Is Karl Marx Right? Religion is the Opium of the People?

[Anonymous]

Calling on God to tackle addiction
By Clare Murphy
BBC News Online

In the run-up to this year's presidential election, a $100m voucher programme is to be rolled out in the US which would allow addicts to buy places on some of the nation's most controversial faith-based drug programmes.


"Religion," Karl Marx famously declared in an 1843 critique, " is the opium of the people".
US President George Bush may be at odds with the revolutionary philosopher on most issues, but both would concur on the power of religion and its heady effects.

The patch of common ground would however be a small one. Mr Marx was keen that people throw off what he saw as the shackles of faith, and embrace not drugs but revolution.

Mr Bush, who himself gave up drinking with the assistance of faith, is hoping to harness the potential of religious belief to help American drug addicts kick their habit.

To its critics, the faith-based programmes are an underhand way of breaking down the constitutional barrier between church and state through the indirect federal funding of religious groups, and one which will leave vulnerable individuals open to state-sponsored proselytising with no proven benefits in terms of reducing drug addiction.

But to its advocates, the new system can only benefit the nation's estimated 14 million drug users, giving them access to a vast range of programmes and techniques - both faith-based and secular.

Boot camp

The success, or otherwise, of Christian and other faith groups in weaning their charges of drugs is largely anecdotal. To their supporters, they work. To their detractors, they do not; neither side has much empirical evidence to support their claims.

However the track record of Alcoholics Anonymous is frequently called upon as an example of the beneficial role faith can play in treating addictions.

AA is explicitly non-denominational. But its 12 steps which make up the road to recovery are very similar to the spiritual exercises established by St Ignatius de Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, and the programme requires that its participants embrace a belief in a higher power - a God of their choice.

Dennis Griffith is a graduate of Teen Challenge - an evangelical Christian drug treatment programme which stands to benefit from the voucher system. He now runs the California branch of the programme, the main component of which is bible study and prayer.

"It is the belief in something larger than oneself that helps them kick the habit when they are here, and it is the faith they acquire during their time with us that stops them descending back into their addiction when they leave," he says.

"We insist that they find a church to attend in the area they return to, firstly so they can nurture their faith, but also so that they can slip into a readymade community. Loneliness can be a one-way ticket back to where they came from."


When people with addiction problems seek government help, they should receive medical treatment and support services, not sermons and scriptures
Reverend Barry Lynn
 
At the core of Teen Challenge's activities is a year-long residential course - a programme Dennis himself completed in his early 20s when his heroin addiction threatened to destroy his marriage. His young wife was pregnant and said she would leave him unless he acted. Family members urged him to try a new programme that had just set up in the Los Angeles area.

"I thought it sounded dumb at first. I wasn't in the least religious and was very dubious. But I was desperate - I knew I was about to lose everything. I phoned - spoke to a guy at the end of the line - and for the first time in years I felt a spark of hope, that this might be a turning point."

Teen Challenge has elements of the boot camp. The week lasts seven days, kicking off at 6:30am each morning with a chapel service, which is followed by classes - most of them involving bible study and discussion of how religious teachings can be applied to everyday life.

It claims a success rate as high as 86% - although this figure only takes into account those who complete the programme. Many do not.

"Ideally we want people to come to us of their own accord. The programme is most effective when participants actually want to be there. That's why we would happily work with the voucher system - the addicts themselves would be choosing our programme rather than it being foisted upon them."

Keeping the faith

The prospect of an organisation like Teen Challenge receiving federal assistance is welcomed by some advocacy workers.

"At present, one in five American addicts gets no help. We know that some of these programmes work, so it doesn't make any sense to shut them out when people need them," says Jenny Collier, director of national policy and state strategy for the Legal Action Center.

"$100 million may not seem a lot, but given that we've currently got a budget deficit and most programmes are having their funding slashed, it displays a real commitment on the part of this administration to helping addicts. That's very encouraging from our point of view."

During his four years in office, President Bush has worked hard to further involve religious groups in the provision of welfare across a broad range of services.

Many members of the administration are convinced that religious groups provide a service that can compete with or improve on secular state provisions.

