I retract my stupid remarks
Psy is on point about learned helplessness. But if we want to extend the definition of programs to include learned helplessness, we might have to include almost every school and medical facility in this country.
My point about the complexities of the system remains. What is the strategy for dealing with the myriad faults of the teen help industry in all of its forms?
Education. Independent/guerilla media. Civil disobedience. Illegal surveilance of programs (drop the tapes on teh doorstep of the press, or pass them out randomly at churches). Oh? but you can go go jail for that?!?! I am willing, if that is what it takes. Anything it takes to demolish the one thing that programs function on: control of communication. It is one unifying aspect of all totalistic systems. Show people a pattern, and they will start to see it everywhere it appears. Turn programs inside out, show the world what they don't what to become public. Regardless of the law, it does not matter. Each year, this industry grows and becomes popular. Each year, undocumented pass through this industry. With such things at stake, the law means absolutely nothing to me. Anything and everything it takes to expose the truth... cracking, surveilance, blackmale, bribery. Yes. I am suggesting illegal things. I don't care. If you are not willing to participate than get out of the way. If the law fails, and there is still injustice it does not relieve those who know about from their responsability to act. Inaction is the same as approval. I may be extreme, but I am not endorsing violence. It should also be noted that there is a very viable defense for such actions (not that it would matter to me). Do you really think a jury would convict somebody for using "illegal" means to expose abuse and fraud on such a scale? and even if they did. That punishment would be worth it. People overseas are willing to blow themselves up for what they believe in, sacrafice their lives for an imaginary friend. I had real friends who suffered immesurabely, and some are dead. I am more than a little willing to do a little time if that is what it takes. If just ONE person from every tbs was willing to do the same, there would be no more industry. You want a one-shot, one-kill end to this industry? That is it.
You can play your politics but you are a fool to continue to have faith in a system that is so filled with cancer there is no way it can ever recover. Authority means "people with power" and power/might rarely if ever means right. Whatever you have to sacrifice, to give up, to give in, is a slippery slope, and before you know it you will become the very thing that you hate. Mark my words. You really think you would be any different with such power? Power corrupts, without exception. I would hope you would be wise enough to realize that, but it appears there is much you do not understand about the nature of humanity. Do you really think everybody started out in this industry with ill intentions. Kevin August had good intentions... He simply thought that his ideal goal was unattainable, so he compromised, and ended up referring, (probably ignorantly) to an abusive faciility (and don't question me on that or i will shove so much evidence so far up your ass....). You simply don't see how easy it is to become part of the system you once sought to destroy. You may give up. I wont.
My obsession with WWASP is moot and largely unintentional, CEDU, Straight, SUWS, Aspen, their more or less all the same in my mind in that parents with money (or decent credit) can "opt out" of the government run and regulated systems. The ones that operate without state money require different strategies to shut down than ones that do receive money from the state. I admit to not being an expert on the particulars of the brainwashing techniques of each model.
Then, once again, I wonder how in the hell you could even dare to suggest any program is benign. I am not expert either. I am not willing to take such a risk and have such a placement on my conscience. Even if I am 90% sure I will never say so, becuase I was fooled myself when I visited Bencmark. If you can live with yourself after passing around such irresponsible advice, from a supposed position of responsibility... fine.
Question, what of the person who has experienced multiple "programs" and thinks they can differentiate the quality (or lack thereof of each one).
I know different people who were in teh same series of programs (common when ed-cons get paid off). They differed in their opinion of which one was worse. Some people are more affected by one type of "treatment" than others. I am not such a fool to think I can ever tell what a program is like without going through it (without exception).
