Wow, Thom, I didn't know all that. I wonder if dad would be more outraged or more amused to know that he raised a pack of nigger lovers. :rofl: Toward the end there, I think he was starting to get it.
But I'm calling bullshit on the point of coercion. The Seed reeked of it. You never ran up against the wall because you never tried to escape. But you damned sure knew it was going on; what would happen to you if you DID try to bolt from the group room or a foster home or school... whatever. You may have agreed to sign yourself in and comply w/ the program, but you were only 14 and had been convinced by some very adept scammers that you'd die otherwise. That's not exactly voluntary by the strict (or, for that matter, legal) definition.
I did the same thing for slightly different reasons. They said they could get a court order mandating a 2 year stay. I believed them. But it was true. Not that they had anything close to a legitimate reason for a court order. But I knew they had friends in high places and I figured I could either bullshit my way through or split quicker than 2 years.
Anyway, I believe that
you believe your view of things. It's a funny thing that happens w/ any idiology based group. Sometimes, the recruiting and PR spin on the group's task takes on a life of it's own and changes the task, especially when there's sustained and fairly fast growth and a lot of turnover (high ratio of new blood). It's just the same w/ the Judeo/Christian traditions. Most Bible/Torah believing people no longer support death by stoning for adulteresses. The new blood has sort of tweaked the mission a bit. Sometimes, it's for the good.
Just please don't start lobbing bomb laden virgins at me for speaking frankly. :rofl:
Necessity is the excuse for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of the tyrant and the creed of the slave.
-- William Pitt, 1763