Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Straight, Inc. and Derivatives => Topic started by: Anonymous on January 28, 2007, 12:05:47 AM
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:question: Woof, if you don't mind me asking, for posterity's sake, I would like to know what you consider to be at least one fundamental flaw with the straight inc 'mantra' or philosophy. Nothing too long winded, just a simple diagnosis of sorts. Woof, I'm the guy that you met in Tampa a couple years ago at an event in the evening time in Feb. I realize that you may have already answered this question at one point or another in previous posts, but I have been unable to find it and I'm on a limited time schedule at the moment. If anyone else cares to chime in on this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Like, the fundamental flaw(s) or whathaveyou... There are some soon to be decision-makers whom I believe would benefit from a sincere answer.
Thank you
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For the sake of posperity...not be long winded, and to simplify the insainity of Straight Inc. is a tall order...but I'll give it a shot!
#1) Food, Sleep, Social and Personal Deprivation (can't be good)
#2) Fear based motivation (Other than fear, what else does a frightened student learn from a terroristic teacher?)
#3) Lack of Lic. Professionals (Psychologists, Dieticians, Phycriatrist, LSW's)
#4) No clear objectives to"graduate" or to otherwise progress.
#5) The industry of Straight Inc. preyed on parental concerns for thier kids.
#6) Warehousing children in brutal confrontive "theraphy"
Guest--I can go on and on all day...Desicion makers need invest moretime to allow for greater understanding of what I endured as so many did..Especially if they are intending to put thier kid away
My parents made thier minds up to put me in Straight, knowing full well what it was about. They didn't consider 29 years later...relations still strained, 85-90% due to Straight Inc.
I hope to have been of service...and will glady offer my sincere input.
(not to long winded for me huh?)
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#1. Coercive.
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awesome...
Soon, more details will become available as to the motives behind this effort. Tis hard to explain the specifics with the "Borg" queen (currently operating using straightinc treatment program director) watching... Have faith though, it will be put to good use and may even help save a life or lives. 8-)
It is true that brief time frames do not suffice when "explaining" the program to the public, let alone those entrusted with the powers to decide the fates of others. However, as wise as we are as survivors, there must be a way to articulate into a time constrained and presentation friendly format, a synopsis of the fundamental flaw(s) that are present in this type of treatment modality. This could be a dilemma of sorts, if you may. While it would be a powerful statement to orally project to an audience of decision makers including council's, committee's, and parents of potential and/or current/former clients, it would eliminate the "rambling" aspect and help stifle the inherent compulsive tendencies to venture off topic through examples and experiences, etc...
A suggestion: However many words could be orally projected within 3 minutes would be ideal, with an extreme high pressure blow the lid off any second maximum of 5 minutes. Your outline is a great start and only took me (slowpoke) about 20 seconds to read out loud. :wink:
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One thing that was sorely lacking in my program was any type of rewards system. That was pretty much left up to the parents. If I would have had a clear cut reward for compliance, I am pretty sure I would not have been such a big damn jerk and would not have stretched it out for more than 30 days, but when them fuckers told me I could'nt make talk for a whole 14 days and could not go home for 60 days because I was on the more costly "court" program, I pretty much lost all incentive to comply.
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Another thing I didn't like was that they didn't let you smoke pot there.
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#1. The ends justify the means.
#2. ______ can be treated by an indoctrination into a belief system.
#3. No outside reference points, closed system.
#4. Confession of private life required to regain freedoms that are universal human rights.
#5. Little to no privacy, of anything, including private journaling so that a client could have the chance to think things out to himself.
That's all I could think of, I'm not sure they are mantras or philosophies, but I think the lack of all kinds of privacy, emotional, mental, physical, and even spiritual, is necessarily traumatizing.
Just think , if we could have written out our thoughts without anyone looking at them.
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They fucked up sex for us. Put that in there.
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as in forced shaming of sexual desires and related activities?
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Legal:
I was court ordered in a plea agreement for skipping school.
