Be strong

[the sunday stealer]

They believe we are brainwashed by the marijuana plant and drug culture. There is no real truth in this reality, just various competing sets of ideas. Personally I'd rather enjoy the more enjoyable sets of values and experiences, but there's a lot of masochistic people who love to torture themselves their whole life in search of an imaginary prize, ironically no better than their bland existence on this plane...

[Ganja]

They believe we are brainwashed by the marijuana plant and drug culture. There is no real truth in this reality, just various competing sets of ideas. Personally I'd rather enjoy the more enjoyable sets of values and experiences, but there's a lot of masochistic people who love to torture themselves their whole life in search of an imaginary prize, ironically no better than their bland existence on this plane...

Well said.

[the sunday stealer]

Knock Knock

[the sunday stealer]

[Ursus]

Sorry, TSW, another long post.

And this is what's so maddening about brainwashing. My dad, mine! Crazy Mac, hard workin, sharp witted WWII vet that he was actually fell for this bullshit for awhile!

How do you wake somebody up from that, though? I don't think it's really possible to surely unbrainwash someone. I think you can try. My dad snapped out of it and I can make an educated guess or three as to why. My mom and most of my older brothers and sisters never have and I can't imagine why. Anybody understand that at all? Please fill me in.

Brainwashing.  Okay, my dad was a WWII vet too, but for the other side.  So he spent a good part of his youth being brainwashed.  At the end of the war, he was imprisoned as a POW of the Americans (Guantanamo Bay is nothing new, folks).  And this is a guy who never actually participated in any of the fighting.  He taught glider plane flying.  After he got out, he weighed 95 lbs (he was close to 6ft tall and always had been heavyset).  And then he has to finish high school.  Life goes on, he goes to college, goes further and gets a PhD; during the course of all this he receives a Fulbright Scholarship to the U.S., likes what he sees, and after he's done getting his degree, he comes here to make a new start.

Flash forward 15 years, and I, his offspring, end up in a mindrape mill for a summer and 3 yrs.  Let us not forget the time spent in JuVie and being locked up in mental institution for running away that preceded that.

What is wrong with our world that begets this pernicious need to orchestrate and control others?  The history of human society progressed from the Feudal period in a hurry, relatively speaking.  But some interests, and the means of expressing them, have died hard.  Perhaps, I rather think, they haven't died at all.

Beyond the coming of age years you have all these psychobabble pyramid scams - Landmark Forum, est, Lifespring, etc., not to mention the religious cults that abound.

From physical control and repression we progress to mental control and repression, albeit sloppily, with all forms still in co-existence at the moment.

Scary times.  Troubling times...

[the sunday stealer]

How we wax poetically about the past. Yet what do we intend to do about the future?

Who balls shall we kick my good brothers and sisters?

Our parents? Or we could always blame society...

[the sunday stealer]

The blame game is like playing grand theft auto. Its good for quick thrills, some gore, and a few laughs. In the end you are left with nothing but a crappy game you wished you hadn't spent the money on in the first place.


We could indulge in the blame game, but it won't achieve that desired end goal.

So again I ask, whose balls shall we kick? I'm not talking about one of those sissy World Cup Soccer kicks either. I talking about a 6 Nations Rugby Tournament kick to the metaphorical testicles of some group, program, or random individual.

And tee hee hee.. the random individual doesn't even have to have anything to do with programs. It would just be hella fun to do anyway for giggles!

Great question.. and it runs your brain in circles because the answer is everybody is to blame. This is a bottom up societal phenomenon, not some dictated mandate from Fuhrer Reagan. They didn't force parents to send their kids away to private programs. The legal system will not lock a kid up for as long as private programs for the things these kids are doing. A kid would have to commit murder or something to get years of lockup, and parents send their kids away for smoking pot and ditching school. There is a serious disconnect there. I don't think it's society pushing the idea on the masses, I think it's an obvious idea that anyone could come up with, that creeps into existence through various economic, political and social forces are fertile. The seed was planted a hell of a long time ago, and it's now bearing fruit in full season. Many of fruit drop from this tree and set seed.

