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Krisles
Thank you. Ariala has suggested that I post my comments in my own thing. I know I go long. Other people have said I should post the comments I make as well. I think it gets popularity points, but it also breaks up the train of thought. That was Ariala's thought there, and I was just popping in on the party line. She gets the credit for that. I've said this before, and I hope I stick with it. I know what will sell here, but I'm not prepared to do it. If I have a comment on someone else's original thought, that's just what it is. I would hope people just read in all as a conversation as a result of the poster's thought. I hate the hunt and chase thing when people say they've written their opinion on the subject in their own blog. I won't follow it. It's like coupon clipping. I cut them out and mean to look for them when the time comes. Then I forget, so I miss the person's comments in the end.
As for Mark, I think he's a riot. His stuff is seriously sarcastic but I never take it as mean. He's an equal opportunity abuser. I don't get upset with people who make fun of everyone.
posted by
terpgirl30
on June 11, 2005 at 4:13 PM
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Terp
Several comments in one space: I have always attracted emotionally needy crazies and I know it is because I am very open and accepting of pretty much all people, as long as they aren't mean, petty or out and out nasty looking. I will find a way to understand them, find the good in them and make them feel good about themselves. I am also an enabler, I have finally realized and admitted to myself. I think there is some animal sense we all have about each other, gut instinct or whatever, that knows good people, true people, open people, etc. Anyway, they sense this and cling to it...I don't know, just my theory. The cosmic joke in my life is that, after romances with a few crazies I determined to marry a "normal" man and ended up married to a genuinely mentally ill one....sweet, but ill. Luckily, I have no problem repelling the cult-type crazies....I can look at them and tell them they are crazy with no problem at all.
Your comment in Ariala's post is what brought me over here...so well written and on the spot (I just changed the word I had there for reason you will probably get in a moment) it just blew me away....really. I read it twice because it was that good. I liked you very much immediately because of it...and I like everything I've read in your post here...except, unfortunately, the fact that the person who is addressed in the title sickened me with his input in the post that was the topic of your comments in Ariala's post - now that is one heck of a sentence, isn't it? I've never read him and never will for the very principle you noted in your comments. His photos and comments were so gross and cruel...well, it was kind of strange to come over here from your comments there and find his name in the title of your post. Anyway, kudos on an excellent commentary and I really do wish you would post it so that more people would see it.
posted by
Krisles
on June 11, 2005 at 2:47 PM
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Hemlocker
I remember the Jim Jones thing vividly myself...just sitting in absolute silent disbelief as the details kept rolling in. There just wasn't anything to say that would make sense or make it better.
The thing about most of these groups is that nothing on the surface is real. That picture you remember about the Krishnas is what we all saw and remember. I remember the photo I had for my article of this innocent looking guy with "Bambi" eyes. One of the big things they drive home (then) when you joined was that "you must be prepared to kill your mother and father." I was centering on the weapons cache they had in Moundsville, WV. There's always a facade of peace with these groups. But there are always guns to back that peace up.
These groups will never really go away so long as there are human beings. It's a bizarre phenomenon, I think. I don't understand the temperment of people who join, but maybe that's because I'm a loner. David Koresh, for example. Did people look at that guy? I was married into a family of extreme right wing fundamentalists whose patriarch proclaimed that David Koresh was merely misunderstood. Yeah. Scary, huh? This patriarch was a well-respected local businessman.
Koresh took over where Jim Jones left off, and sure enough, you know there's another out there operating in silence, gaining momentum. It's the Animal Farm thing. They preach all the "shalt not" things, while they are striving to do all of those things. The void is always filled. It's like the idea that Communism may be a good theory, in pure theory terms, but human beings have egos. Eventually, someone wants to run things, run people...be czar...be captor.
The most frightening things to me are that children are born into these groups, then no birth certificate is obtained. Police may suspect abuse, but as there is no child of record, there is rarely a legal way to get the child. Authorities can't say "Jane" is being abuse. Jane is not going to school; Jane doesn't exist. What adults do to one another, I can usually make peace with---but you don't have a right to procreate and abuse or allow others to abuse your children. Not feeding them, not letting them sleep, having them work weird hours in between chanting sessions, and letting your friends and strangers you want to entice into the fold have sex with your minor children is unfathomable.
