Anybody remember the sappy raps they used to have at Straight, where the group would go on and on about the "love" we felt for each other and Straight? Sometimes they would be by candlelight, usually would contain some teary-eyed testamonial about Straight's "love" being so dear to us?
They were all jive. False. Fraudulent. In Straight terms, "Full of Shit".
In reality, the "love" raps were another component of program conditioning, an illustration of the insidious nature of groupthink. They were trying to create familial bonds between us, to replace our existing socialization and identities within social frameworks with one that had the group, the staff, and the program at the center. There was no "love" at Straight, merely conditioning.
Any relationships you formed while at Straight, with the possible exception of "misbehavers" communicating, or "cliquing", were relationships formed out of psychological necessity. Humans are social animals, and Straight exploited this in order to further the thought control. By deeming confrontations, group therapy, Stepcraft, even restraints and "consequences" as ways to express "Tough Love", a very powerful and basic human drive was subverted to serve the ends of the Program. The contrived act of "reaching out for a friendship" and writing "friendship letters" makes a mockery of normal, volitional, naturally-occuring human interactions. The only 'friends' you had at Straight, Inc. were those that helped you leave or those that helped you resist conforming to Straight. All other relationships were in the context of the Program, and therefore, not "real".
To believe that we all "loved" each other, merely for having been incarcerated together in the same madhouse, is to buy into Program thinking at a very disturbing level. This is not to say that we cannot respect each other or our experiences that we endured there. Often, we are the only ones who can understand what it is like to have been in a mindfuck festival like Straight, and this can be a cornerstone to bonding with someone else, becoming friends, but it is different precisely because it occurs outside the Program, beyond the Step-covered walls, and free from the influence of program dogma and practices.
Even if you think you made some friendships in Straight, chances are that you did not meet the "real" person you are claiming friendship with, merely the Programmed version of their authenic self, a tortured, watered-down, brainwashed to one degree or another, shadow of the person they really are. The fact that certain topics of conversation were not even allowed indicates the true "depth" of such relationships. They were simply more trappings and window dressing, "look how great this cult is, Mom, I'm making new friends that are Straight!"
In reality, any friendships you have with people here began after getting out from under Straight's influence.