WordWolf

Demagoguery and fanaticism are not exclusive to religion. People should think for themselves when approaching LIFE, not just religion. That means they should be careful about POLITICS as well as any other interactions.

Star Trek- First Contact

I think he DISCOVERED it by accident- then set out to do it on purpose after that. Broken Arrow's shown it's possible it was by design the first time. The evidence can support either possibility. That's up there with the times they chewed people out, kicked them out, then immediately gave them orders and had the nerve to be surprised when they were told to go f themselves since the person was now out and not subject to twi's ordinances.

Sometime in the 90s, lcm went off on one or more rants about how "the abundant life" was spiritual and was never supposed to be physical. That was after saying the opposite all across the 80s, of course. The man just got crazier as the 90s progressed until even twi had to put a stop to it-or, more to the point, twi's lawyers put a stop to it.

"Friends, we've got trouble! Right here in River City! With a capital 'T' and that rhymes with 'P' and that stands for Pool!"

My SUSPICION is that it was discovered BY ACCIDENT. vpw was a LAZY student who cut corners and BS'ed his way through things, and had an inflated sense of self. (He shows signs of Sociopathy as well.) We know he did this to the "Zero Corps." He got mad at them and kicked the whole group out. Then he turned around, and offered to let them return, provided they rededicate themselves to him. Many of them accepted this "offer." So, I think vpw did that one out of pique, as an impulse, then as covering his @$$ and getting them to pay tuition again. Then he realized he could make this a financially successful maneuver and worked out variations of it. This would then lead to the versions we were talking about.

Mel Brooks' "History of the World, Part I."

"But I'm funny how? I mean, funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you?"

I think we just saw 2 different variations of the same thing- the manufactured butt-chewing. In one case, one leader turned to one guy he'd never met, and made up a chronic problem with him, and let him have it. In another case, one leader took an entire local program's participants, made up a chronic problem with them, then let them have it. Neither had any basis in reality, but both had a sociological basis in control mechanisms used by toxic organizations looking to exert control over their followers. Each one was actually sort-of standard operating procedure for such groups.

Please don't. You can substitute a character or two and still leave him easy to identify. That's still GSC policy. Yeah, blamed the people on the field FOR THE CONDITIONS OF THE FIELD. Try that outside of twi programs and see how far you get. He probably helped other people besides you to distance themselves from that program- those honest enough to admit they couldn't "believe up" a bunch of steaks with no money- especially when the tough talkers aren't on the field, demonstrating how to make the steaks appear with no money but only The Power of Believing. That sounded like a "commercial" for doing anything BUT enter the program. Yeah, no "coordination" between leadership, whether as to goals or as to execution. Otherwise, they would have been on the same page. lcm was shouting one thing, the other guy the opposite. Frankly, I preferred lcm's "commercial" of the two. lcm was being more honest that people out on the field in the program were out on their own with no support from HQ. In fact, at times, they were subject to being made LESS capable from HQ with no assistance. That happened once I'm aware of- when wow's on the field had their roomie/ rent partner kicked off the field for not swearing an oath to lcm while being in the corps. The remaining roomies contacted their next higher-up, saying how they now were stuck for the current month's rent, and asking for help with that month's rent. They were told they would get it, but the next month, they were on their own. It never arrived. So, one contacted a believer back home. They said they were getting ready to send twi their monthly protection money-but would send it to them instead since twi said they would and should have anyway. I'm sure that was only one such story that year, and that only one year. So, it was FAR more appropriate to brand the wow program as "it will be tough and there will be lots of problems to overcome" because it was designed and executed to be difficult and for problems to be solved entirely on the field. With their approach, this "and if you think hard enough, the problems vanish on their own and it becomes an easy program" thing would have made it worse on the participants. Blaming the participants for eating what they needed to because it wasn't more than they could afford....what a weiner. Sounds like the kind of guy who was "always making friends." *rolls eyes* Accusing you of "talking about the word" (what you were supposed to do) "but not on the same page as me" (not reading his mind) was actually pretty typical for what SOME of the corps learned. There were some nice people, but some saved up chewings and waited for an excuse to say them, or just plain made up stupid things to complain about without warning- like happened to you. "Again." Well, he hallucinated you'd done it before- possibly because he imagined everybody was doing it to him all the time and figured he'd had that out with you before because he'd been having it out with everyone. This "wow czar" sounds unqualified and inexperienced, and pretty much the epitome of how top dogs sounded with their training solely in twi. In other words, this isn't really shocking considering what came out of the mouths of some of the others. lcm was "trained" like him and often came out with similar nonsense, and was fine with this guy in that position. Guy probably knew the drill- suck up to the higher-ups, then vent all over the people downhill.