But I never saw or knew, much less agreed to, any plea agreement about me completing Straight. It was all done behind my back..
That is a big violation of procedural law and civil rights.
The first Amendment.. Straight was a faith based treatment organization that focused heavily on God and prayer. Those of us that were court ordered had our freedom of religion taken away.
The action of skipping school was the courts and authorities reason behind sending me to straight... But at Straight I wasn't allowed to attend school for several months or even read. Texas law said, and still says, that a qualified physician must evaluate and sign a leave of absence for a student under 17 to leave school for medical/treatment purposes... I never even saw a physician...
The living standards did not even meet up to the Texas Jail Standards. Host homes were over crowded, health code wasn't even regulated and often a 14 yr old would be left in charge of up to 4 or more 16 yr olds...
Social:
Straight recruiters and supporters managed to convince schools, parents and others that the drug problems were so strong that extreme actions were required to combat it. Such as breaking laws and going into debt.
Medical:
A 13 yr client placed to supervise a 24 hour suicide watch over another older client should be enough, but???????we know...
When the reality struck that some of the kids in Straight never even did drugs. Straight took the preventive philosophy saying, ?they haven?t done drugs yet. But they were born with the disease and need treatment to prevent becoming a full blown drug addict.?
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I'll post two of my biggest flaws, (and the list is long...)
1. Everbody who had good insurance HAD A DRUG PROBLEM. period. end of conversation. I am sure everybody here can talk about one (or more) person there with them (or they were that person) who was 12, 13, and didn't even know what drugs were... Hell, half the kids there weren't i need of that intensive of therapy, even if the therapy was legit and benificial....
2. It was licensed as an "outpatient" facility, and straight was anything but outpatient. They never had to follow, or be accountable to, the laws and guidelines that apply to inpatient facilities, which are there for good reason, when you completely take over a persons life and are bassicly in complete control of thier care, sometimes for years.
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as in forced shaming of sexual desires and related activities?
Yeah pretty much; thank you there, wordmeister. -Gja.
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Denial of access to proper medical treatment...both emergent and well-care based.
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Another thing I didn't like was that they didn't let you smoke pot there.
:rofl: Copy that... :rofl:
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as in forced shaming of sexual desires and related activities?
God damn. They repressed every natural inclination we had.
I mean what really, really...gets me is the way they completely disregarded all the things the American revolution was fought for: The things I was raised to believe in; The right to self determination, etc., Democratic values; our civil rights! if not in law then in spirit. What a bunch of fascist muther-fuckers!!! They reveal themselves to us. I keep tryin to say: We have seen the Beast, as it is....The people who violated every one of your rights which the constitution would have protected if you'd a been 18(well maybe not now, since the patriot act 'n' all) before you went in, are the people who are runnin your government. Anyone who thinks their aint a fascist-police state on the rise in this country wasn't in $tr8. Or wasn't really payin attention to the bigger picture or somethin. Even if we go into Babylon and make' em think, the Beast will still break hard on us all. Read Orwell. The U.S. government is just about the biggest gang of criminals on the planet. G-8 and those other slavers too.
Spiritual Anarchy.
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One thing that seemed to shape the whole experience, then and now, Is the secrecy. Everything was a big huge secret. It was like we were in a secret camp to turn us into something specific. Nothing was ever fully disclosed to anyone. Not our parents, not doctors, not any local agency. It was like straight had free reign to do whatever they wanted to any of us, because We were drug addicts and were dangerous to society or would be someday for sure without the help of specifically Straight. And everyone one outside of straight seemed to belive them, without any question. No one questioned anyones credintials or education of the staff. And the clients were allowed No un-supervised contact with anyone outside of straight. I asked for an attorney, the police, social services, a judge... I asked for every public agency I could think of and was told I had NO rights. We need to give todays children some kind of rights, especially inside places where otherwise they would have no control over their personal safety.
