Devil's Playground

by kyria 12 Replies latest jw friends

  • kyria
    kyria

    Has anyone seen the documentary "Devil's Playground"? I highly recommend it.

    It's about the Amish custom of rumspringa, in which children are allowed total freedom for one year when they turn 16. Unprepared for the real world, they have a year of debauchery and end up in all kinds of trouble (anybody remember that old JW parable about pulling a rubber band so tightly that when you finally let go it flies across the room? Gag.) Eventually the kids end up returning home, if only to hide from the drug dealers now trying to kill them. The Amish have an incredibly high recidivism rate, something like 96% if I remember right.

    I watched this movie with a friend of mine who just thought it was funny to see Amish kids on heroin. He couldn't understand what I meant when I said "This is almost exactly like the Witnesses".

    This is one of the best illustrations I've seen of how cults can get a hold on children through the illusion of choice! I think this is crucial to why so many people stay in JW's as well. The best way to control someone is make them think you're not controlling them. People love to do things of their own free will, they hate to be told what to do. So, dare I say, the Amish are BRILLIANT!

    It's so subtle and devious. Simply create a situation in which others are incapable of surviving without you, and let them figure it out "on their own".

    First - make sure that your subject relies very heavily on you for survival. Try not to teach them too much and discourage them from being self-sufficient in any manner outside of your own home. Fill their heads with false ideas and fear about the world away from you. Deprive them of sensory pleasures. Then, with no preparation, suddenly kick them out and force them to do everything on their own. While they are trying to figure out the puzzle of the world, do not offer them any actual help, just keep nagging them and asking how they are doing. Make them aware that you know they are not doing very well, and that they really should be doing better by now. After all, their time is limited. Watch as they try to squeeze everything they've missed for the past 15 years into the first month of freedom. Then just sit back and wait for them to return. Dejected, sick, and, most importantly cognitive of their decision, they will return to you and never, ever leave.

    I think the JW's could learn a thing or two from the Amish. That's one cult that has it's sh*t together.

  • tinkerbell82
    tinkerbell82

    i saw this and highly recommend it as well. as i watched it i was really surprised to see how much more freedom the amish kids have than your typical JW kid. sad.

  • Gopher
    Gopher

    In addition to "rumspringa", the Amish also have a custom among their teens called "bed courtship". It may sound like a "cheap date" ... but read on:

    http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/3364009.htm

    ....the premiere of Devil's Playground on Cinemax at 8:30.

    This spare, sensitive 80-minute documentary may contradict everything you thought you knew about the Amish. It will draw you into a heretofore unseen world, introducing you to young people you may never want to leave:

    Faron Yoder, 18, whom Walker calls "an intensely honest, unself-conscious, magnificently trusting" young man who wants to follow in his father's footsteps and become an Amish preacher. Unfortunately, he's also a speed-freak drug dealer.

    Emma Miller, a willowy 16-year-old who shares her bed with boyfriend Yoder. It's an Amish custom among dating teens called "bed courtship." "It's more or less condoned," an elder says, sounding like Bill Clinton. "Not that they're going to have sex, but they are going to get pretty intimate."

  • Prisca
    Prisca
    "Not that they're going to have sex, but they are going to get pretty intimate."

    Oh, yeah, riiiiiiiiiight.

  • breal
    breal

    Oprah had the lady that made the documentary on her show a while back I believe. Only saw part of it but watching it made me think of the JW's as well. Especially since from what I gathered the kids are made to choose between the "world" and there families?? Perhaps this was not the impression left if one watched the whole documentary?

  • kyria
    kyria

    If the Witnesses had "rumspringa", do you think kids would come back to the organization? Granted, the JW's aren't as isolated as the Amish, but I think it would still work.

  • tinkerbell82
    tinkerbell82

    i was really amazed at the fact that 90% of amish kids decide to "join church" after rumspringa. i was wondering as well if JW's would experience a similar rate of return if they adopted some sort of rumspringa.

  • Mac
    Mac

    Don't spoil this for me...........I've

    got Amish noodles....I'm going to make soup....back the f**** away!!!!!!!!

    yer all pathetic

  • Gopher
    Gopher

    If the JW's adopted "rumspringa" and let their 16-year-olds "run wild", would they be viewed as "acceptable association" during that period? Could they comment at their hypnosis sessions meetings? Would baptism only be allowed after the teenager's "rumspringa" period is over? Because obviously they'd be violating some terms of their "dedication to Jehovah" during rumspringa.

    The mind boggles.

  • rocketman
    rocketman

    Good post Kyria, and a very interesting similarity between the Amish and the jws, minus of course the fact that jws (supposedly) don't let their kids go out and sow their wild oats (though it can often be noted that many jw kids do that sort of thing anyway, just on the sly).

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