It's not verbatim. But it is "the Princess Bride."

That's it.

"If you take a jar of pickles, and write "apple butter" on the outside, that still doesn't change the pickles on the inside." I imagine he said it differently on a number of occasions. IIRC, that version was straight from the class.

IIRC, someone once posted about that. The experience was common enough that a slang term was coined for it: "STUMP COORDINATOR." That was a person (generally corps) who was put in charge of an area, and effectively killed it off. ================================== As for me, NYC was an area targeted for growth, which it did. Before I ever heard of twi, they'd sent a lot of people to NYC in a few areas, and ran then through classes as fast as they could get them. That's how we ended up with a lot of Intermediate Class grads, and people "qualified" to run a twig. We had a Corps grad assigned as the Territory Coordinator, and everyone else was just us schmoes. I heard of things right after vpw died- which is when HQ was stumbling through things, and that was actually a great time to show up, since the locals were left alone for a few years while HQ and all the Corps and leadership hashed out all the craziness with POP and so on. We actually had steady growth during that time, and "my" Territory effectively went to 1/2 its geographical area, since it grew enough that it was split. Where it was previously labelled as 2 counties, each county was made into a separate Territory. Then 1989 came, and lcm demanded an oath of loyalty to himself personally, to follow him blindly (he confirmed to a poster once, who knew him, that this was exactly what he was expecting from this oath of allegiance- to "follow him blindly." Altogether, about 80% of twi left within a timeframe of about a year. In the case of NYC, most of us left together and kept on meeting locally and doing stuff- just without lcm's approval. After that, twi had continued to hemorrhage members until now it's almost nonexistent, and those of us who left locally actually increased in numbers for a few years, but too much of the stereotypical Corps stuff plus weirdness from Gartmore plus weirdness from the "Limb Coordinator"(State Coordinator) eventually meant that a lot of us just wandered off, sick and tired of being sick and tired. So, that's how it affected me.

"Yes, but why is the rum gone?"

Star Wars Episode V: the Empire Strikes Back. I'm glad someone knew the correct name for "Taken." I keep hearing its name for Spanish-speaking countries, which doesn't translate into anything resembling "taken." It translates into "Relentless Pursuit." (Or, most literally, "Implacable Search.")

But..."I want the girl I marry...to have....a certain...special...something"

The utter unreality of life in twi... 1) the chewer didn't think the tirade would just prove you needed to get out yesterday, not today, and legitimize any concerns of yours 2) it didn't send you running for the door as soon as his back was turned. (It takes a while to get used to healthy thinking again after any abusive relationship)

"Please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let's not bicker and argue over who killed who."

I meant that I thought the first had Arnie with more screen-time, with later ones having him possibly make a cameo appearance. So, I thought you were excluding the first that way.

Visited grounds once for a weekend. One of the resident corps and I interacted briefly. I said something that was true, but he didn't like hearing. (Wasn't twi related, either.) He went off on how I'd affected his believing and so on for about a minute. At the end, I drily commented about how he must have been saving that speech up all month. After that, he unclenched a bit and acted more human. In hindsight, I was probably the first person on-grounds that WAS acting human that he'd interacted with for quite some time.

Ok, that narrows it down to a franchise. With Arnie in #1, that narrows it down to 2 others. So, I shall guess "Expendables 3".

That's it, whether or not Raf replies soon. ("I played this town like a harp from hell.")

wierwille WAS a drunk. It doesn't matter how he started being one, but he certainly was one by the time he hijacked the hippies. That's not the reason twi's toxic- it was just another symptom of the toxicity of twi, because vpw's narcissism and sociopathic issues are WHY he had no problem drinking all the time AND doing the other things that ruined the lives of others. And yes, some people did their best to emulate all of vpw's behavior- like trying to like his alcohol and cigarette brands, and yell at people and claim it's because he cared and they could take it, and so on.

Due to First Amendment issues, the government is careful how they phrase things concerning religions. It's easy for someone to slap a LABEL of "cult" on a group. If one person in the government REPEATS it, then it's a big deal- especially if the group turns out NOT to be one. The government takes cults seriously, depending on the specific issues involved, and the level of government involved. Look at what's left of the Branch Davidians after the ATF got involved if you think the government categorically blows things off. Or, you could phrase it as a question here. Something like: "If you had to explain to someone what a 'cult' is in 30 seconds or less, without them misunderstanding, how would you do it?" Then you could tap the skills of the other posters here. That's one good thing about messageboards.