The Prophet of Hate

I now have even more guilt, shame and remorse to deal with, having just finished reading the article on Berg’s anti-Semitism.

I barely know the person I was before I joined TF at the age of 16. I hadn’t had time to really fully develop my own identity, beliefs, opinions, world view, etc, before Berg got a hold of me. Twenty years later, I started over again, exploring the world of ideas and discovering my own points of view. Thirteen years into that process and I now have a clearer sense of who I am, and it is diametrically opposite to my cult self. I am now a staunch supporter of and activist for human rights, I believe in the inherent equality of all people, and I am an aggressive anti-racist (by that I mean, I don’t hesitate to publicly challenge discriminatory and racist attitudes and actions wherever I see them).

Like so many of Berg’s teachings, it’s only in hindsight that I’m able to see just how wrong he was with respect to Jews. And also how hateful and hurtful he was, too. It occurred to me while reading this article that Hitler didn’t just target the Jews, but he also murdered the physically and mentally disabled, homosexuals and other “imperfect undesirables”. Like Hitler, Berg didn’t just hate Jews, he also despised anyone he felt was inferior in some way. I think the letters are filled with comments from Berg that reveal the contempt he had for certain kinds of people. A few examples come to mind such as his utter contempt for fat people. I’m certain there are quotes somewhere in the letters that show this, and one of James Penn’s articles describes how utterly cruel and insensitive Berg was toward a woman on a bus. Another example I can think of is in the letter where he is reviewing a video interview from a family who were WS prospects. Berg makes some very derogatory comments about the wife and two children, referring to their weight and, if I recall correctly, describing them as slugs or something like that. I think there are probably lots of unloving, hurtful, discriminatory, hateful comments like that scattered through the letters.

It’s probably a daunting task for someone with access to the letters to undertake, but an article similar to the anti-Semitism or alcoholic prophet articles would be very revealing and show that Berg was more of a hate prophet than a love prophet.