Mixed results

The involvement of religious bodies in welfare is not new as such. But theoretically at least, under previous practice, groups have only been able to claim federal money for services which are secular in nature, in keeping with the constitution.

The voucher system would allow them to keep the religious aspect as the central plank of their programme, which must be approved by the state. For the politicians who favour these groups, such a caveat is essential if the programme is to retain the very element which makes it attractive to them in the first place.

But research is still being carried out to establish whether the assumption of efficacy in the case of faith-based welfare provision is a sound one.

Preliminary results from the first academic study comparing secular providers of social services with faith-based ones - in this case those providing job training - suggested the religious-oriented groups were not performing as well.

However, for some US campaigners, the issue at stake is not so much their effectiveness but what they see as the blurring of the division between Church and State, a line which they argue has down the centuries allowed American churches to flourish free of political interference and government to operate without religious bias.

"The president is trying to blast a huge hole in the wall of separation," declares Reverend Barry Lynn, head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "In America, houses of worship are perfectly free to evangelise, but they should do so with their own funds, not money from the taxpayer.

"When people with addiction problems seek government help, they should receive medical treatment and support services, not sermons and scriptures."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/a ... 530141.stm

Published: 2004/03/09 10:27:25 GMT

© BBC MMIV

[The Butcher]

Brian Jones was the first martyr of rock and roll. Before Jimi. Before Janis. Before Jim. His life was the first of many rock and roll mini sagas that would replay themselves over and over throughout the latter part of the sixties and well into the seventies; all different, yet all frighteningly and eerily similar in their downfalls.

Brian Jones entered the 60s young, ambitious, energetic and hungry about the future of his new band built around his newest obsession, the blues. He went about it with fervor, leading the band and in the beginning being responsible for much of the Rolling Stones' musical experimentation with different sounds and instruments. In the beginning, it was Brian who used his charm to push the band's name around London when many were unsure of what The Rolling Stones and R&B were all about. The Brian Jones that exited the late 60s however, was a frail, unhealthy and ultimately sad shell of what he used to be.

Brian Jones was born and raised in upper class Cheltenham, England. His father was an engineer and played piano at church while his mother taught piano. While in school, Brian learned to play piano and clarinet quickly and quite proficiently. This would remain a trait throughout Brian's life, as he had no trouble learning to play any instrument he fancied, usually within a day. Jones related in an early Stones interview, "I guess I knew that I was going to be interested only in music early on". Although Jones was a bright student throughout his school years with a reported IQ of 135, music remained his only real passion (music and girls to be exact). Brian would often skip school to practice clarinet, which inevitably led to frequent canings and eventually to two suspensions.

In 1957 Brian visited a local jazz club and was immediately smitten. Upon his return home he begged his parents to buy him an alto sax and then spent hours teaching himself to play. Brian's keen interest in jazz soon overflowed to blues as this was the chosen music genre of the skiffle band craze sweeping England at the time, Jones actually playing washboard in a skiffle band he put together at 15. It was at this time that Brian began listening to and collecting records by blues greats such as Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin' Wolf. His infatuation with the blues would burn for many years and would spark and serve as blueprint for the creation of his new band.

Brian Jones' relationship with women was callous from the onset and he developed a reputation as a ladies man when just a teen. This would continue until his death, as he always had a number of girlfriends, many of whom would bear his children. It was gossip and pressure from the parents of a pregnant 14-year-old girl that forced Brian to flee England in the summer of 1959. Along with his sax and newly acquired guitar, Brian left for Scandinavia where he enjoyed the summer months supporting himself by busking in the streets. Reflecting on these times many years later, Brian recalled, "Those few months were the most free and happy of my life". As for relationships with his future bandmates, perhaps Bill Wyman summed it up best in his book, "Stone Alone" where he observes,"There were two Brians?one was introverted, shy, sensitive, deep-thinking?the other was a preening peacock, gregarious, artistic, desperately needing assurance from his peers?he pushed every friendship to the limit and way beyond." It certainly seemed that rock and roll stardom and Jones' personality were on a collision course from day one. One that Brian couldn't possibly survive. He couldn't and he wouldn't.

