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In Reply to: Re: Tribute to lost youth posted by Farmer on February 24, 2008 at 19:50:06:
It's true that the total level of destruction brought about by the Nazis is not comparable to what Berg & Company did. My main thought was how much the depiction of the Family teens at the Mexico training camp video reminded me of a Nazi propaganda films about the Hitler Youth.
When I started looking at YouTube for Hitler Youth videos, I found the tribute, which really said what I wanted to say to the survivors of the Mexico TTC. I'm close friends with one of the survivors of that endoctrination experience.
I think it's important to look at the whole Mexico TTC series. I don't see a bunch of happy, spontaneous kids in those videos, despite the forced smiles. It's normal for kids that age to want to fit in, but it's not normal for them to fall into lock-step, syncronized chanting unless they're being manipulated. Actually, it's not normal for anyone of any age to fall into lock-step slogan chanting unless they're being compelled by some external locus of control.
One of my most dearly cherished cultural values is, "Question authority." These videos celebrate training kids in exactly an opposite sort of world view. That's why I found the TTC videos so scarey. What's amazing and worth celebrating is the extent to which TF's brainwashing strategy so seriously backfired with the class of 1986.
