Fornits Vocabulary Bee

[Antigen]

I'm curious about something. How much of the vocabulary from the various programs overlaps vocabulary from others? Anyone care to join me in exploring this issue?

Here's an example of the words and phrases redefined by Straight.

Justify: as in "You're justifying yourself" or "quit trying to justify ______."
Definition: Thinking critically about whether or not you are at fault in a particular action or circumstance.
Example: "I hit the SOB because I found out he'd been fucking my 14yo sister."

[myriad youths flap their arms in a wild manner, like seagulls on acid, trying to garner favor with the staffer who will call on the first angry mob member to confront the errant newcomer]  

"Quit trying to justify yourself! Ya' know? You put your step dad through total hell with your shit! And he still cares enough to put you into a place like this to save your life. You're selfish, you know that. Frankly, I'm sick and tired of seeing you sponge off the group and feel sorry for yourself. You did the necessary things to get yourself put in here, ya know! Don't try justifying yourself by blaming your dad cause this group has awareness and we're not gonna buy it! You don't know how to handle problems without acting like the druggie animal you are. But this group loves you and we'll be here for you, busting your ass, till you decide to get Honest(tm*) and start getting Straight!

Staff: Love ya Joe!
Group, in unison: Love ya, Joe!
Staff: Who's next?

How does your cult define the word "justify"? Or is there another word they bind to the above definition?

* Tune in for the next exciting episode of Fornits Vocabulary Bee, where I may attempt to inform those of you without Awareness(tm) on the true definition of the word Honesty(tm)!

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
--Albert Einstein

_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
American drug war P.O.W.
   10/80 - 10/82
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
Anonymity Anonymous

[ This Message was edited by: Ginger on 2003-11-18 14:51 ]

[Nobody]

:lol:

Two reasons for starting this thread. One, as stated, I've just been real curious about lingo lately. I saw the progression, firsthand, from The Seed to Straight and, years later, have recognized a lot of the old lingo various people who come around here through different variants of the Program. I know that The Seed and CEDU were both based on Synanon and that's where a lot of the lingo comes from. A lot of that, as it is, derives from AA. So I'm just curious as to how the language has progressed.

Then I had to try and pick a forum in which this topic sould best fit. Only the politics fans ever post to Open Free For All. And here's this cleverly named forum filled with tumbleweed and moldy old archives, I though it was as good a place as any to start something and send out an invitation.

Which brings me to my second point: I just changed this forum to disallow anon posting after repeated and passionate requests from people who want it. If there's that much demand for it, I figure, then it must be a good idea. So here it is.

Locate the blind spot in the culture--the place where the culture isn't looking, because it dare not--because if it were to look there, its previous values would dissolve.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561769118/circlofmiamithem' target='_new'>Terence McKenna

[Paul St. John]

In Daytop, 'justify' had the same meaning, and not only that, but that whole thing that you wrote there basically was right out of a meeting in Daytop.

My memory was not actually as clear on all that shit..

OMG, what a F***ing flashback!  :wink:



Paul St. John

[Antigen]

Yeah, I knew Daytop was a direct (or possibly once removed) Synanon spin off. And some of us have wondered if Seed founder, Art Barker, wasn't a Daytop alumni.

What were the Daytop definitions of Honesty and Awareness? And were you ever in a bag? I bet you were never gamey.

What I really wonder about, though, is the WWASP lexicon. Some years ago, when I first heard about WWASP from a segment on 48 hours, I found out that, half a continent and some decades away from my warped little slice of utopia, kids were no longer destined to be dead, insane or in jail without the saving grace of the Program. Instead, they would be dead, insane or in the gutter. I've always wondered about the progression. Did Art change it (before or after he got a few cops and judges kids in Group) or did WWASP change it afterward?

We must create an atmosphere where the crooked cop fears the honest cop, and not the other way around.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006JU7T/circlofmiamithem' target='_new'>Frank Serpico

[Carmel]

I always hated "Taking Responsibility".  It was some sort of level of enlightenment that you were suppposed to obtain during some time on your phases....most likely whenever staff decided to let you.  Taking Responsibility was supposed to mean owning up to your actions (see "clearing things up")and being honest about what you had done and how doing it had made you feel.  Of course, feeling GOOD about what you did was never an option. So even if you were honest about feeling good, you ceased to be taking responsibility because you werent supposed to feel good about anything, ever.  So it was this sort of ugly black hole that I peered down into every time I was stood up to be confronted.  YOU BETTER TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! Okay, here goes nothin....

It was the one thing that I found to be truly insane at the time....cause no matter how hard I tried, I could never take responsibility the way I was supposed to in order to keep the staff member from ripping me even more.  I saw it done once or twice, but never while I was standing up.  

Some others were "take a good look at yourself", "apply it to yourself"....

There was also the one act of so-called "clicking" we were allowed to perform sometimes that involved the patting of the back of your hand when you didnt think someone was crying hard enough, yelling loud enough, or...Taking Responsibility, to name a few.  It meant that the person responding was being "pat" or weak.

[ehm]

Powerlessness
Let Go and Let your Higher Power (or God)
Hold accountable
Humbling yourself
Make Amends
Work your program
One day at a time...

Words in general sound 'program' to me now.
like the words, issues & confront.

It's not the words themselves as much as the context that makes them so.

The words 'confrontation' and 'responsabilities' have been jaded for me, along with some others.

I started trying to stop talking like that as soon as I left Straight.

PS - "You don't try to do something, you just do it!"

[Froderik]

In VA straight, the phrase "settin' in yer crap" was used a lot by parents during open meetings when addressing kids that weren't "progressing", which is a word that is jaded for me...

