On 2002-06-27 22:35:00, Anonymous wrote:
I am a former ELan resident, and would just like to say I have sympathy for the straight crew..maybe not repect for all of them, but a genuine sorrow for what you went through.
Elan was mild by comparison, it really was...nobody ever produced a knife in a threatening manner, though there were many available...hell we had STEAK knives available to everyone who wasnt "in the corner" or a threat to themselves...nobody ever got a blanket party, nobody got raped, no-one was ever a victim of physical confrontation UNLESS they were being restrained in an effort to keep from hurting themselves or someone else...its the truth...
What your doing is soliciting lies and exhagerations from former ELan students to support your claims...ELan wasnt like that, and you have been lied to by some very creative people.
Do what you have to do, but dont think for a minute you get any legitimate support from former Elaners who say they were in a similar hell...we were not...you folks may deserve whatever comes your way with regard to a settlement, or success in shutting straight down,,Elan was a far better place, and a much DIFFERENT place...
On 2002-06-28 15:00:00, Anonymous wrote:
Reaity isnt pleasant
Like I stated in the past..there were, by my estimates..2250 people to be in Elan for at least ten months...theres four or five who snivel and moan about it 10 even 20 years later...what the hell are the rest of them doing?
On 2002-06-28 15:02:00, Anonymous wrote:
I have a question...WHY and HOW could a mass of adults get together, and form a place to abuse children?
On 2002-07-08 00:18:00 Anonymous wrote: I must say its quite entertaining to see people make such a big deal of it..a really big twisted deal.
...
I went back and read the first post, and really didnt see any occasion where I am suggesting thoughts and feelings for anyone but myself.
But...
On 2002-07-08 2002-06-27 22:35:00, Anonymous wrote: Elan was mild by comparison, it really was...nobody ever produced a knife in a threatening manner, though there were many available.
Others have made very, very different observations. Doesn't mean they're twisted. Just means their observations were different than your own.
On 2002-07-08 00:18:00 Anonymous wrote: I guess I was uneffected by Elan, I found it tollerable even in what was called the worst house to be in at the time. Yeah, some former straight or Elan "victim" will come along again and claim I am dealing with post traumatic stress disorder or some clinical explaination for why 27 months of Elan really doesnt stand out in my memory as a period of trauma and torment...so thanks in advance for the free medical advice.
Yeah, I was the same way. My life up until intake at Straight had been pretty damned stressful. And, essentially, I didn't give a flyin' run at a rollin' doughnut about any but a rare few in that place. At most I had no more than casual admiration or a secret crush that didn't mean much more to me than mild diversion from the mind-numbing monotony of the day.
So, when someone was being held down on the floor and sat on for hours or a brawl broke out in the timeout room or in group, I didn't view it at the time as abuse. I just thought something along the lines of "I wonder when that dumb fuck is going to figure out they're outnumbered and quit getting themselves beat up."
I was just doin' my time, viewed the whole thing as a monumental hassle and a waste of time and figured everyone else just sort of shook it off afterward as well. I wish you and I had been right. But, unfortunately, an awful lot of people, kids and adults alike, who are subjected to this particular type of thought reform don't just shake it off.
Now, most folks who respond badly to this kind of treatment are only a danger to themselves. Some actually carve on themselves or commit suicide. Most just self-medicate like maniacs or spend a lot of time indoors. But some few go and beat their parents to death with a baseball bat or, worse, take up public office or lobbying endevours to impose their salvation on others.
Still, cold hearted (by some people's reckoning) and dispassionate woman that I am, that still wouldn't compel me to spend much time and energy if I could believe, as I did for some years, that this was just an ineffectual, weird little cult that was only a problem for those few, unfortunate souls who found themselves under their influence for a time. But that's not accurate either. Fact is that this type of 'therapy' is the standard in the drug treatment industry in this country. It's being used in public and private jails, boot camps and schools accross the land.
More and more, people are being forced into this type of treatment for anything from posession of certain enchanting flowers to having a 'bad attitude' toward a school teacher or administrator (who may very well be an asshole by any reasonable assesment) to getting pulled over after having 2 or 3 beers after work.
I don't know about you, but I dread the thought of living among a polulation and under a government made up in any significant part of Program alumni.
On 2002-07-08 00:18:00 Anonymous wrote: To spend a mere 45 seconds tracing an IP is one thing..but to attempt to either intimidate me by posting mine, or flex your emuscle by running tracert and posting the results is quite pathetic dont you think?
Actually, it took about 20 minutes to write the script some years ago. See, I do this for a living. It's a diagnostic tool. Only takes about 10 seconds to run it.
I wasn't trying to intimidate you, and I hope you're not really intimidated. Just making the point that yes, I can pretty well ban any IP or range of IPs from using all or parts of my server. I thought it was important to demonstrate that because some people seemed to think that the level of anonymity that I provide with this server was more than what it is.
[ This Message was edited by: Antigen on 2002-07-08 11:44 ]
On 2002-07-10 07:27:00, Anonymous wrote:I do not believe that Elan was any better than straight in the overall scheme of things. They were both cheap synanon knock off programs that base their treatment modality on abuse and humiliation, denial of indivuality and brainwashing techniques.
On the other hand, theres quite a juvenile reaction to my first post as well, and what I meant by "twisted" was it was blown way out of proportion.
Theres no way to validate a story about how one person attacked another with a butcher knife, and I honestly find it quite difficult to believe...regardless, my point was this, ELan and Straight were two very different places. Comparing my 27 months in ELan to the stories I have read about straight, it appears straight was a more hostile, and a far more dangerous environment.
The comment "soliciting lies" is what I think I would call a metaphor? see, there are MANY people with a bullshit story about what happened in Elan, exhagerations exsist its tough to prove, its also tough to deny. With the apparent motivation of this website, and others, people take the atmosphere as a place to share experiences that are all NEGATIVE, thus people go out of their way to develop an outstanding story.
I look at my experience at Elan like I had brain tumor surgery..I went under the knife, had the top of my skull cut completely off, and a portion of my brain sliced diced and discarded...sure, 20 years later when I reach out and poke the scars, theres still a bit of tenderness, but the TUMOR that would have killed me is GONE
We all had "tumors" in one way or another.
I am sorry some people didnt recieve the proper anesthesia and more than the tumor was removed than needed to be.