[Antigen]

There were some working class kids including me in the wwasps owned program I was at. The really sickening thing is its usually the poorer families who end up getting into the referring thing, out of a fear of keeping their own kid there because the family rep is telling them they are doing horrible and will die if they come home, and that bull crap. My dad was definitely not rich when I was sent away... he works as a manager at a fast food restaurant.. but my grandfather had left a 20 thousand dollar college savings account for me when I was born, and since I was 17 already it was almost up and he used that. When I came home finally a while later his house was gone and he was living in an apt. with no furniture. All those creditors finally caught up with him. I hear that the college savings thing is a common trend.   All the other places I was at prior were payed for by the state or by mediCal insurance. So the last seven months until I turned 18 in a private program cost 20g plus he refered one kid to the program.  ::noway::  ::noway::  ::puke:: The best part was the letters saying how I was ruining him financially and he was going to lose the house because of me. For a while I had believed that, until I found out how he really payed for it. I never understood that.. did the program tell him to say those things or was he purposely lying to make me feel bad? None of the other facilities or programs I was at worked so hard at turning father against son, it was the opposite. Fuck people who support this kind of destructive ideology.

All of this is lifted, verbatim, from as far back as the Seed daze starting in 1970 in Florida. And I'd bet dollars to donuts the RMA/CEDU and Elan and Bob Meehan parents and others all got exactly the same line of bullshit. "Well, he wasn't headed for college anyway" and "What's more important, a building (your home) or your son?" One time only, some couple of years after I got out, my mom tried to guilt trip me about all the money I made them spend on me. I just said "Well, Mom, ya know, if you had asked my opinion I could have saved you a bundle."

Mom and I don't get along so well. She's as irritated by frankness as I am by program culture. I'm just glad to be here to tell you I know just exactly what you're talking about. My mom pilfered all of our college funds except for my oldest sister, who was already of age. And she kept her mouth shut, too! We didn't even know we had an inheritance till one of the cousins slipped one summer visit. I don't think they knew it was supposed to be secret.

Nice to be able to sit here and tell you I know just what you're talking about, it's fucked up beyond belief and I know you're not exaggerating or making it up. Would have made a world of difference to me if the old heads had been around to do that 20 odd years ago instead of everybody gas-lighting us all the time. Hope it helps some.

[Anonymous]

This is a bottom up societal phenomenon

:roll: Not this shit again. Let's see how bottom-up it is when the fine folks of a Boise County grassroots effort reply to a mild-mannered 30-something accountant type's description of this business.

TSW, the answer is: A whole lot of people.

It's my experience that ball-kicking is done best when it's done in series. You can chain these things, like a Mortal Kombat combo, and it's much more effective when you do. You don't limit yourself to "I think I'll kick the balls of these people, or maybe these people, or the people over here". No. You find out who's involved, you find the guy whose balls are gonna get kicked first, and then you kick his and immediately start going down the line. It's usually best to start on the top. Find the guy in charge of one of these major medical conglomerates, like I posted before, and kick his balls. I don't mean the guy in CHARGE charge- not the CEO- but some upper management guy whose province it is to deal with the programs. Kick his balls. Then continue to the holdings themselves. Then on to the local regulatory authorities, the local churches, the local communities. Kick their leaders' balls. Anything gets in your way, it's time for another ball kicking. Ball-kick parents only if you can score PR points in the process (or you want to, for the fun of it). Don't be conservative in your ball-kicking ("Hmm, maybe I'll kick this guy's balls, or maybe this guy's balls..."), be liberal! Kick all their balls. Worry about whether they really *needed* their balls kicked some other time. Kick balls first, ask questions later. It takes more time worrying about kicking balls, and discussing kicking balls, than it does to actually kick balls. Remember, ball-kicking is fundamentally free of charge and usually leaves no residue, depending on how hard you kick.