Upon his return to England in late 1959 he joined a local group called The Ramrods. No sooner had he begun to ingratiate himself back into his small town when a one night dalliance with a married 23 year old had him scurrying around town trying to avoid her father, another trend that would continue for Brian until he left Cheltenham for good in '62. Brian Jones was, at the tender age of 17, a father twice over, the official number of children he would father by the time of his death being five. Brian continued to maintain a very good grade level despite his nocturnal activities, mainly girls and live music clubs. He decided at 18 to quit school, much to the chagrin of his parents who felt he was surely university material. However, he did toy briefly with the idea of being a dentist! Jones supported himself via numerous menial jobs, some of which were terminated after the employer had realized Brian had been skimming the till.

During this time, Brian made frequent trips into London, usually by mode of hitchhiking, to check out the lively music scene. A favorite hangout for Brian became the Ealing Club. It wasn't long before Brian used his charm and enthusiastic personality to talk the club manager into offering him a spot at the club when the house band wasn't in. Christening himself Elmo Louis, he and a friend recorded a few of the blues numbers that he would use when playing live. Brian spent the better part of two years continuing his frequent discarding of girlfriends and jobs, all the while making weekly trips to London. It was during this period that Brian came into his own as a guitar player as he honed his skills playing along with his ever increasing collection of Blues records.

The Ealing Club normally featured jazz but would soon welcome its first blues act, Alexis Korner's Blues Inc., with nineteen-year-old drummer Charlie Watts. Brian hitchhiked his way to attend the show and with his usual exuberance befriended Alexis Korner, handing him the tape he had made as Elmo Louis. Korner was so impressed with Brian that not only did he give him his home number and address, he asked Brian to sit in with the band the following week. It was at the second show that Brian first spoke to Charlie Watts and thus began a weekly sit in with Blues Inc. In April 1962, after Brian's slide guitar talents where highlighted by Korner himself, a young man named Michael Phillip Jagger introduced himself to Brian along with other friends including Keith Richards.

Alexis Korner's Blues Inc. and The Ealing Club both served as a focal point for the bands' future members as they would all jam together on a weekly basis. By January 1963, The Rolling Stones lineup was established, mostly due to Jones' diligence. It was also around this time that the band started to call themselves The Rolling Stones. Time went on and eventually Jones, Jagger and Richards began practicing on their own. Brian's blues guitar playing and the fact that he could read music impressed both Jagger and Richards. The three soon found themselves sharing a tiny, cheap flat in London, often having to hock furniture to buy groceries.

It was an eight month stint at one of London's premier clubs, "The Crawdaddy", that the Rolling Stones really began to create a stir throughout London with their unique brand of R&B. Enter the bands first manager Andrew Loog Oldham, who promoted them as the "Nasty Opposites of the Beatles" and coined the promo phrase "would you let your daughter marry a rolling stone?". Their image was created and the seeds of the legend that would bloom to become the Rolling Stones saga were sowed.

The Stones signed to Decca and released a succession of cover records throughout 1963. Their cover in October of 1963 of the Lennon/McCartney "I Want to Be Your Man" showcased Brians' experimental tendencies as he played great bottleneck guitar, which up until that point had only been heard in England when playing old American Blues records. It would be the first of many highlights of Brians' penchant for experimenting in new sounds and instruments.

From 1963 - 66, The Stones road a wave of critical and commercial acclaim. This period of activity and success saw the band, under Brians' tutelage, establish itself with a string of successful singles, albums and tours. During this period, Jones was very much the leader of the band. His mark continued to be made and his adventurous musical tendencies and experimentations continued unabated and are prominently featured throughout this period on classics such as, "Lady Jane" and "I Am Waiting" (Brian playing dulcimer), "Under My Thumb" (playing marimba) and "Painted Black" (playing sitar). In many cases, Brian was the first musician to introduce and record a variety of unique instruments in Britain.

During the latter part of this successful period, Jones' drink intake and drug experimentation began to spiral upward and beyond that of other members of The Rolling Stones. In short order, it would begin to cause problems and riffs within the Stones camp.

