You are your cause, and the enemy is anyone who questions that cause. From el gato malo at boriquagato.substack.com:
how schools became the agent of societal dissolution and how to fix it
cult brainwashing has a long and unpleasant history. it takes many forms and has occurred in many places but the core process is basically always the same:
you strip prior loyalty, sense of self, and self-worth belonging to other community. you make it seem alien, bad, immoral, or unenlightened to “be as they are” and effectively “other” the rest of the world.
then you provide a new identity, a new morality, new names for things, and a sense of safety and belonging in a new community.
efface identity, strip it down to bare wood, then build it back up.
it’s been standard practice for ages for everyone from kool-aid cults to the marine corps. it’s all the same process with the same aims: to make you us and not them.
there is a reason the military uses different worlds for everything. it’s not a bathroom, it’s “the head.” it’s not a hat, it’s “a cover.” and on an on. it differentiates that world from the rest of the world. the distinction draws you into the new and out of the old. as ever, words, vernacular, and socialization have great power. control how people speak and how they act will follow.
one can certainly argue that there are beneficial versions of this. the “discipline” of military induction was often offered to young adults convicted of minor crimes as a “way to get yourself together.” perhaps this was not a bad idea.
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 