Faith, but not in humanity.

[hungry_worm]

Sorry, I haven't really been on the computer in the last days, but will catch up this week.

I've just been watching a documentary on Jonestown before going to bed (where they play the 45 min. live suicide audio tape), and it disturbed me so much I had to get up again. Whoever can do that to children is just not human. Sects in general are dangerous

Comments

[sevenup_renomee]

Jonestown and other cults like it, when I've sort of studied them in the past, leave me flabbergasted. My parents and I were watching a show about Jonestown once (it was apparently Cult Night on the History Channel) and I kept saying to them and myself, "I don't understand how someone could let themselves be led so far away from common sense." The thing is, the people at Jonestown didn't think they were harming their kids. They thought they were doing the only thing they could to save themselves, and their kids, from destruction. It's pitiful that people can be so brainwashed, but I don't feel disgust necessarily for their actions.

There are some people in this world who are so... lost, I guess. They don't have the intellectual or psychic strength to improve themselves with self-reflection or discipline, and they become fodder for maniacs. They want so badly to belong that they'll allow themselves to be convinced that all kinds of crazy things are wonderful ideas--just to be in a community of some kind. I'm sorry that your evening of sleep was ruined, my dear. The only advice I can give you to combat this is to do your best to raise your child to be strong of mind, and keep your own independence intact. Associate only with those people who would never buy in to something this awful. Eventually, we can only hope that if we raise the young to be stronger, more aware of themselves, to practice good judgment, that these sorts of things will perish. They're never more than a sliver of the population anyway.

[hungry_worm]

Hi, sorry for the late reply.
Yeah, I get what you mean. The people who are brainwashed, I simply have a hard time understanding although of course I can see what mechanisms lead to this blindness to reason. After all, that's why you call it a brain wash. The ones who are appalling are the responsible leaders, it's just frightening to see what the wrong person can do when he or she is a bit too smart and a bit too wrong-led at the same time.

I always thought that the need to belong was a surprisingly powerful urge. It's understandable, just so sad when it goes so terribly wrong. I've once read a book about a girl who was so desperate for her father's love that she turned into his tool to murdering her own mother. If you see the process developing, it's understandable how it could have happened, but the whole as such is just crazy.

Thank you for the good thoughts. I've long made up my mind to support my child's independence and ability to think for himself, because that's the best (and only thing) you can do to help someone growing up to be a strong person who can think and judge for himself. It has worked for me, after all.
For quite a while I just hadn't thought about topics like the ones displayed in the documentary, so it unsettled me, but I was good again the next day. Thank you. :-)