pretty adept human being before I learned these nifty survival tricks. What might have been?

Faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction- faith in fiction is a damnable false hope.
--Thomas Edison, American inventor

[dragonfly]

[Anonymous]

I don't think I was just being nostalgic at the first post here.  Some of it was yeah, the part about growing up and missing some parts of my childhood -- even the times I was happy at Straight. I do think it would have been much greater without Straight.  I think Gin is on point with what she is saying. I also think she is on point and accurate about the separation of a child's tendency to be happy without the use of Straight to do that. That's what I was saying to begin with I think, there were some good time in Straight that I had but they were Not facilitated by steps or my having learned to emulate people and other shit.

I have yet to actually meet or speak to anyone who isn't quiet or forgetful about yesterday. The value of nostalgia is losing it's grip on me, you let some things go, you keep the things that have value. I've been getting rid of alot of old cassette tapes that don't sell for more than 50 cents at the music store (for example), and I've been trying to make some sense as to myself during those days. Hey, I'm learning to and yeah I'm trying to make sense and more just organize what happened back then. Alot of organizing words have been coming up about Straight.

Especially that word Stepcraft. A.A. and N.A. were made by a guy in a midlife crisis situation, and he suddenly found god and he went around finding other bums who were having midlife criseze (is that spelled right?). And Straight was all about the use of that. Straight used any freaking thing, any tool or verbage it could find to make us think we were addicted to drugs. See, I was never in Straight for my drug addiction. The fucked up problem with me is that my folk didn't put me in there for drug addiction. Straight staff was happy to tell ma and pa that I could be treated for 'attitude adjustment'. My parent really just couldn't figure out what the fuck was wrong with me and why, honest to god, I wouldnt' 'get with the program'.

And only JUST RIGHT NOW have I made the connection, only five seconds ago, did I see that my parent did not realize, could not have known, that they were not treating me for an attitude problem. Only once during my tenure at Straight did a senior staff slightly suggest to me in group that I might have had simply an attitude problem. Only, the group never remembered that kind of shit.  

I hate to prattle on and on, again I'm just ordering shit in a row and seeing what comes back. But a good example of procedures that were performed in a cultgroupthink are like the recent news (also on Montel and other stations and papers, its everywhere I'm sure) about false imprisonment. These women were being arrested and it had become clear to the police who did the booking that these women were NOT the women who commited the crimes. However, because of procedure or not wanting to lose the book -- the police went ahead and saw to it that these women get convicted.

Now, you can always say 'well, it coulda happened, they could likely be the ones'. Same with Straight Incorporated. They told my parent that indeed I would be treated for an attitude adjustment. But the minute you get in group the staff member, next to the oldcomer who had me beltlooped, doesn't say to the group, "he's not here for a drug problem, parent stuck this child for an attitude adjustment or 'dry addiction' or as a would-be-druggy".

It's, "he's tried pot once, alcohol once with her father, and there will be more to come as he gets honest".  "Hi ......., we love you .......".

And so the procedure of the group was as follows: One Size Fits All. If you get confused about the procedure; simply refer to the big fucking First Step on the fucking wall. And so some parents couldn't understand why their children weren't getting with the program, or why they were bankrupted after their overeating child, or like me -- tudinal child, sat and sat and sat for years in a place that wasn't helping but probably only causing more harm. Yeah, we treat that, too. Yes that, too. Short of physical operation and outright szichophrenia we woulda took your ass in and recreated you as a fucking druggy. Now, remember, I was at the headquarters. I also, pitifully, served for a time on staff. That was a joke because Straight was near closing. I didn't have near as much fun as when I first came into the joint, no more spit therapy, no more clocking the fucking shit out of each other, no more running for kids to the doors -- just let 'em go.

No, I agree with Gin that these facilitations didn't do much for the way aiding my childhood, and sure as shit didn't help me now in later life at all. I have to spend time getting to know my fucking family again. Stepcraft did not help,  I agree.

I actually did speak to one man who said that although he thought there were some things wrong with Straight, he didn't have big complaints. Of course, his mother was in A.A. and so he bought into that whole fucking thing with a calm soul the prick. I guess that's the only person I know who is still into the whole A.A. thing and shit. A family of lushes sticks together?

Not sure what my point is DF, I know I'm not merely rambling. Of course, you see people on the street and you think to yourself...I bet they're doing well they look good. Wishful thinking? Then later after you see the fuckers you think how much you would have liked to have had your guard up and have bashed that person's face in with a crowbar. Not sure what the crowbar fixation is.

Now you're amazed at my clarity of thought, you can't believe I'm one of the three or four trolls who posts here. Sometimes I amaze myself. I guess I just get freakin antsy sometimes, I'm like that 7th Samurai in that movie 7 Samurai -- he is always wanting to do something dammit! I want to kick ass and make fun of my enemies. I want to dress in their clothes and fool them, and I want to kill them. Yes. I do. Calm down. That will never happen.

But anyway, I think I was looking for a little more than a walk down memory lane here. I hope that answers your question. I am wondering the value of yesterday. Can I make money from it? I have a really wonderful idea that I am certain at least Gin and some of the smarter folk around here have thought of already. Some of us are not as smart or cool as others, I know. But I do derive some alternative values from the Straight Inc., I don't suppose I find those outright values to be anything more than shit like total child abuse and crime ...but I see some other potentials that I don't think others have mentioned so much. Maybe I'm still sick.

[dragonfly]

[Anonymous]

hmm. contact me at publicbroadcastpublic@yahoo.com

you have some good ideas, too.

I would be willing to tell one person some of these ideas, simply because they are not big ideas worth mentioning and also I'm not ready to tell every fucking person.

[Anonymous]

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