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From: ray@utcsri.UUCP (Raymond Allen)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: *est-holes*
Message-ID: <1359@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 12:27:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.1359
Posted: Thu Aug 29 12:27:23 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Aug-85 12:43:51 EDT
References: <3787@cornell.UUCP> <914@oddjob.UUCP> <1339@utcsri.UUCP> <1596@pyuxd.UUCP>
Reply-To: ray@utcsri.UUCP (Raymond Allen)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 44
Summary: 

In article <1596@pyuxd.UUCP> rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) writes:

	<Various comments from me [ALLEN] about the book "Moonwebs">
>
>I think MOONWEBS was made into an excellent movie about cults called "Ticket
>to Heaven", a Canadian film about the religious seduction and subsequent
>deprogramming of a young man despondent over a broken relationship lured
>into the web.  (I'm not positive that MOONWEBS was the source material for
>this movie.)
>
	You are correct, the book was the basis for the movie.  However 
in the movie all names, places, events, etc. were changed.  Particularly
interesting is the removal of all references to Reverend Moon.  Presumably
the producers of the movie were playing CYA [Cover Your Ass].

>I wonder if people who talk about the "psychological process by which the
>Moonies massage people's minds into suitable form" think that this is a
>technique unique to "cults" and other such groups (political, religious,
>etc.) rather than something that goes on in our everyday lives.  Is
>"deprogramming" nothing more than "reprogramming"?  I'm not denying for
>one split second the manipulativeness, shrewdness, or deceptiveness of
>such groups.  I'm just mentioning that a lot of the values promulgated
>by society are perpetuated in much the same way.  The Moonies and such just
>have to cram THEIR re-programming into one weekend instead of a lifetime.

	You are definitely on to something here.  This is why I suggested
all of you in net-land read the book.  Freed makes many comparisons of the
Moonies mind-bending techniques to events that have (and do) occur.  Most
interesting is his comparisons with the events that led to Hitler's rise
to power.

	I think that we all are "brainwashed" by the society we live in.
We probably would have a great deal of trouble functioning in a day-to-day
manner if we did not understand the basic culture, morals, and mores of our
society.  The important difference between our "normal" society and the
ones of the cults is that ours offers space for self-determinism.  The
cults attempt to force an individual to submit his will to their (the cult's)
desires.  Freed sums this up by saying:  "Among cult members personal
philosopy changes from 'I think, therefore I am' to 'I obey, therefore I
am'".  Of course the issue of self-determinism is already being hotly
debated in other articles....

				Ray Allen
				utcsri!ray