One of the things about being a writer is that you can tell a lot about what is going on in your life by the stuff that you are writing. Sometimes, it is surprising to see what is coming off of your keyboard.
I have started to outline and write a book about the various troublesome behavior that I consider to be the warning signs that an esoteric group has became or is in danger of becoming a cult.
Gee, I knew that I did not approve of the current campaign being used by a certain group, but I did not realize that I considered it that alarming until I started to outline the chapter list.
Of course, let's be honest---the instance that they decided to go after a fellow writer, I was against them. Professional reasons trumps my normal "I could care less" attitude. And given the fact that everyone that supported the writer, and thought that this Order's tactics were wrong, is now labeled as an enemy...well, it is as good of a time as any to write this particular book.
And there is always someone who will consider a book of this nature to be a personal attack against them, a habit that is going to get a chapter to itself. I remember a couple of years ago, it was Robert Zink and his Order that would have considered me an enemy; now, it is another Order. Give the world another ten years, it will be someone entirely different.
As I stated in my rough draft for the introduction: The bad behavior remains the same; the players merely change.
If I am going to be labeled a villian, then I just as well be a villian. In fact, I am going to be the best villian that I can be. And in my case, I write books filled with poison ink.
(Let's be honest. There is no way you can write a book about the danger signs of cults without being accused of being a villain, no matter how much you focus exclusively on the behavior without naming any actual names of the guilty. And no, this book is not aimed merely at them either, but they are going to claim that it is---just like Zink would have.)
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3 comments:
The most effective thing you could do is never. mention. them. ever. again.
But it's just so hard, you know!?
Wow, Morgan, why don't you tell us how you really feel?
I don't consider you an enemy. I do think, however, that you are overreacting to and misperceiving a natural oppositional reaction from a group that was intentionally and unfairly maligned in Farrell's book.
I have read Farrell's book. After reading it, I have no doubt that Farrell is obliquely (not so much sometimes) attacking the authenticity and ethics of the HOGD/A+O in this work of dubious "psychohistory."
You are drawing imaginary lines here, Morgan. I have not labeled you an enemy and the HOGD/A+O is not a "cult" because it and its members protest Farrell's work, as you most clearly imply in this blog.
Don't forget to include this:
http://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.html
"Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame."
Ike Bonewits could be dickish about certain subjects (like how much he really, really hated Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan after they produced the documentary depicting him praying to Satan to make his cock bigger) but the ABCDEF makes up for it.
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