[extropy-chat] He's not a troll he may just be ill... and I'm afraid this is a rant.

[BillK]

On 2/14/06, Peter K.  Bertine, Jr wrote:
>
> Thank you Natasha, It took me a long time to work up the courage to say
> something.  I'd written quite a response to Robert, before I noticed your
> post.  I don't have the heart to delete it, my manic ego I guess.  I hope
> it, at the very least, is amusing.
>
> Spike and Robert,
>
> Thank you very much for acknowledging me, I am honestly flattered that you
> guys gave me a nod as I have no PhD, am unpublished and hardly know a bucky
> ball from a basket ball.  Robert, your work has been a great inspiration.
>
> That said I agree with you both and would be happy to talk rationally about
> alien life in and around the universe as long as Arthur C. Clarke remains
> above the line below which we can call science fantasy.
>
> But with all humility, let me caution you Robert regarding Mehan. You are a
> powerful man toying with a potentially sick individual.  Do not encourage
> his or her fantasy.  What you consider rational discourse with a reasoning
> human being about semi rational "Raelian perspectives" is most likely a one
> way chat between you and someone in the throws of a manic episode.  I can
> diagnose clinical mania in short order as it almost always involves supreme
> beings and a feeling of connectedness to an infinite something or another.
>
<snip>


Peter,
Thank for your interesting post. There is a lot of useful information there.

But I must disagree that all cult followers should be classified as manic.
Some, perhaps.

I have lost friends to cults in the past and the study of why people
join and remain in cults is an interesting study of human behaviour.

<http://www.csj.org/infoserv_articles/zimbardo_philip_messeges.htm>
What messages are behind today's cults?
    Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D.

The savage unbelievable truth is:-
"Whatever any member of a cult has done, you and I could be recruited
or seduced into doing--under the right or wrong conditions. The
majority of "normal, average, intelligent" individuals can be led to
engage in immoral, illegal, irrational, aggressive and self
destructive actions that are contrary to their values or
personality--when manipulated situational conditions exert their power
over individual dispositions."

----------------

The point of my original post was that it is an utter waste of time to
encourage cult members to spam the list with their fantasies.

Removing people from a cult that they are committed to takes much
patience and skill and techniques which are impossible on a general
mailing list.

BillK