While i freely admit I am in this discussion without having been in a program, I think that there is a danger in writing off any faith system that is unpopular or strange as being just like a program. Fishers ideas are alarming, the paramilitary shit was bizarre and the crazy masses went to far. But there is a difference between indoctrination and brainwashing. i would say that my own parents liked the idea of religious indoctrination ( not into anything that extreme) and at the end of the day I rejected it. So did at least half of my classmates. This was always a bonafide choice.
In programs (at least from what I have been told) there are no real choices, the kids do not seem happy, even those claiming some benefit. There are few leisure activities or any freedoms. The primary philosophy is cruelty. I dont think fisher was about a philosophy of cruelty to these kids. When they were not at nutbar mass they seemed to have relatively normal childhoods. if anything that was what was alarming. These people were normal suburbanites with some of the most absurd ideas i have ever heard. But if this is child abuse and should be banned then where do you draw the line? Because in any democracy there needs to be freedom of ideas and faith no matter how mad.
The idea of putting this woman out of business or vandalizing the camp disturbs me
I think you are missing several important paralells. First, these camps are seldom "voluntary" as you say but rather kids are put in there by their parents,'for their own good'. It is indoctrination, pure and simple. Second, they are forced into certain behaviors that embarrass them and make them ripe for the indoctrination. In the program, we call this 'motivating'. And third, they are forced to accept a certain set of beliefs or be ostracized by the group. religion by Peer pressure, as it were.
There are more similarities. this is the short list, and it is interesting that you give religious 'faith' a free pass when it hasn't earned it. Where else in society do we do this?
Your perception of how program kids appear isn't accurate. program kids, by all outward appearances, once they get off of the early phases appear happy. If they don't, they will answer as to why. They also do activities and socialize with other kids who have accepted the program indoctrination. How is this different? The philosophy isn't cruelty, as you say, but rather "saving" the kids from the culture of drugs which is seen as evil by modifying their belief system. Do I have to point out this is the same goal as the religious camps but around a different philosophy?
Finally, brainwashing is indocrination of an idea or set of ideals using specific techniques designed to break people down and rebuild their beliefs around the group leaders' set of goals for the group. While the techniques used in these relgious camps aren't as harsh as the rehabs most of us were forced into in either duration or intensity, they don't have to be because they are used on very very young children and the children for the most part are already exposed to this ideas at home and at church. These religious summer camps definately use brainwashing techniques in various degrees of harshness. Just because Jesus or Mohammed is supposedly floating around in some etheral background doesn't legitimize this travesty.