How about, "I have alot of 'feeluns' about that"

"Get real!"...

"Looking at things through rose-colored glasses" meant romanticizing your druggie past...

BTW - There are a lot of terms that were used at straight listed (with their usage) on the Yahoo Alumni site in the Database section under "straight lingo"

[Carmel]

"Pushing feelings"

This one was great, cause you were expected to cry when you talked about your past.  And if you didnt cry with the right level of sincerity, then you were pushing feelings.  This of course gave the group and staff 50 millions justifications for ripping you a new asshole.

Speaking of justifications, "Justifying something off" was another one....finding a reason to make it okay that you rocked out or looked at a guys ass or put one extra spoonful of peanut butter on your bread for lunch.

There was a time when all the fifth phasers used the same structure for a confrontation, like a mad lib or something....

"____ stand up! Im so sick and tired of people coming in here and messing around with this group (brilliant)!!!!  You need to get honest and take responsibility for whatever it is that you have been holding back (usually, unless they actually HAD dirt on you).  It really PISSES ME OFF (acentuated by spitting or screaming so loud their voice cracked) that you are messing around with this group (more brilliance!).....(insert normal talking voice here as if they were perfectly calm)....And you know _____, I really love and care about you and hope that you can get honest and take care of yourself, (blah blah meanigless loving admonitions.....) LOVE YA ______!!

That was the textbook confrontation...word for word. And it usually came from at least 3 different 5th pahsers before you got to talk.  

Yeah, let me tell you...I woke ever morning with all the intentions of going in there and messing around with the group. I mean, what the fuck is that?  Like I thought I could get away with it?  And let me tell you something else...it meant everything to me to get that extra spoonful of peanut butter past the attention of the 5th phasers!

Please.

[Paul St. John]

What were the Daytop definitions of Honesty and Awareness?

*Hmmm.. Let me see if I can remember.  Honesty meant sinking into the lowest level of yourself, if I remember correctly.

Awareness, meant nothing.  The word used all of the time, by the members and the staff, but none of them even knew what teh fuck it meant.

"Where's your awareness?"
" You betta get some awareness."

It should have menat being aware, which is a personal thing, but in there in meant, how well, you thought and acted like them.


And were you ever in a bag?

*  I totally remember that term, but I can t remember what it meant... mighta meant hiding your feelings or something.. can t remember.

I bet you were never gamey.

*  They didn t have that term, but if you fucked around the other sex, either physically, or I think even if you were just flirting, it was referred to as " playing games"


Ginger, I cannot tell ya how much that term pissed me off. How fucking demeaning!!



Paul St. John

[Antigen]

Yup, same thing. "Awareness" meant having fully and completely accepted the doctrine so that it became first, not second nature. Also, it meant doing a thorough job of intimidating your newcomers and fellow oldcomers by watching their every move for just one false one to report up the chain of command.

"In a bag" meant in a bad mood; can't have been a healthy response to what was going on, had to be a flaw or failing in you.

My brother said he remembered the day when the term "gamey" was coined at The Seed. That would have been sometime in the early `70's in Ft. Lauderdale.

It's obnoxious to ask law enforcement to follow the law. That's insulting to every cop.

--John Lovell, lobbyist for the California police chief's association

[Paul St. John]

On 2003-09-23 05:09:00, Antigen wrote:

"Yup, same thing. "Awareness" meant having fully and completely accepted the doctrine so that it became first, not second nature.


Yep.. First .. not second.. e very important distinction.


 Also, it meant doing a thorough job of intimidating your newcomers and fellow oldcomers by watching their every move for just one false one to report up the chain of command.



"In a bag" meant in a bad mood; can't have been a healthy response to what was going on, had to be a flaw or failing in you.



LOL!  Remember that now.


My brother said he remembered the day when the term "gamey" was coined at The Seed. That would have been sometime in the early `70's in Ft. Lauderdale.

Meant the same thing?  flirting, etc.?

It's obnoxious to ask law enforcement to follow the law. That's insulting to every cop.

--John Lovell, lobbyist for the California police chief's association

"

[Tampa survivor]

GET IN TOUCH WITH YOURSELF!!!!!
 ok
So, I went home and flogged the dolphin...
not ok.  
 You are pushing your feelings down about this.
well, no, I was pushing AND pulling my feelings...
 now your being GAMEY Bill!!!!
Oh, my girlfreind is gamey after she GETS IN TOUCH WITH HERSELF but not me....
Well, you NEED TO WORK YOUR PROGRAM, BIll!!!
 But windows hasn't been invented yet and DOS is too confusing on an 8088 platform...
Bill

[Therion]

I was always "Hiding in the woodwork"

I never was a misbehavor ..but had a 6 month 1st just due to the fact 1) I was shy 2) I was an 13 year old horn dog that started at girls constantly..

They used to stand me up and go through the girls side and have them all confront me and tell me how theyd never have anything to do with me.  ::argue::  ::argue::  ::argue::

Funny I could have slept with 3 of them in the immediate 5 years after straight.
 ::kiss::  ::kiss::  ::kiss::

[xres8182]

Rationalize was a key term in elan philosophy,much like your use of justify

[Antigen]

Yup, we used "rationalize" the same way. Also, it was a cardinal rule that we not "intellectualize" anything. For all intents and purposes (NOT "intensive purposes"!), thinking was against the rules.

Step 1. We came to understand that the government is powerless over people's private use of drugs and that the War on Drugs was making the government's life unmanageable.

--Scott Tillinghast