posted by
terpgirl30
on June 11, 2005 at 7:56 AM
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good stuff
Some writing I just enjoy reading because it is edifying and well-done. This piece of yours about cults is like that. I'm old enough to remember the Hare Krishnas dancing in the streets, and the Moonies when they had a mass wedding for 20,000 people or some absurd number. I remember the ones who all committed suicide to be with god or make it into space to meet aliens, and the ones in Philadelphia I think, whom the police bombed, creating a firestorm of the whole neighborhood... And that picture! everybody in white, everybody in straight lines except the man. Being on Blogit is like taking a virtual world tour. Thank you. Hemlocker
posted by
Hemlocker
on June 10, 2005 at 10:27 AM
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Terp
I have a strange fascination with people who look "lost" myself. Probably because I do feel lost myself a lot LOL!
posted by
smartdog_670
on June 8, 2005 at 8:59 PM
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Terpgirl
When I leave home in the morning, I always keep my eyes open for "interesting people," and they usually turn out to be the nutjobs on the transit system or near the local courthouse, etc., and good "posting" material. In fact, you've triggered a memory that I'll post on one of these times. But I'm with you all the way about stopping and talking to them. They can stick to you like velcro. Good post 
posted by
Lensman
on June 8, 2005 at 8:45 PM
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I've been at work.
Rough day today. To stave off layoffs I had to transfer some people to different areas of work. Days like this I feel like Lloyd Bridges in Airplane. I picked the wrong day to give up drinking or whatever.
posted by
mikea18
on June 8, 2005 at 8:23 PM
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The older ones
have gone more mainstream and are almost accepted now. I've been having a fight with Scientolgists forever. After all the grief they put me through, now I have a 16 year old who gets pestered. It sounds harsh, but I've called and written to tell them to back away from the child. (I think back to when I was very young and vulnerable and may have had a weak moment and want to be in something like that, so it worries me that they address children directly. I don't get letters.) Anyway, I've called them and/or written three times which is the limit for me. I've told them I will report them to the Postmaster General if they send anything else. And I will. (We've never defined obscenity here, so if you think something is obscene, and you request that the person stop sending the material to you, they have to stop. If they don't, you can put the PG on them. I did this with Jerry Falwell years ago because he was writing me 2-3 times a week when my ex had sent a donation. He stopped writing.)
The big thing you are hearing about now is a pretty nasty one I researched years ago. They go by a different name now but they were the Children of God before. They were big on adults having sex with children. The women took used something called "flirty fishing" to lure guys with sex to join the group. The other term was "Happy Hookers for Jesus." Well, now the children are grown up, and things are cropping up with them. It's been interesting to see. I had read years ago that River Phoenix's parents had been members, but what the time frame is, I have no idea. (Look at the names of the kids, and it makes sense.) Rose McGowin (sp) from Charmed came from COG as well. She ended up with Marilyn Manson who described her as someone who couldn't keep her clothes on. She shocked him. Hmmmm. She says she never witnessed any such abuse, but that's not the norm for the group.
The founder actually wrote a handbook on the life of his son and all of the things he went through. It was horrible. He ended up getting out, but coming back and hunting down one of the women who had abused him as a child, killing her, then killing himself.
There will always be cults, and not all of them are religious, though religion generally plays a role. Posse Commitatus is a huge political cult, very anti government, anti rules.
posted by
terpgirl30
on June 8, 2005 at 8:19 PM
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I haven't seen any cult freaks in many years...
are they only in the cities now or what?
posted by
FactorFiction
on June 8, 2005 at 7:09 PM
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MIKE---Where are you???
You have as many crazy people stories as I do. You can't use any about me. If I tell any about you, I'll change the name so no one will recognize you. I'll call you Spike....OOOOPPPS
posted by
terpgirl30
on June 8, 2005 at 6:50 PM
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Scriber
I haven't been a teen for over 25 years. I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean. I appreciate the thought though. I could have used it in high school.
posted by
terpgirl30
on June 8, 2005 at 6:47 PM
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Ariala
I meant you could tell a lot of "this blogger is crazy" stories right about now. Again, when we get the urge, we need to do that mantra thing. Crap, maybe that means the cult people have gotten into my head over the years.
posted by
terpgirl30
on June 8, 2005 at 6:46 PM
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Mark
Trust me, the house I saw didn't look like this one. It had a window...Okay, maybe it just didn't have walls. I forget.
posted by
terpgirl30
on June 8, 2005 at 6:45 PM
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You passed up a chance to join the Forever Family?
Boy, talk about opportunity knocking and nobody home...
I think the guys get several wives, too. I figure 5 wives, 6 kids each.....damn, that's a lot of white socks.
posted by
mark2556
on June 8, 2005 at 6:22 PM
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you were very attractive as a teen.
posted by
scriber
on June 8, 2005 at 6:07 PM
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LOL, not sure what you're saying there at the end...but enjoyed your
story.
posted by
Ariala
on June 8, 2005 at 5:47 PM
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