To sum up: Find guys who look like they deserve it, and give 'em all a good kick in the balls.

[Ganja]

Would have made a world of difference to me if the old heads had been around to do that 20 odd years ago instead of everybody gas-lighting us all the time.

Goddamn... to think of certain times when people I've been intimate with attempt to do just that by saying things like "You're insane." to me during an argument (and mean it)..my reaction was always a big FUCK YOU, who gives a shit what you think anyway.

[the sunday stealer]

:roll: Not this shit again. Let's see how bottom-up it is when the fine folks of a Boise County grassroots effort reply to a mild-mannered 30-something accountant type's description of this business.

And then link them to a forum where Milk and luke conspire to kill parents? yeah.. very effective.  :roll:

[Antigen]

What is wrong with our world that begets this pernicious need to orchestrate and control others? The history of human society progressed from the Feudal period in a hurry, relatively speaking. But some interests, and the means of expressing them, have died hard. Perhaps, I rather think, they haven't died at all.

Well, I don't know that it's always or entirely pernicious. There must be some evolutionary benefit or we wouldn't all be cursed with the same condition. I think then when things go this wrong, which I'm convinced is a good long ways down the path toward as wrong as Stalin or Hitler or Chairman Mao or Cesar or King George (take your pick...) It's because there is an imbalance of power. Human beings were not meant to live as one global village any more than honey bees were meant to live all in one gargantuan hive or wolves all in one global pack. We're just not equipped to function this way. Someone around here recently noted that it is not a sign of good mental health to be well adjusted to a sick society. But every society, bar none, demands a certain degree of conformity, or at least respect.

When Rome started falling apart, the Goths had more influence. Satire best. Old Crazy Mac was a master at making people think. I sure wish he hadn't checked out just as I started researching all of this. I bet he would have had an interesting take.

[Antigen]

A kid would have to commit murder or something to get years of lockup, and parents send their kids away for smoking pot and ditching school. There is a serious disconnect there.

That's still true in some places, but Florida is not one of them. They sent Martin Lee Anderson to the DFAF (fka Straight, Inc.) run Bay County Boot Camp for the heinous crime of violating probation by riding along w/ his cousin in Granny's car. Granny protested, but the state charged him anyway.

Florida is, in many ways, the darkest, coldest state in the union. But this is a growing trend too; cultivated with what used to be our money by way of Community Anti Drug Coalitions of America. http://cadca.org/AboutCADCA/Supporters.asp

Note the similarities between their sponsorship structure, their branding and layout and overall tone to that of the grand old party? Check the BOD and other influence; this is yet another Sembler production. And, just like Ybor City, if you don't like the way they run the public space, why you can just move along, nothing to see here unless you'd like to get arrested and harassed.

If you think it can't happen here, we're halfway there. Isn't this just precisely the way these same dominion banking and holding interests went about taking over the German, Austrian, Italian, Argentine and some African economies and cultures?

[Antigen]

Would have made a world of difference to me if the old heads had been around to do that 20 odd years ago instead of everybody gas-lighting us all the time.

Goddamn... to think of certain times when people I've been intimate with attempt to do just that by saying things like "You're insane." to me during an argument (and mean it)..my reaction was always a big FUCK YOU, who gives a shit what you think anyway.

It's worse somehow when they don't say it in anger; when it's out of benevolence that your close friends and confidants tell you to ignore your gut and experience and enjoy the cakes and circuses. Now, nothing wrong with cake or circuses. I love em and all kinds of artists and performers. But there's a place for the dark humor and savory fare in balance with the light and sweet stuff.

[Antigen]

Gook, you're either a genius or a saint. This is like going to see a fight and David Lynch movie breaks out instead of a hockey game.

 :nworthy:  ::cheers::