Brian began what would become a long series of no-shows for recordings, rehearsals and performances. Late 1965 - 66 saw manager Andrew Loog Oldham push increasingly for a song writing partnership between Jagger and Richards a la Lennon and McCartney. He relieved Jones of backup singing duties and pushed forward a reluctant Keith to fill in the void. Oldham went so far as to turn off Brian's mic during recordings as well as fading out his guitar parts. Add this to a pharmaceutical cocktail diet and the paranoia, jealously, and mood swings that come with it, Brian's behavior became increasingly more erratic and his alienation from the rest of the band continued. Three things were happening at this time; Brian's creative output began to slip away, control of the band was firmly in the hands of Jagger and Richards, and the bands' patience was wearing thin. It became evident that they were carrying a passenger, something they could ill afford, at a time when things were really beginning to take off for the band. They needed Jones to show up and contribute. Jones would do one or the other, but more often than not, neither. Jones' downward spiral was not immediate and was indeed a long and painful process that lasted roughly from 1966 up until his official departure from the band in 1969.

Trouble with the law was the last thing Brian's fragile mental state needed. But between June 1967 and May 1968 Jones, along with Jagger and Richards, found themselves drowning in a series of separate drug busts, and at various points it seemed that jail time for the trio was imminent. Jones was always one of the most flamboyant of the Stones and made headlines within the headlines as he showed up for trial in fancy and loud apparel.

In the summer of 1967 Brian, who was originally the most open to new music, ideas and scenes, traveled to San Francisco to attend the Monterey Pop Festival and take in the West Coast scene. En route to California he shared a first class seat from London to New York with Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience who relates in his book "Are You Experienced?", "Brian was flying on a tab of purple Owsley". Al Kooper in his book "Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards" describes Brian's state when he arrived in LA for a leer jet flight to Monterey, "Brian seemed to be conveying in the neighborhood of Jupiter". After the forty minute flight to Monterey, Kooper continues, "Brian spoke to me for the first time, 'Hi Al.' I don't think he was aware that our introduction had taken place some forty-five minutes before." Jones spent his time at the festival mingling with the hippies on the grounds and tripping on LSD, brilliantly splattered in costume jewelry wearing a gold lame coat with beads and scarves. Brian would be the one to introduce Hendrix for his historical performance, the two artists having immense mutual admiration and respect for each other.

Shortly thereafter and back in England, the drug trials, drink and drugs continued to batter Jones to the point of complete unproductivity. Jones' contributions to "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (1967) were sparse but splendid. By the time recording sessions for "Beggars Banquet" came around in late 1968, his contributions where almost nil as he was relegated to slight acoustic guitar bits, sitar or percussion. Al Kooper relates in his book how he was invited to attend and perform on the recording sessions for "Beggars Banquet" and sums up the beehive of activity that surrounded a Stones' creative and recording session. Kooper then goes on to observe, "Brian Jones lay on his stomach in the corner reading an article on botany through the entire proceedings". Another telling display of Brian's decaying state unfolds in the Jean- Luc Godard film "One Plus One". It is sadly and plainly evident that the Brian Jones of the early to mid 1960s was whittling away, the toll of his excesses on display as his distant blurry eyes and reclusive behavior are forever captured on film.

Just before his official departure from The Rolling Stones in 1969, Brian Jones had purchased AA Milne's country estate in Sussex and had begun extensive restorations, this in itself bolstering his mangled spirits. It seems to some who had contact with Jones around this time that he was beginning to get himself together, laying off the drugs and had even begun discussing future musical projects with the likes of Alexis Korner and Mitch Mitchell. On June 9, 1969, Brian's departure from The Stones became official, a statement released simply read, "I no longer see eye to eye with the others over the discs we are cutting".

His future plans were not to be as just three weeks later on July 3, 1969 Brian Jones was found dead in his swimming pool. The creator of the most enduring and beloved rock bands in history was dead at twenty-seven.

