The other day, I was watching Hacksaw Ridge. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a must see. It stars Andrew Garfield playing Desmond T. Doss, a conscientious objector who wants to participate in the war as a medic, but who refuses to fire a single shot, partly out of religious reasons, partly because of a traumatic incident in his past. In the movie, we see the Americans climbing up this ridge, trying to storm and overtake this geographical feature, presumably as it offers a strategic advantage. But while they have numerous military advantages, the Japanese were no slouches. They simply defended and counterattacked with little to no regard for their own lives. It made the Japanese a tough opponent to beat. Back then, the Japanese believed devoutly in the divinity of their emperor, and were fully convinced they were superior compared to other nations. That, and their culture, had pushed the Japanese into something akin to a cult-like fervour, making them perfectly willing to drag out the war to the last man standing. It took everything the Americans had, the ultimate weapon ever devised in the history of mankind, and the emperor himself announcing the surrender, to push the fanatical Japanese into abandoning their ideology.
Sometimes, that’s what it takes when someone’s fully indoctrinated.
On that topic, I sometimes watch the occasional Youtube video of a former Scientologist, Aaron Smith-Levin. A couple of days ago, I caught an interview in which he talked about what caused him to change his mind on the cult, to lose his faith as they say. While he was brought up into the cult, he did notice some discrepancies. People farther up the chain weren’t as perfect as they ought to be, given what the cult had taught and promised him. However, he put his hope in the unreleased OT-levels, believing that releasing these courses would make the big difference. Perhaps those on OT-8 weren’t perfect people, but surely one day they’d release OT-9 to 15, and that would change the game forever. For those not in the know, compare it to martial arts. Imagine everyone earns their belts, and suddenly the belts stop halfway through (like up to blue belt), with the founder promising to release the other belts some time in the future, but dying before making good on his promise.
So, one day a number of high-ranking scientologists defected, revealing the information that there were no OT-levels 9 to 15. The vault’s empty, as it were. For Aaron, that was the one piece holding his entire world view together. With that gone, he simply had no reason to believe anymore.
So, when discussing the extent of how much some people are brainwashed, either politically, or in regards to the various self help and business cults out there, that’s how much or how little it can take to pull them out of their world view. Sometimes it’s just one piece of information, holding everything in place. Other times, it can take a little more.
Kind regards
Vincent J. Dancet