As a non-compliant client, I was purely at the mercy of the people imprisioning me. Both in the building and at the host homes. What is so bizaare is, because of straights ability to twist reality, I was not only being physically held prisioner by staff.. I was being physically (daily) being held (on the floor, gasping for air) captive by the other clients(Most of whom were my age. Upwards of 250 other clients all brainwashed to physically restrain anyone who tried to get away or verbalize displeasure. I still can not phathom How Straight managed to accomplish this with so many children, I will never understand. And the staff, who had the desire(without question) to control people in this way, is beyond comprehension.
I have volunteered at a residential drug rehab near my community, as a teenage counselor of sorts. Mainly I just hung out and was someone their own age who would talk and do stuff with the kids there. NEVER, when an altercation happened w/ a client did any other client get involved, and especially never in a physical way. The modality that created this "group think" inside the walls of straight is the same as that which was used to convince all those people to actually drink the kool-aide. There is no other explanation. Complete and total bizaareness.
Fear and secrecy controlled those who complied, I saw it first hand.
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What about the people who believe they were actually helped and changed their life for the better after the staright experieince? Was all of the mistreatment worth it to them? I wonder.
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How could anyone truly believe that? These are human beings who had to have seen the mis-treatment of other human beings (if it didn't happen to them personally) You could not have been in any straight facility for more then 1 day and say, You never saw or were the victim of any child abuse or mistreatment. It is absolutely 100% immpossible. For the people who say they got something positive from their time at straight, I say: Is the sacrifice of so many worth it? Because when you say, it was a great place, You are saying: The joy of life you took from people like me, was all worth it.
To progress, you had to become the abuser. Was it worth it? If someone ran (or in my case..tried to speak), you had no choice but to throw me to the floor and hold me prisioner.
That is exactly what I mean, How did straight convince anyone to treat other clients the way they did? How can anyone believe this modality of treatment worked? I will wonder this for the rest of my life.
Group Think is absolute power. It corrupts. When something has been corrupt for a long time, it appears normal and right. We see this every night on our local news.
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What about the people who believe they were actually helped and changed their life for the better after the staright experieince? Was all of the mistreatment worth it to them? I wonder.
you have got to be fucking kidding. Helped? The only people (and I use that term lightly) were the Semblers, Newton, Riddle and all the other adults that made cash off of our misery.
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"you have got to be fucking kidding. Helped? The only people (and I use that term lightly) were the Semblers, Newton, Riddle and all the other adults that made cash off of our misery."
Yes, but there are a whole lotta people who do believe this. There's a whole counter website to this one with many "testimonials". Are these people who were simply steam-rolled by straight or people who actually had a drug problem and used/accepted straight techniques to help themselves?
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We should'nt be down on people who say the program "helped" them for the simple fact that their lives changed and they had to blame it on something.
Say I had a psychotic girlfreind with 4 dogs and I was trying to get rid of her so I decide to take them to the circus. The dogs start barking and startle an elephant, which breaks loose from the trainers and accidentally tramples the girlfriend into a big gooey mess. Does this mean that the circus "helped" our relationship?
HELL NO! It just means that the circus was negligent, or helpful, depending on how you look at it, or how you were affected by it.
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"Say I had a psychotic girlfreind with 4 dogs and I was trying to get rid of her so I decide to take them to the circus. The dogs start barking and startle an elephant, which breaks loose from the trainers and accidentally tramples the girlfriend into a big gooey mess. Does this mean that the circus "helped" our relationship?
HELL NO! It just means that the circus was negligent, or helpful, depending on how you look at it, or how you were affected by it."
So you're saying they had no choice in the matter? It was purely cooincidental that they changed their lives? If someone actually had a bonefide drug problem, was there nothing that could have helped them at least consider an alternate lifestyle? If this is true, then is there any worth in seeking help in any case such as depression, bi-polar, grief...?
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"you have got to be fucking kidding. Helped? The only people (and I use that term lightly) were the Semblers, Newton, Riddle and all the other adults that made cash off of our misery."
