The song begins in complete darkness:
The night is black
Without a moon
as did my KIDS experience - under the cover of lies, justifications & manipulations my indoctrination began....
The air is thick, and still
The vigilates gather on
The lonely torchlit hill
This first verse describes in the darkness (without approval from any authorities) the vigilantes are calm in believing that their cause is for a higher purpose to justify their actions. The air being thick & still makes me think that they were not nervous or doubtful about their irrational purpose(s).
Why is this mob of extremists gathered on this hill in the dark? What are they looking to beat & burn & kill? It is the unknown (a kid acting differently than expected, someone with grave emotional disorders or simply someone who may be different; drugs, food, behavior, sex...). The persecuted person or people could be anyone who is different and threatens to shatter the shalow beliefs of the members (vigilantes). The persecutors as vigilantes are people who feel that they are above accountability to society & the law. They truly believe that they are working for a higher authority or a justified purpose that the world doesn't truly understand. EXAMPLE: KIDS believed that they could break the laws and keep kids out of school, kidnap people, hold them against their will and commit inhumane acts of torture to fight this awful"DRUG PROBLEM".
Society's treatment protocals were "FULL OF SHIT" as I recall Miller Newton clearly instilling into everyone. His way was the only way to stay straight! The law, rehabs or even A.A. would not work because he had this "ultimate knowledge & understanding of treating our disease!" The staff & graduates acted as if they were above the law as vigilantes.
As CAROL SELBY PRICE describes, a moonless night means that they had to accomplish their special assignments in total darkness. As vigilantes, the staff & graduates had no legal right to kidnap or restrain patients, so everything was always kept quiet. If someone told their family what was happening, they were weak and threatened the existence of KIDS. The program blatantly lied millions of times in the name of "a good cause" to the prosecutor's office, the police & the attorney general's office just to name a few. This is the moonless night.
Their justifications went even further. The system wasn't STRONG enough to handle druggie kids. We couldn't go to AA because AA was weak and inferior. The police & judges, counselors and priests that challenged the program were told, their condition is very serious and only the most severe of measures must be taken. They were convinced that only they understood what must be done to save kids from themselves & their disease. Not the rest of the world...
Again, to expand on Carol Selby Price's analysis of the three groups involved in the song, I think that group one would be "us (cop-outs, parents & everyone remotely knowledgeable or somehow involved in KIDS)".
They say there is strangers who threaten us
In our immigrants & infidels
They say there is strangeness,
too dangerous
In our theatres and bookstore shelves
Those who know what's best for us -
Must rise & save us from ourselves
The next group consists of those who offer change to the basic fundamental beliefs that KIDS holds so fanatically real. Their belief system is one that does not accept any changes unless given by NEWTON himself. If anyone else's ideas could have held true, that could potentially shatter the ENTIRE belief system that Newton depended on to make his theory seem correct in his followers' eyes. The idea that people could leave, listen to music & live normal lives without him had to be kept secret and anything even eluding to that had to be destroyed.
That leads me to the final group of people which are the vigilantes. The Newtons, the staff, the graduates, the parents and anyone else who subscribed to his school of thought. He(they) feel/felt it was their duty to be the virtual concience for the first group. It was only them who can decide what is right & wrong. REMEMBER: We are defective because of druggie thinking so without him we can lie to ourselves and relapse without even knowing it. It is them who must blockade any slight hint of the idea that the people in group one could live well without the irrational ideals of Newton. Thus they feel that they must protect us from these intruding realities which will destroy us.
The Newtons, Tony K., Drew G., Bob M. and the other followers sought to save the FIRST group(everyone involved in KIDS ever!!!). They must beat & burn & kill group 2 (the druggie influences or the realities that cop outs discover). As crazy as it sounds, they believe that only their special insight, knowledge & steps can make them rise & save us from ourselves.
Trilogy 1: The motivating factor is IGNORANCE, PREJUDICE & FEAR walk hand in hand. These are the vigilantes in the flesh and each feeds off of one another. Each depends upon each for stregnth, credibility and purpose. If one is conquered then the others weaken.
Trilogy 2: The three groups which are really members of one big society, broken into three by the cultic dynamic (GOOD STANDING/BAD STANDING/NORMAL PEOPLE)
Trilogy 3: Brain washing or mind control relies upon the control of information. By pounding in their idas of the world & everything around them being druggie, it keeps us ignorant(1) to the truth or reality outside of the group. By forcing new and narrow views upon us, we depend upon them to judge anything new or foriegn in the group or the world. Thus, prejudice(2) is created. We pre-judge everything according to how Newton wants us to react and evaluate it, even if it is false. Fear(3) is the reslut and the glue that hold it all together. If we are not scared into believing this stuff (go back to drugs or get setback, started over, restrained, etc.) we probrably wouldn't. Through fear we accept the ignorance (limited information) because believe we are sick, and now pre judge everything through the colored lenses of the cult.
This is my perssonal interpretation of a masterpiece theory by Carol Sebly Price and how it relates to my incarceration in an irrational place.