The official verdict handed down by the coroner shortly thereafter read, "Death by misadventure, cause of death drowning". It was thought at the time that Jones had suffered an asthma attack while swimming, as asthma was "a chronic ailment that troubled him since a bout with crupe as a child". However, the autopsy reports said that the condition of his lungs were not light and bulky, which is usually the case when death occurs as a result of an asthma attack. The conspiracy theories in this case are numerous and the possibility of Brian being murdered have spawned a truckload of books surrounding his last evening alive and the events that unfolded. Some theories put forward were disgruntled laborers and one that surfaced shortly after stated ridiculously that it was a Stones ordered hit. An apparent death bed confession in 1993, by Frank Thorogood, the builder who was drinking with Brian that evening, set off a flurry of books and television specials.

Brian Jones' legend has, as with all young R&R martyrs, grown and his excesses have been chronicled extensively over the years. In the end, the question remains not so much if he was murdered but what other incredible contributions could or would he have made to music had his life not ended so tragically.

[Anonymous]

REUTERS NEWS AGENCY

An American historian says that more than a million Europeans were enslaved by North African slave traders between 1530 and 1780, a time of vigorous Mediterranean and Atlantic coastal piracy.
   
The number of white European slaves is only a fraction of the trade that brought 10 million to 12 million black African slaves to the Americas over a 400-year period, historian Robert Davis says, but his research shows the slave trade was more widespread than commonly assumed. The impact on Europe's white population was significant.
    "One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature ? that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true," said Mr. Davis, an Ohio State University professor.
   
"Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland."
   
In a new book, "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800," Mr. Davis calculates that between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by pirates called "corsairs" and forced to work in North Africa during that period.
   
The raids were so aggressive that entire Mediterranean seaside towns were abandoned by frightened residents. "Much of what has been written gives the impression that there were not many slaves and minimizes the impact that slavery had on Europe.
   
"Most accounts only look at slavery in one place, or only for a short period of time. But when you take a broader, longer view, the massive scope of this slavery and its powerful impact become clear."
   
The pirates, sailing from such cities as Tunis and Algiers, raided ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic as well as seaside villages to capture men, women and children, he says. They were put to work in quarries, in heavy construction and as oarsmen in the pirates' galleys.
   
Mr. Davis calculated his estimates using records that indicate how many slaves were at a particular location at a single time. He then estimated how many new slaves it would take to replace slaves as they died, escaped or were ransomed.
   
 "It is not the best way to make population estimates, but it is the only way with the limited records available."

[Anonymous]

Psychological Torture, CIA-Style
From the "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual--1983," a handbook written by the Central Intelligence Agency and used during the early 80's to teach Latin American security forces how to extract information from prisoners. The manual was obtained in January through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Baltimore Sun as part of an investigation of the CIA's involvement in Honduras. In 1985, the CIA renounced the use of coercive interrogation techniques (sic) and amended the manual accordingly; in the copy obtained by the Sun, the original 1983 text is legible beneath the agency's handwritten revisions and deletion marks. --------------------------------------

THEORY OF COERCION

The purpose of all coercive techniques is to induce psychological regression in the subject by bringing a superior outside force to bear on his will to resist. Regression is basically a loss of autonomy, a reversion to an earlier behavioral level. As the subject regresses, his learned personality traits fall away in reverse chronological order. He begins to lose the capacity to carry out the highest creative activities, to deal with complex situations, or to cope with stressful interpersonal relationships or repeated frustrations.

COERCIVE TECHNIQUES

Arrest

The manner and timing of the subjects arrest should be planned to achieve surprise and the maximum amount of mental discomfort. He should therefore be arrested at a moment when he least expects it and when his mental and physical resistance are at their lowest--ideally, in the early hours of the morning. When arrested at this time, most subjects experience intense feelings of shock, insecurity, and psychological stress, and have great difficulty adjusting to the situation.

Detention

A person's sense of identity depends upon the continuity in his surroundings, habits, appearance, relations with others, etc. Detention permits the questioner to cut through these links and throw the subject back upon his own unaided internal resources. Detention should be planned to enhance the subject's feelings of being cut off from anything known and reassuring.

