Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Elan School
The ring
Becca:
The ring ended in the fall of 2000. I was a resident at elan 8 at the time, I was one of the last people to go in the ring. Although many of you disagree I fell it was probably one of the more productive things at Elan. I personally learned that there are real consequences for my actions. I know this may not be the popular opinion aroud here, but I think the students of Elan would be better off if it was still in concept.
Antigen:
Becca, serious question.
In Straight, we didn't have the ring exactly like they had at Elan. But we had very similar practices. We had what, in later days, was euphemistically termed 'restraint'. In my day (`80 - `82) they just called it getting sat on, which is essentially what happened. They (well, we who didn't want to go a round on the floor ourselves) told parents and anyone else that the only reason anyone ever got sat on was to restrain them from assaulting others or hurting themselves. (carving was a popular passtime in group at Straight)
The truth, though, was that you could get sat on for refusing to "get honest" (renounce yourself, confess to an accusation... whatever) or for making a run for the door.
Most of the assaults for which people got restrained started out with the allegedly dangerous and violent subject being pushed, hit, prodded and physically made to do things like sit ups or that bizarre ritual that we called 'motivating' (flapping your whole upper body as hard as you could to show how gosh darned motivated you were to get called on to speak) If a defiant newcomer (shot down) refused to do these things, the kids nearest them would grab hold of their arms and legs and simply put the other kid's body through the motions.
Once you were down on the floor with 4 or 5 other kids sitting on your limbs and stomach, very often that was there chance to take out a little pent up agression on you. Sometimes they'd have fun covering the sittee's (yeah, that's really what we called them) mouth and nose till they panicked, which, of course, would draw a response to justify a few good punches or the (usually heavy set) girl on your stomach to bounce a few times.
None the less, the stock response to people who expressed through word or deed that they did not like being sat on was this, "You did the necessary things to get sat on!"
I never saw it this way at all. These were artificial consequences used to control behaviors that, in the real world, would certainly not have drawn anything close to these contrived consequences.
Never the less, by the time I got out after two years, my confused little concience wouldn't allow me to testify against the people who'd held me down and beat on my like that for two hours for calmly refusing to apologize to Group for having run away. "Get honest!" was the angry demand. But, honestly, I wasn't sorry. I was being honest by the traditional definition. And yet I also knew what would happen if I continued to refuse. So, in Program (Concept) sense, it was my fault, right?
Took me longer than the statute of limitations to sort that one out.
Do you really think going in the ring was a natural, fair and even handed consequence for the kinds of actions for which Elan used it? I'm not going for a 'gotchya' here. I just want to compare notes.
--- Quote ---On 2003-10-31 10:31:00, Becca wrote:
"The ring ended in the fall of 2000. I was a resident at elan 8 at the time, I was one of the last people to go in the ring. Although many of you disagree I fell it was probably one of the more productive things at Elan. I personally learned that there are real consequences for my actions. I know this may not be the popular opinion aroud here, but I think the students of Elan would be better off if it was still in concept."
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Speak gently! 't is a little thing Dropp'd in the heart's deep well; The good, the joy, that it may bring Eternity shall tell.
-- G. W. Langford: Speak gently.
--- End quote ---
Paul St. John:
--- Quote ---On 2003-10-31 10:31:00, Becca wrote:
"The ring ended in the fall of 2000. I was a resident at elan 8 at the time, I was one of the last people to go in the ring. Although many of you disagree I fell it was probably one of the more productive things at Elan. I personally learned that there are real consequences for my actions. I know this may not be the popular opinion aroud here, but I think the students of Elan would be better off if it was still in concept."
--- End quote ---
Becca,
You are probably not gonna hear what I am saying, but there already are real consequences for your your actions. That is the fact of the matter. What we have here is people getting the way of the natural cause and effect relationship of the world. I am sure that you think that you have learned something. You probably think that you have learned discipline, but that is false. Discipline is an inner matter. iT's source is the self. Disciplne comes from going for what we want.. not avoiding what we do not want.
Back in the day, Gypsies, use to put children into weird shaped vases and such, and let them grow within these shapes, throughout their life, so that when thye came out, they looked the way, that the people who had put them into them wished. The use of the ring and other fear tactics, is the same thing.. It is molding a person.. It goes on the idea, that a person is no good as they are, and must be beaten or brought to submission by another.
Also, as far as it being productive, recieving harm to one's being is the most counter-productive thing in the universe. Productivity is measured by the amount of benefit or health brought to the individual. We have no other reference point.. we need no other reference point, but the conscious individual. Beating the "image" out of a person is extremely counter-productive, and nobody wins.
You may not like what I have written, but it happens to be true.
Paul St. JOhn
Becca:
I have heard the ring was different back when Elan was newer, but when I was there it was very only for very extreme cases. A student would generally get more warnings than could be counted. They would have to have shown extreme physical violence and not responded at all to the warnings.
The ring was litterally a boxing ring. Students would be fully padded in the same height/weight class and have to follow boxing guidelines.
Unless the student receiving the ring refused to commit to stop their violent behavior the ring would never last more than 3 minutes. Mine lasted 28 seconds.
I hope this clears it up for you.
Becca
Antigen:
Becca, I believe folks who say Elan has changed a lot since the bad old days. Not only are there a whole lot of people who saw it then and now, there are even a few who were around for various transitions. That's a good thing! I know pretty much what it was like for my brothers and sisters in The Seed and I wouldn't wish Straight on them.
A lot of the other programs have changed significantly as well, most of them for the better. I think most of the worst ones that let things get way, way out of hand pretty much fall apart because of it. Only some few with very skillfully manipulaive leaders seem to be able to hide the more outrageous practices for long. Miller Newton, for example. Took from the mid `70's till just the last 3 years or so to shut him down.
But I'm not convinced that everything has changed or that they're not still using some very potent and dangerous slight of mind. Some things about Elan concern me very much. A few people who I find very credible tell consistent stories about Marty and Joe. They're not talking just about the ring and making people think they were going to die or the rapes, but that these boys enjoyed this type of thing very much. And I know a few people personally who never were physically harmed, but who were deeply hurt psychologically by the mind games.
I'm glad they reeled in the more outrageous uses of the ring. If it was just as you perceived it when you were there, it actuallys sounds like a perfectly sensible and safe practice.
But you didn't address my primary concern in your response. Like I said, the only time I ever got the end-all physical punishment was when I refused to say what I was told to say. And I'd seen plenty of people just tormented till they lost their temper, as any reasonable person might do under similar circumstances, and then get the treatment for it.
What types of infractions would get someone put in the ring to begin with?
Every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers, may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid."
--Alexander Hamilton
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