Mind Control - the importance of unkept promises

Nathan Natas

I was reading an article titled "Saddam's Interogators" on page 22 of the April 2004 issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine, and came across what I thought was a very interesting paragraph:

(page 27) "The interrogators will offer simple inducements. If Saddam answers a series of questions, he will be promised uninterrupted sleep. And possibley a change in his carefully monitored diet. But always the promises will not be quite kept. And followed by more promises that if he continues to cooperate, they will be fulfilled."

[italics mine]

Does this remind you of any Brooklyn Sock Puppet Salesmen?

People are drawn into the WTS with promises that Armageddon is just around the corner, and they will soon step across a threshold into Paradise, where they will no longer get sick, grow old, and die. They "keep on keeping on" for years...

It's 1975... you won't finish school in this system of things... it's 1984... you should put off marriage until after Armageddon... it's before the end of this century... you shouldn't have children with the tribulation so close... it's before 2034... We really really really ARE the "faithful and disceet slave," do what we say..

Always the unkept promises, always the assurance that if they endure "just a little while longer" they may demonstrate that they are worthy to be saved.

Scully

It sounds somewhat similar to the modus operandi of certain types of abusers and manipulators:

Find out what they want. Then don't give it to them.

Love, Scully

jgnat

I remember how a boy with a similar mental illness as my son was treated by a local facility, and I shudder at what might have been. The facility offered a behavior-modification technique to help clinically depressed teens "snap out of it". They promised the parents that they would do allergy tests and modify his diet to see if they could find a non-pharmaceutical solution to his depression. The parents were promised that they would get weekly progress reports on the condition of their son.

Instead, he was stripped of his street clothing and given a gown as soon as he entered the facility. He was cut off all contact with his family. His parents were not informed of what the facility was doing to him. He was promised his street clothes back IF HE WROTE ONE PAGE for every year of his life. He did this.

They did not give him his street clothes back.

In my opinion, this was mental abuse of the highest degree, and total disrespect of the individual.

onintwo

Thanks Nathan for your interesting post. I guess one might expect this sort of treatment at the hands of one's interogators. But...gee, the WT is in the business of providing "sustenance" and "comfort" aren't they? What a parallel you've drawn! Thanks again.

Onintwo