Yes, but there are a whole lotta people who do believe this. There's a whole counter website to this one with many "testimonials". Are these people who were simply steam-rolled by straight or people who actually had a drug problem and used/accepted straight techniques to help themselves?
didnt know there is an "alternative" site..........do u have the website address?
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It's like a nazi saying.... The holocaust helped and changed my life!
Anyone who truly believes straight helped anyone with anything, were/are accomplises to murdering all those who didn't make it. And are proud of it!
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Straight is based on a lie for over 95% of their clients(victims),that lie being that the youth involved is a drug addict or alcoholic.If Straight's client acceptance policy was as honest as they insisted their "patients" should be,they would have needed only a couple of suites in an office building rather than an entire warehouse.
MK-Ultra and other forms of behavior modification may or may not have it's place,for me the jury's not entirely in.However if it does,there cannot be a question of its necessity.Speculative nonsense,like a "dry druggie" or "ón his way",should not even be considered for this type of intervention.Even so,it should be conducted by licensed,qualified competent,literate professionals who are held responsible for their conduct while performing their duties.Straight failed miserably in all phases of that last criteria.
Having been with Woof on his first day,I would say that institutionalizing him that way at that age for what he did was probably less sane than any act he may have yet committed and probably any other one he would have committed for the next two years.In the 70's,our parents would rather commit us than face up to the idiocy of their own conditioning.Straight capitalized on that fear and ignorance.(Please,please!Do anything!Just don't show me I was wrong!).
To sum it up,to try to convince somebody they're an alcoholic or drug addict when they're not should be considered a crime when done in an institutional capacity.The reason being,all human animals have some sort of baggage to confront.This type of brainwashing just hinders the individual when he has real issues to confront.Real treatment and therapy,in theory,enables the patient to do just that,face life on its own terms.Smoke and mirrors just cloud the issue,especially when its for the benefit of others,just creates additional problems,sometimes with deadly consequences.
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How could anyone truly believe that? These are human beings who had to have seen the mis-treatment of other human beings (if it didn't happen to them personally) You could not have been in any straight facility for more then 1 day and say, You never saw or were the victim of any child abuse or mistreatment. It is absolutely 100% immpossible. For the people who say they got something positive from their time at straight, I say: Is the sacrifice of so many worth it? Because when you say, it was a great place, You are saying: The joy of life you took from people like me, was all worth it.
To progress, you had to become the abuser. Was it worth it? If someone ran (or in my case..tried to speak), you had no choice but to throw me to the floor and hold me prisioner.
That is exactly what I mean, How did straight convince anyone to treat other clients the way they did? How can anyone believe this modality of treatment worked? I will wonder this for the rest of my life.
Group Think is absolute power. It corrupts. When something has been corrupt for a long time, it appears normal and right. We see this every night on our local news.
Lemme say first off I agree with you without 100% I experience your same rage and know the hatred that comes from a real dark place. This "modaity of treatment" based on fear and intimidation never worked. In short, it was criminal.
You are saying: The joy of life you took from people like me, was all worth it.
First off, i sincerly hope I never hurt you. You bring up a question I have carried with me for along time. I know there is a possibility I hurt, probably hurt or may have hurt others...that will always haunt me. Its odd to me, the feelings of remorse grow stronger for me almost daily yet my memory is fading faster.
I know from meeting other survivors we are all very similr in the way we carry our rage, our shame. even our favorite memories.Similaar thing make our skins crawl, and some conversations would quarantee that we raised our voices. The senses of quilt or shame never reared thier ugly heads
I probably never meet you, your "joy of life" was taken long after mine had been taken. Said before, we bear the same scars. I just got there before you. I bear some of the burden for the foundation that made later abuses possible.
As Straight Inc grew, the foundation of hate, mistrust and abuse had already been established. With the introduction of George Ross, Miller Newton they simply threw a match to the seething cauldron before them. The worst of Straight Inc, came long after I had gone.
Was it worth it? Aside from my own experience, dismissing the fact I also am a victim as well. Was it worth it to take the joy of life away?
No.
Further words cheapen