Sometimes, when dealing with a mind-bender like this, it's instructive to look at a parallel situation.
I'm reading Gulag Archipalego right now. I can say that, while none of these programs were ever quite as bad as Stalinis Russia, it's only a matter of degrees. And I can easily imagine that Miller Newton, if fate had put him in the place and time of Joseph Stalin would have behaved very similarly and the outcome might have been very similar.
So what would be the honorable, heroic or at least respectable thing for a former Soviet citizen to do right now in this day and age?
Go through life hiding and denying whatever they did and believed under the Soviet regime? What for? Look to some imagined authority to get revenge and make right what can't possibly be undone? I suppose some have done that, but I've never heard of it. Pretend it wasn't all that bad? Madness!
How about this:
- Document what happened as best they can, compare notes among themselves and with other people with whom they were not able to communicate under the regime. That way they might figure out just where fate has landed them, what their options are.
- Pick a direction to take from where they are to where they'd like their grandchildren to be and start moving.
- Try to salvage as much as they can from the ruins of their culture, learning from other cultures what they can to fill in the gaps.
- Try to give the rest of the world a heads up where they see similar mistakes in progress.
No doubt, a lot of people suffered great loss because of these programs. Speaking for myself, I know I'll never have back the time lost and I'll never know what would have been. Maybe we would have gone along, moderately normal and functional and now I'd be one of those SAFE parents worrying about my son after months of not seeing him and frightened to ask 'inapropriate' questions or to talk to people who are critical of the Program. Maybe we would all have been one big, happy family and gotten snuffed in a plane wreck on a family vacation... no tellin'.
All I do know is where I am now and I can't complain. There's no denying that I'm angry about what happened. But not anywhere near enough to waste any time thinking about it. For almost 20 years, I thought The Seed was pretty much all there was left of the cult and they were just an insignificant, weird little cult in Ft. Lauderdale. I have no problem living with that, laughing at Seedlings on the rare occasion that I might see them, but not really bothered by it.
The only reason I spend any time or effort working on these websites, conferences and related projects is that the criminals who hurt my family are not only still doing the same thing to other families, they have literally infiltrated our government and, in my opinion, have placed the very republic at great risk.
Think that sounds paranoid? That's what I used to think when I read stuff like
The Governor's Sub-rosa Plot to Subvert an Election in OhioNo foolin. We are cursed with having information about these criminals, these traitors. Although American civic tradition does not require any citizen to report crime under most circumstances or to act as police, it does rely on each of us to act in our own perceived self interest. These people were dangerous as hell when all they had at their disposal was a warehouse and a slick sales pitch. How dangerous do you suppose they are with significant resources of the Federal, state and local governments at their disposal?
I'm glad America is nowhere near, not even comperable to, the horror that was the Soviet Union. But if you think it can't happen here, we're halfway there.
[ This Message was edited by: Antigen on 2002-06-01 18:38 ]