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In Reply to: The ties that bind posted by MV (reposted from below) on December 03, 2002 at 22:06:06:
(continuation of our conversation below)
Thank you for this new analogy although I don't quite agree that it fully applies but there is enough to help understand the dynamics between these two groups. How far does it go? I don't know but, as you say, we have to start somewhere in our quest to understand ourselves and that is already a big task. Can we even do it? What about people in general, are all human beings willing to understand themselves or even reality?
You also talk about reality, I understand what you are saying but humans construct our little world and reality. I build my own coping structures as I go along and even modify older ones to reshape my understanding of the world and still be true to my current circumstances. If our reality is built that way, individually and with different elements, there is too much variation to think that they are the same.
Take, for example, the view on COG-related things of those who have family in TF and of those who don't. We might empathize but fully understanding is difficult. Similar gap appears between those who were in TF and those who never were in it. We can see more distinctions as we go on to cover differences in periods of time, length of cultic experience, geographic location, their homes and leadership, social network, temperament and background, temperament, etc.
The original post had to do with the confusion some people have about The Family as an entity and how it relates to the individual members. Our view of that connection is related to our reality and each one of us is responsible for that portion. Since there are as many perspectives as people we may not always see things the same way but perhaps we can agree on certain ideas and principles as a whole.
We are barely scratching the surface in our conversation but at least we are touching important ground. I appreciate your participation.