Deprivation of Sensory Stimuli

Solitary confinement acts on most persons as a powerful stress. The symptoms most commonly produced by solitary confinement are superstition, intense love of any other living thing, perceiving inanimate objects as alive, hallucinations, and delusions.

Threats and Fear

The threat of coercion usually weakens or destroys resistance more effectively than coercion itself. For example, the threat to inflict pain can trigger fears more damaging than the immediate sensation of pain.

The threat of death has been found to be worse than useless. The principal reason is that it often induces sheer hopelessness; the subject feels that he is as likely to be condemned after compliance as before. Some subjects recognize that the threat is a bluff and that silencing them forever would defeat the questioner's purpose.

If a subject refuses to comply after a threat has been made, it must be carried out. Otherwise, subsequent threats will also prove ineffective.

Pain

The torture situation is a contest between the subject and his tormentor. Pain that is being inflicted upon the subject from outside himself may actually intensify his will to resist. On the other hand, pain that he feels he is inflicting upon himself is more likely to sap his resistance. For example, if he is required to maintain a rigid position such as standing at attention or sitting on a stool for long periods of time, the immediate source of discomfort is not the questioner but the subject himself. After a while, the subject is likely to exhaust his internal motivational strength.

Intense pain is quite likely to produce false confessions, fabricated to avoid additional punishment. This results in a time-consuming delay while an investigation is conducted and the admissions are proven untrue. During this respite, the subject can pull himself together and may even use the time to devise a more complex confession that takes still longer to disprove.

Hypnosis and Heightened Suggestibility

Answers obtained from the subject under the influence of hypnotism are highly suspect, as they are often based upon the suggestions of the questioner and are distorted or fabricated. However, the subject's strong desire to escape the stress of the situation can create a state of mind called "heightened suggestibility." The questioner can take advantage of this state of mind by creating a situation in which the subject will cooperate because he believes he has been hypnotized. This hypnotic situation can be created using the "magic room" technique.

For example, the subject is given a hypnotic suggestion that his hand is growing warm. However, his hand actually does become warm with the aid of a concealed diathermy machine. He may be given a suggestion that a cigarette will taste bitter and could be given a cigarette prepared to have a slight but noticeably bitter taste.

Narcosis

There is no drug that can force every subject to divulge all the information he has, but it is possible to create a mistaken belief that a subject has been drugged by using the "placebo" technique. The subject is given a placebo (a harmless sugar pill) and later is told he was given a truth serum that will make him want to talk and that will also prevent his lying. His desire to find to find an excuse for compliance, which is his only avenue of escape from his depressing situation, may make him want to believe that he has been drugged and that no one could blame him for telling his story now. This provides him with the rationalization that he needs for cooperating.

REGRESSION

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of all coercive techniques is to induce regression. A few noncoercive techniques can also be used to induce regression, but to a lesser degree than can be obtained with coercive techniques:

* Persistent manipulation of time
* Retarding and advancing clocks
* Serving meals at odd times
* Disrupting sleep schedules
* Disorientation regarding day and night
* Unpatterned questioning sessions
* Nonsensical questioning
* Ignoring halfhearted attempts to cooperate
* Rewarding noncooperation

Whether regression occurs spontaneously under detention or is induced by the questioner, it should not be allowed to continue beyond the point necessary to obtain compliance. A psychiatrist should be present if severe techniques are to be employed, to ensure full reversal later. As soon as possible, the questioner should provide the subject with the rationalization that he needs for giving in and cooperating. This rationalization is likely to be elementary, an adult version of a childhood excuse such as:

1. "They made you do it."
2. "All the other boys are doing it."
3. "You're really a good boy at heart."

[Will Woods]

I prefer cocaine thats what finally killed me, what a rush.

[Anonymous]

Opiates are the mass of my religion

[Antigen]

Sobriety is for people who can't handle drugs.

Being a street cop, witnessing the tragedy firsthand, I've become
convinced that drug prohibition -- not drugs themselves -- are driving the HIV epidemic and the systemic crime that has swamped our criminal justice systems.
--Vancouver Police Const. Gil Puder