Speaking the Unspeakable

[Deborah]

My son gave me a gift, a book, "A Language Older Than Words" by Derrick Jensen.
Here are a couple of thoughts that deserve sharing.

Many people sharing the same delusion, does not make the delusion true...

We don't stop these atrocities, because we don't talk about them. We don't talk about them, because we don't think about them. We don't think about them, because they're too horrific to comprehend. As trauma expert Judith Herman writes, "The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this the the meaning of the word unspeakable."

Isolation does strange things to a person's mind...Monkeys taken from their mothers at birth, placed alone in stainless-steel chambers, and deprived of contact with other animals, develop irreversible mental illnesses. As one of the experts in this field, Harry Harlow, put it: "sufficiently severe and enduring social isolation reduced these animals to a social-emotional level in which the primary social responsiveness is fear."

Stats from the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect. This comprehensive report extimated that in 1993, approximately 614,000 American children were physically abused, 300,000 were sexually abused, 532,000 were emotionally abused, 507,000 were physically neglected, and 585,000 were emotionally neglected. 565,000 of these children were killed or seriously injured.
What is the relationship between these numbers and our culturally induced isolation from the natural world and each other, from the social embeddedness in which we evolved?

And a great quote from R.D. Laing:
"Exploitation must not be seen as such. It must be seen as benevolence. Persecution preferably should not need to be invalidated as the figment of a paranoid imagination; it should be experienced as kindness....In order to sustain our amazing images of ourselves as God's gift to the vast majority of the starving human species, we have to interiorize our violence upon ourselves and our children, and to employ the rhetroic of morality to describe this process."

[anon]

[ This Message was edited by: KarenZ on 2003-10-17 15:10 ]

[Deborah]

Karen wrote:
Its interesting to me the way science for so long insisted animals had no emotions or empathy - and yet they used them as a model of human psychology.

Anyway - the point seems to be how important we all are to one another, and how powerful a force isolation, or the threat thereof can be.
******************************************

Based on these comments alone, you will appreciate the book immensely. Now, as I remember, you are a religous person. Correct?
You might take offense with some of his comments about Judeo-Christianity. If you can avoid taking them personally, you should like the rest.
It speaks directly to the question posed here recently, "How can parents do this to their kids."
It is an excellent explanation, imho.

Deborah

[anon]

[ This Message was edited by: KarenZ on 2003-10-17 15:11 ]

[warriorprincess]

On 2003-08-06 13:57:00, Deborah wrote:

"

My son gave me a gift, a book, "A Language Older Than Words" by Derrick Jensen.

Here are a couple of thoughts that deserve sharing.



Many people sharing the same delusion, does not make the delusion true...



We don't stop these atrocities, because we don't talk about them. We don't talk about them, because we don't think about them. We don't think about them, because they're too horrific to comprehend. As trauma expert Judith Herman writes, "The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this the the meaning of the word unspeakable."



Isolation does strange things to a person's mind...Monkeys taken from their mothers at birth, placed alone in stainless-steel chambers, and deprived of contact with other animals, develop irreversible mental illnesses. As one of the experts in this field, Harry Harlow, put it: "sufficiently severe and enduring social isolation reduced these animals to a social-emotional level in which the primary social responsiveness is fear."


this post is a good response to anyone reading the accounts of people's experiences with a PROGRAM, and asking themselves, How in this day and age could these things be happening!.  social evolution is way overdue.  we are enlightened, we see how, but unfortunately the ways and means to change such injustices are caught up in buearactratic bullshit!  money and social standing allows the human race to use people as tools, or means to their ends (making millions of dollars off of human suffering in the case of abusive boarding schools that promote and advertise "emotional growth" and impose their moral beliefs onto other who are left with no choice but to buy in to their bs to attain freedom).  



[ This Message was edited by: warriorprincess on 2004-02-26 17:29 ]

[Anonymous]

All the more reason not to isolate a child with their thoughts and feelings, post program.  There are experts who specialize in working with teens who are suffering from PTSD and other kinds of diffculties as a result of maltreatment in a residential treatment facility or program.  A very good psychologist in San Diego,CA. as a matter of fact, has even spoken out publicly on the issue.  Also, check out these guidelines and suggestions from ISAC about what do for kids who are in or just got out of an abusive school or program.

http://isaccorp.com/documents/nowwhat.pdf

 :smile:

[Anonymous]

its possible they feel more comfortable talking to others about it too.  make the resources available to them to do that too.  whatever will bring it to light.  it was uplifting for my son to talk to people who have been there and could understand what exactly he went thro.  it's too us at first blush, incomprehensible!  any maybe we'll NEVER for sure how that person felt, we cannot stand in their shoes and we cannot judge what our reaction would be.  placed in situation of which i have read the accounts of, no doubt i may have had "excited delirium" or some other severe anxiety fear with the expected response of any normal human being.  fear, anger, and our response to that.  you think your teen is out of control?   here's another version of out of control.  our natural biological/emotional responses of anyone in their right mind put into an extreme situation--  they ask them in the program to come from being "spoiled attitude w/no grattitude" to a being on the other side of the spectrum, no freedom, no JUICE, no entertainment, no social interaction.  PUULLEEEZZZ, who can cope like that?  Is that emotional growth???

[Anonymous]

WP

[warriorprincess]

let me add to that:
no masturbation
only their perscribed readings
christmas food only for one day (yeah, this sounds silly, those spoiled little manipulating teens! expecting to have as many rights as even convicted murders in prison get ----such things as seeing their family on the holiday, adequate nutrition, speaking w/o permission, etc.)  those spoiled brats!  such expectations!
family interaction and resources to information about current events/politics/---the rest of the world!  (gee, ever find that helpful?)
hhhmmm, let me see.  i'm sure there are people out there who can add on.  

assaults on human rights are unacceptable.

WP