On 2004-10-05 18:27:00, Anonymous wrote:
Yes, Peterman was TOUGH, but I'm sure you weren't placed in a PROGRAM for your outstanding leadership as a young adult!
And yet, you're wrong. Leadership and self posession were exactly what got me onto front row. See, I never had a drug problem. I just had a mother who fell, hook line and sinker, for The Seed when I was only about 6 years old. 4/5 of my older brothers and sisters went through The Seed. All addicts but the two of us? No, just that I was too young and my oldest sister was already in college on her own student loan and could not be coerced.
The Seed wasn't taking unwilling minors by the time I turned into a teenager so I wound up at Straight. So I thought it was safe enough to tell my mom I really didn't buy into her religion enough to become a formal member of the church. If I had it to do all over again, I would have gone ahead and lied and taken the oath and avoided her highly unpleasant flight of fancy.
I remember kids in Straight as young as 11 or 12 who were there for their "druggie attitudes" picked up from their older brothers and sisters.
I do believe that LIFE was a lot more laid back than Straight, though. I went to school w/ a couple of LIFEers. They could wear makeup and jewelry and be friends w/ non-LIFEers, including us. But we were forbidden to associate w/ them.
But it's still, essentially, the same program and it still boils down to coerced thought reform to treat mostly imaginary conditions. We should both be thankful we didn't fall under Miller Newton's direct control. He went all Jim Jonesey w/ the KIDS programs. But that doesn't mean that no one is hurt by the brainwashing. It's a brutal, dehumanizing process no matter how you slice it. Helen Petermen was a part of that, sometimes a very active "hands on" participant, going all the way back to the days of The Seed. I can't imagine that she somehow changed her spots and quit being a judgmental, sanctimonious sadist when she switched jobs and went to work for George Ross.
The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture
is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin
to understand me?
--O'Brien to Winston Smith