Rocky

LOVE the Forbes article. Thanks for sharing it. I don't know how mentally strong I was in 1986 when I left, but for the most part, I now emphatically embrace the listed points (and how they are explained in the article). Other resources along the same lines include books and TED talks by Brené Brown on Daring Greatly; and Gail Sheehy's memoir, Daring. I read Sheehy's book, Pathfinders back in the 1990s and found it tremendously helpful. Also back in the 1990s, I read several books by the late M. Scott Peck that assisted me in my transition from a mentally weak follower. It was during that time that my writing career (non-paid for the most part) began.

Logic? Surely you jest. Well, I'm confident I've had the Baader-Meihof thing, but what I was referring to was and is most likely intuition. Putting things together without consciously having thought about or analyzed them.

He was also a sociopath and a psychopath... and I think we all know he was quite the narcissist. I distinctly remember after taking the AC getting what I now understand to be intuition. That probably goes hand in hand with sunesis (not the greasespot member using that name).

Is indoctrination really that much different a concept than mind-control? Yeah, it is indoctrination. But after the indoctrination, weren't we so much more subject to compliance with the suggestions of Wierwille and his minions?

Or a space or two. ;) **** .... F U C K F-U-C-K F.U.C.K.

I doubt anyone will delete your post. To put WordWolf's insight a different way, the censorship of cuss words is automatic, not done manually by any person. There are other ways around it too. By the way, when you post a second comment, less than five minutes after you posted another comment on the same thread, the two will combine unless somebody else posts a comment in between.

Excellent perspective. A definite bull's eye!

Well... either that or they are people who just have a lot to say. Sometimes it makes sense, often it doesn't. :)

Two things: 1) if you hate the internet, why are you on it? 2) the medium is inherently limited. It doesn't facilitate discussion, partly because it doesn't permit anyone to read non-verbal communication of the other parties to what otherwise could be a productive discussion. It's not about people being fundamentally bad. It's the limitations of the medium for communication.

I continue to appreciate your insight on the inner workings of twi. As they say... spot on. In every instance.

Because there's so many intentionally misleading websites that claim to be satire. No other way to put any article in proper perspective and context.

I love your narrative. Indeed, so much more for me since leaving. In significant ways, for me, twi represented a period of stunted emotional, social and intellectual growth. I look back and think about the roads not taken. If I had the energy now that I had 40 years ago, I'd be in (or already through) law school and would be making even more positive impact on my community. Instead, I'm thankful for my journey and that I've made it this far. I love me life at this stage. But I certainly do not give twi credit for it, though the rocky road that was twi for me did, of course, provide experience upon which I've been able to develop at least a little bit of wisdom. And like skyrider, I'm thankful for how successful my children (daughter and stepson) are today... and neither have had to go through twi to get there. :) I consciously rejected a career path beyond one enlistment term in the Air Force because I couldn't see myself subservient to commanders for so long. When the light came on for me, in 1986, I knew I had had enough of twi and don't regret even one iota the decision to leave.

Fundamentalism S U C K S!

Indeed, does shiftthis even have a clue as to why, at the various ROA festivals in August, the medical help tent was called THIRD aid, rather than first aid?

Only two? What makes you think you're the only one who has said or even thought any of that?

An important reflection, Twinky. I suspect that current twi "innies" use the irrational rationale as explained by shiftthis because it's been offered as an effective shiny object to distract followers away from having to assess wierwille's depravity.

Indeed, Wierwille was not physically attractive... but, seduction is not limited to sex. In fact, if the seduction techniques used in twi had been of the kind to reach into the soul of a person and touch that soul with a word or an action that demonstrated a kindness to the person that was meaningful, THAT is seduction. Seduction without ulterior motives. I suspect that kind of seduction took place from time to time in twi, AND elsewhere, and provided a kind of deliverance to plenty of people. If twi could have understood that, and effectively communicated it, we might not be sitting here writing posts on GSC right now. Alas, because the organization was corrupt at its core, because the heart of its founder appeared not to know that truth, twi couldn't make it the foundation of its growth strategy. Anyway, just a little bit of my stream of consciousness for the moment. Thanks for indulging me. Btw, a couple of TED talks opened my eyes to the notion that seduction is not always or only about sex.

How nice, that's what I call it too. ;)

Incredibly poignant words. Thanks, Twinky, for writing them.

My 2 cents. I was overseas (USAF) on an island where the primary military mission was logistical for supporting European US military operations, at the time of the Israeli airlift. My involvement was nothing out of my ordinary job as a telecom systems tech. Looking back, for me, on wierwille wanting a military-like organization was solely and exclusively about the fact that he wanted adulation and obedience. Nothing more, nothing less. All WC "training" was about obedience, not about spiritual growth. Ooops, excuse me, "spiritual growth" was the label they put on obedience training. In the 1990s, well after leaving twi, I learned about servant-leadership and learning organizations. Twi was about neither of those things.

I had never heard the term Bataan Death March. So, I looked it up. That abomination sparked memory for me of a freshman class in Humanities I took in 1972, where we discussed "man's inhumanity to man." This may be the first time I've agreed with MRAP (on anything he may have written at gsc), but yeah, it seems that invoking the BDM in relation to reading an offensive website could serve to trivialize that particular horrific historic event.

Amazingly, many of us (including me) bought into some kind of mind control in order to fall for that scheme. Makes me think about another cult like group that promised 70 virgins for something or other.

Isn't the "original" vpw's grandson involved with the outfit in Mississippi?

Corps = corpse. Wierwille = corpse.

Not surprising. :)