On 2006-03-21 12:49:00, Anonymous wrote:
They are kids whose parents are too busy to deal with even normal teenage behavior who hear about these programs typically by word of mouth or on the Internet.
...
It's an effing racket that will never go away as long as their is DEMAND. The best anyone can hope for is that these program kids grow up to be better parents, lawyers and law makers ... to reverse the trend in time to save the next generation of kids from being ... well, SAVED, by evil, greedy, emotionally regressive people dressed up like Teen Helpers.
:smokin: "
I agree with this with one caveat. I don't know if very many of the parents are just too busy. I have heard of it from former program employees and it sure seems like that's the motive on the surface. But I think there's something more going on here.
First off, I have to say that wasn't my parents' motive. They were not wealthy people. They didn't have anything better to do with themselves. And the way the Seed was set up, it took a LOT of time and effort on the part of most of the parents. Not all, some just dropped their kids off one day and never were very involved themselves. But for the majority, it's something else, and something that I think has crept into our society on a grand scale and going back to the turn of the
last century.
In this brave new world of ours, you can buy damned near anything. Trouble sleeping? Take a pill. Emotional upset? Here's another. Romantic problems? Call Dr. Phil or watch Oprah. They'll solve your problems for you, right kiddies?
I'd love to see some kind of serious study into the social influences of people most likely to buy into the Program. You can guess some of it. Where did they advertise before the net went commercial a decade or so ago? Well, they got all kinds of endorsements from daytime talk shows. I never have been able to stomach those. Who the hell wants to sit around watching strangers blubbering over the intimate details of their private lives for the entertainment of their live studio and tee vee viewling audience?
Not me! It makes my stomach turn. I spent two years locked into a fucked up place where I had to do that all day every day and pretend to like it. Thank GOD that's over! Why would I want to subject myself to it now when I can turn the idiot box off and listen to some good music and read a book or have some thoughtful conversation w/ you folks instead?
But just look at the ratings! These shows are popular. I'd be willing to bet good money, too, that there's significant crossover between this audience and Program parents.
We have arrived at a place in history where people will actually dump a friend or lover, alter their diets, sell their homes and move, change careers or make other important, life changing decisions just because some blow dried exhibitionist/voyer freak show celebrity on the idiot box says so. So of
course they're easy game for these self appointed teenager wrangling gurus!
The Troubled Parent industry is, I think, a perfectly predictable outgrowth of that. They take it one step further, though, in declaring "disordered" any kid who doesn't see the sense of doing whatever that freak, Phil McGraw advises.
THAT has GOT to change if we're to save civilization. And I think program vets are a natural to bring that about. Because we got a particularly potent slice of it, in order to make sense of life and hang onto our own sanity, we've had to examine this fucked up shit more closely than your typical Wall-Mart shopper.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
-- John F. Kennedy (1917-63), U.S. Democratic politician, president. Speech, 13 March 1962, the White House.
