sancho, December 11, 2007 - 11:35 pm:
I would like to know why if there were people at the top of the organization who knew all of this at the time, e.g., the fraudulent nature of LaRouche's claims, they did not feel it incumbent upon themselves to take a stand against LaRouche or drop out; why they would allow others more innocent than themselves to have their lives consumed by this collective stupidity; why they would allow libelous charges to be made against any and all; why they would be complicit in criminal activity and all the many lies? Either they did not entertain more than passing doubts, or they did entertain more than passing doubts but were cowards, or they did leave eventually.
I knew many fine people in the organization almost all of whom were no doubt true believers such as I, but there were many evil people as well. None of us certainly were saints, however, and I am very disturbed by hagiographies of former members when what is required is the taking of responsibility for having assisted LaRouche to become and remain the monster that he is. To the extent that we were in a cult, our responsibility beyond the act of first joining is perhaps somewhat mitigated: but if there were people who knew what was up all along to one extent or another, then shame on them. Let's stop pretending and start getting honest about the hatred and ignorance we contributed to the world.
sancho, Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 7:43 am:
I was aware of plenty wrong in the organization, but my mantra was, "if only Lyn knew," as I was not in daily contact with him and therefore naively viewed him as nothing less than he represented himself to be. Now thanks to this and other sites it has become abundantly clear that not only did Lyn know, but he ordered it, whatever "it" was. If I had had the benefit of direct knowledge that this was a racket, that Lyn was bogus, etc., then I would have had much better things to do with my time than run down the CPUSA, the Tavistock clinic, Nelson Rockefeller, and all that followed, much better things to do than derail my own life and destroy my own family, much better things to do than scream and yell and fight and argue eighteen hours a day OVER SHEER NONSENSE and live in squalor to support some crook. So I'm not buying all of this smug, supercilious I-told-you-so s*** now about this freak LaRouche. The more one knew about what this guy was up to at the time of one's membership, the more culpability one has for the destruction this cult has caused--and continues to cause--the membership and their families.