Cult IndoctrinationoneandthetruthNovember 2 2014, 21:10:14 UTC
This is your usual ingenious analysis of Rowling's world that's so much better than the original, it makes me wish you had written the series instead. An added bonus is that you would have made Snape a more obviously heroic character. : )
Regarding your idea that the approach to Hogwarts was initially an ordeal designed to screen out the unworthy, you make a very persuasive case, and you may be right. But when I was reading your analysis, what occurred to me was not "ordeal" but "cult indoctrination."
Consider these similarities:
1) Candidates are forcibly (because they have no choice) taken out of their normal environment and placed in a new one. 2) They have to change from their everyday clothes into a new uniform. 3) They have to make a long, tedious, tiring journey to reach their destination. 4) They are only allowed to associate with their own kind during the trip. 5) They are kept hungry, which muddles--or should I say, muggles--their thinking and weakens their resistance. What food they’re allowed to eat is junk food, which doesn’t help their thought processes much. (BTW, I read a book recently that said mug is an ancient British word for male slave, Old English, Anglo-Saxon, or Celtic, I can't remember which.) 6) When they get where they're going, it's dark, which disorients them further. 7) As you described so well, they're then forced to, in effect, run an obstacle course to reach the school. 8) They finish up with a forced, secret test that they believe will involve pain, fear, humiliation, or all three. It must be bad because nobody talks about it. 9) After they join this group, they are never allowed to even mention it to outsiders, who are all too inferior to understand or deserve to be in on the secret anyway. Keeping secrets about the cult is the sine qua non of cult membership.
Yep. That's cult brainwashing all the way. The techniques are classic.
Re: Cult Indoctrinationterri_testingNovember 6 2014, 05:00:00 UTC
Erk. You're right. And it works, as we talked about when we talked about all those Muggleborns in DH sitting on the street in Diagon begging for handouts from Death Eaters who might as easily kill as help them, rather than just turning around and rejoining the Muggle world! We don't know of one person who refuses to drink the Kool-Aid once indoctrinated....
Re: Cult IndoctrinationsunnyskywalkerNovember 12 2014, 03:49:31 UTC
We don't know of one person who refuses to drink the Kool-Aid once indoctrinated....
Now, now, you know it's pumpkin juice for this lot!
And isn't it a bit suspicious how all the Muggleborn kids start drinking pumpkin juice with no complaint? Not one of them ever grumbles that it's gross and they want orange juice at breakfast instead? What do they put in that pumpkin juice?
Regarding your idea that the approach to Hogwarts was initially an ordeal designed to screen out the unworthy, you make a very persuasive case, and you may be right. But when I was reading your analysis, what occurred to me was not "ordeal" but "cult indoctrination."
Consider these similarities:
1) Candidates are forcibly (because they have no choice) taken out of their normal environment and placed in a new one.
2) They have to change from their everyday clothes into a new uniform.
3) They have to make a long, tedious, tiring journey to reach their destination.
4) They are only allowed to associate with their own kind during the trip.
5) They are kept hungry, which muddles--or should I say, muggles--their thinking and weakens their resistance. What food they’re allowed to eat is junk food, which doesn’t help their thought processes much. (BTW, I read a book recently that said mug is an ancient British word for male slave, Old English, Anglo-Saxon, or Celtic, I can't remember which.)
6) When they get where they're going, it's dark, which disorients them further.
7) As you described so well, they're then forced to, in effect, run an obstacle course to reach the school.
8) They finish up with a forced, secret test that they believe will involve pain, fear, humiliation, or all three. It must be bad because nobody talks about it.
9) After they join this group, they are never allowed to even mention it to outsiders, who are all too inferior to understand or deserve to be in on the secret anyway. Keeping secrets about the cult is the sine qua non of cult membership.
Yep. That's cult brainwashing all the way. The techniques are classic.
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Now, now, you know it's pumpkin juice for this lot!
And isn't it a bit suspicious how all the Muggleborn kids start drinking pumpkin juice with no complaint? Not one of them ever grumbles that it's gross and they want orange juice at breakfast instead? What do they put in that pumpkin juice?
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