Postby actuallythere » Sat Mar 05, 2011 6:54 pm
ET,
You are indeed an inspiration to us all.
It is interesting that while a lot has been said on this forum about the abuse itself, there has been much less analysis of why the abuse took place or is taking place. It seems that most of the abuse was carried out by SES men while women turned a blind eye, though plenty of it was carried out by SES women while men turned a blind eye. My views are as follows:
SES membership establishes a hierarchical power relationship. This is not only a case of children being ranked below women, who are ranked below men. There is even ranking among the women themselves, and among the men themselves. At the same time, all members of SES are made to feel ranked above non-members in the wider world, even as this feeling is concealed by ritualised statements in which members convince themselves that the ego is being kept in check. The attainment of higher rank is itself an aspiration, as is the quest for enlightenment. These are entirely egocentric goals, appealing to lost, fragile and insecure people in particular.
The SES hierarchy, in turn, directly causes the psychological and physical abuse that ET and others have recounted. When men lead and women support, women indulge in devotion and men indulge in aggression. I would like to ask a group of psychologists whether they think it might be that SES, just like Jeremy Sinclair's advertising profession, exploits and manipulates (and sometimes unleashes) repressed subconscious urges.
SES appears to be experimenting with primal impulses that exist in all of us. Somehow, the abuse is prompted by the hierarchical power relationship within this closed social group. Perhaps the abuse is the ultimate self-affirmation of the previously lost and insecure: once I was weak and unwanted and outside, now I have authority and respect among my elite peers, look how I exact my power over this feeble creature who is beneath me and refuses to conform to the teaching that makes me special at last.
Women, really, are the solution. By women realizing they themselves are a vital component of the SES social manipulation scheme, they can see that disrupting the hierarchical power relationships, ideally by walking away from SES, is the best thing they can do for the next generation of helpless SES children.
Because the fact remains that women sent their children to St. Vedast, women told their children that their grievances were 'all in the mind', women were turned on by being led by men, by affirming and by condoning. In this way women are equally responsible for SES violence, which is usually carried out by men. Women who stand up and refuse to play the game are doing the right thing - they are also, subtly, showing men that their power is not absolute. That, itself, reduces the chances of abuse in the future.
No matter that SES is evolving, attempting to adapt to the internet, undertaking a reputation management strategy, and steering the behaviour of its egomaniacs more carefully. The teaching remains the same, and the teaching causes the abuse. There is always the threat of abuse coming back again, because of the teaching.
I'm sure everyone has a different take on it, but those are my particular thoughts on the matter.