INDOCTRINATION
I see things this way ...
My very first personal contact with indoctrination was through my best friend; hellbent on converting me to his religion. (I was 12.)
A lesson to be learned, I'd say!
Not the one you'd think, however.
Resistance is futile.
Here's why...
Think what happened when Hannibal challenged the might of Rome and its legions.
He defeated them time after time. Horrible one-sided victories they were.
But - take note of this! Each time the Roman Generals lost, they did a big RE-think ... and tried again.
And they'd lose. Again.
Rome was not a seafaring empire but they built a fleet of ships just so they could invade Carthage.
An unlucky storm at sea destroyed all those ships and sailors!
There was only one winning strategy that might work.
Rome stopped fighting and retired their remaining forces behind the walls and watched Hannibal and his armies circle and circle hurling challenges on deaf ears.
What kind of lesson to learn is that, Terry?
Hannibal was inadvertently forcing Rome's military and political intelligentsia to become smarter, wiser, and more cunning!
Hannibal, on the other hand, learned nothing by defeating the inferior strategies of Rome's best fighting forces.
(Eventually, Scipio attacked by land - not Hannibal, but Carthage which was Hannibal's native land! Using Hannibal's own key stratagem, Scipio stationed his army on the high ground.)
RESISTANCE is futile. You make your adversary stronger and smarter.
In my own situation, I showed all my weaknesses to my best friend and he simply switched his method of confrontation from Theology to Family.
The cult he was in offered me a close-knit group of welcoming Brothers and Sisters and Friends.
I needed that emotionally so badly I jumped on board at a cost of 20 years of my life.
When I jumped back out, I lost all those "friends" and the "family" wouldn't speak to me again.
WHO WON?
I can only say this one thing with all my heart. I got smarter, more skeptical, and more cunning when it came to INDOCTRINATION methods.
I take a neutral position between the extremes and I listen, watch, research, and keenly analyze what's said and done.
I stay walled up in the city while the armies outside rage and challenge me to join in or be vanquished.
Confrontation is not the End Game (as in chess) - no - it is simply THE END - of everything.
When you join forces with anybody or anything except your own mind and heart and intellect, you weaken yourself and stop learning and growing.
That's MY lesson. Your mileage may vary.
